Bahamas Ministry of Transport and Aviation: On Friday March 22nd at about 6 p.m. BORCO reported an oil spill in waters in the area of Pinder’s Point, Freeport, Grand Bahama. The Port Department responded immediately and discovered what appeared to be a small quantity of oil covering an area of about 70 feet on rocks at a breakwater in the area of BORCO’s pipelines that connect with a jetty. This is the same area of the last sighting of oil in February. The source of that last oil spill has to date not been determined.
The area affected has been boomed off and any additional oil will be corralled in the area of the breakwater and will be retrieved from the water and the affected rocks will be cleaned. Because of a forecasted deterioration of weather conditions over the next few days , however, it is not expected that divers can safely submerge before Tuesday to further investigate the source of the leak. The Port department will conduct a flyover of the general area tomorrow (Saturday).
While this appears to be an incident involving a small amount of oil, the Ministry is very concerned about the occurrence of yet another emission of oil in Bahamian waters, particularly having regard to the possible impact on the quality of life of residents in the Pinder’s Point area.
The Ministry is currently reviewing the Emergency Management Plan of BORCO which was submitted since the last incident but due to this recurrence will urgently seek to engage senior officials of BORCO in a meeting with relevant Government agencies relative to its operations.
The situation will be closely monitored by the Port Department.
