A fuel spill at the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Kingston Power Complex that seeped into the Demerara River has led the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to launch an investigation and the two agencies are currently collaborating to determine the cause of the spill.
GPL’s Public Relations Officer Shevon Sears said after the discovery, GPL’s personnel expedited industry- standard safety, health and environmental procedures to contain the spill. She assured the general public that GPL’s efforts to contain the spill have thus far proven successful.
Executive Director of the EPA, Vincent Adams, yesterday explained to this newspaper that officers from his agencies have visited the site to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the spill.
According to Adams, with the use of a drone they were able to take videos and photographs of the spill but they are unable to conclude their investigation as they are awaiting additional information from GPL.
That information, he said, should be made available today and will aid in the review to make a determination on what caused the release of fuel.
Adams explained that from preliminary investigation, it is suspected that fuel would have spilled from an aged storage tank.
“What we think happen is that these large oil storage tanks in the compound have aged and the oil began leaking from the bottom coming up. We are trying to figure out what exactly happened. I spoke with the Chairman, Rawle Lucas and have been speaking with him since. So they are in process of emptying the tank to see what it looks like at the bottom. We also don’t know how much oil is spilled…” Adams related.
Asked about possible sanctions for the utility company, the director said that no decision has been taken on that since it is still to be determined what caused the spill.
He noted that while this is a fuel spill, it is not a similar case to Demerara Distillers Limited or Troy Resources. Both companies were fined for allowing oil to be spilled into the environment due to poor management and negligence
Adams, nonetheless remarked that this can be a learning lesson for GPL on the type and quality of maintenance that needs to be done on the storage tanks.
Sears in her statement noted that the company embraces industry-standard fuel management practices and a thorough investigation will be conducted to prevent a recurrence.
Meanwhile, Adams disclosed that GPL is one of the many companies that they have been working with to grant a permit to operate at all their facilities.
“The facilities are not permitted and we are in the process of working with them to permit all of their facilities across the country… They fell into that category like a lot of operations that did not realise they need permits to operate. We have engaged them in that and informed that they need to apply for authorization to operate… they started looking into what currently exist and what had expired and what do not have permission and had to be permitted,” the director explained as he indicated that the “new EPA” has been looking at the existing operations that need permits to operate.
Adams, who took up the position of EPA head in 2018, had said that upon his assumption of office and after undertaking an overall analysis of the agency, that he was shocked at his findings. He had lamented that he found that not only were there only 97 persons on staff and that the agency did not provide even basic materials to its employees, but that 900 operational permits had expired due to lack of oversight.
Adams had told Stabroek News that the EPA is providing an opportunity for developers to get into compliance or face legal recourse.
He said that it was not only illegal, but unfair, to have one group of companies facing penalties for breaches and others continuing to dodge the agency.
“This here is another opportunity for them to cooperate with the agency and follow the law of the land. We have to treat every operator equally. We cannot have some apply and complying with the law and some ignoring. We have been making several attempts to cooperate and they have just been ignoring us. We cannot allow operations to continue to operate illegally. As I have said before, no company is above the law of this country,” he declared.
“We are willing to give every company, even those out of compliance, the opportunities to cooperate. As the public would know, we have been working with DDL, Alphonso and Sons Group, and others from the near 900 that are out of compliance and we have been bending over backwards. But those who think they can disrespect the agency will understand the penalties for their actions. We are not going to allow them to operate in that mode,” he added.
The environment chief posited that all developers and potential developers must understand that environmental law adherence exists to safeguard the populace.
He made the comments following the publication of a notice in July 2019 naming several companies and operations that needed to apply/ re-apply or renew their environmental authorizations.
