(Trinidad Guardian) Between 2015 and 2023, T&T had more than 876 confirmed oil spills and chemical releases, according to statistics from the Environmental Management Authority (EMA).
That means an environmental accident occurs once every four days.
In 2022 and 2023 alone, there were 88 confirmed oil spills and chemical releases. That is around one a week.
Between 2015 to 2018, out of 700 confirmed environmental accidents, 377 were oil spills, EMA’s managing director Hayden Romano told a Public Accounts Committee in 2019.
According to the EMA’s annual reports, there were 150 oil spills and chemical releases investigated in 2019; 110 in 2020; 151 in 2021; 47 in 2022; and 41 in 2023.
There has only been one significant fine–$20 million to Petrotrin–and no prosecutions for the breaches of the EMA act despite a call by Ramano that it should be criminalised.
Despite these numbers and the well-known catastrophic environmental impacts of oil spills, there have been no long-term studies to assess its impact, as confirmed by the EMA.
Apart from natural leakages and abandoned vessels, other sources of oil leakages include aged oil and gas infrastructure.
The EMA in its 2015 annual report stated that little has been done to retrofit the infrastructure, leading to oil and chemical spills. They noted that pollutants from industrial facilities include Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons, chlorine, ammonium, mercury, cadmium and copper.
According to scientific research studies, heavy metals, in toxic amounts, can cause gastrointestinal and kidney dysfunction, nervous system disorders, vascular damage, immune system dysfunction, birth defects and cancer.
Former EMA director Allan Bachan oversaw clean-up and rehabilitation efforts for what was arguably the country’s largest-ever oil spill.
On December 17, 2013, more than 7,550 barrels of Bunker C fuel spilt into the Gulf of Paria for more than five hours after Petrotrin sea lines ruptured, wreaking havoc along the coast. Petrotrin was fined $20 million under a Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC).
He suggested that they had not learned the lessons from that catastrophe. He said the National Response System needs to be rationalised.
“We cannot continue to do cosmetic actions and not have an ongoing monitoring programme on which the response activities can be gauged,” Bachan said.
“Different agencies have their legal basis, strengths and specific mandates and this is a major consideration. We need to respect that and show a united front in the face of these incidents. It should have a response and clean-up dimension; a unified, clear and effective communication component; a social and livelihood impact component; An assessment component; an environmental rehabilitation and remediation component and finally an ongoing monitoring programme on which the response activity can be gauged.
“I suggest that if this system is designed properly it can be the basis of response, not only to oil spills but any environmental incident. Rest assured that this will not be the last,” he stated.
Bachan warned that apart from significant environmental damage, local economies and recreation may also be severely impacted. He said that oil spills can cause closures of beaches, as well as recreational and commercial fisheries.
“This is my current concern in Tobago, that turtle season is upon us which begins in March. The migratory Leatherbacks are in our waters. How will this affect nesting on the beaches and later the hatchlings? Our resident hardshell sea turtles depend on the reefs and seagrass beds for their food. Livelihood from turtle watching can be impacted,” he warned.
Heritage on asset integrity
Heritage, and its predecessor Petrotrin, are often at the centre of oil spills and leakages.
Last year, there were about four oil leaks from Heritage’s pipelines at Masssahood Junction, Fyzabad.
On February 8, in a press statement, Heritage said that it was currently undertaking engineering studies concerning pipelines near Massahood Junction as part of its ongoing asset integrity programme.
“The Massahood Junction lines form part of Heritage’s extensive pipeline network. Part of the aforementioned studies includes the consideration of various alternatives to repair or replace the existing lines or to re-route the lines away from the structures which were erected on the existing pipeline right of way,” the statement said.
It noted that it will continue discussions with key stakeholders in the community as it reaches its final engineered solution.
As it stands, Heritage currently produces about 38,000 barrels of oil per day–both onshore and offshore combined.
In an interview with the Business Guardian last July after he became chief executive, Erik Keskula acknowledged that the company faces issues of asset integrity by virtue of how long it has been operational. This, unfortunately, leads to issues like leakages.
He has said that Heritage has undertaken a robust asset integrity programme.
“But it will take time to address and we’ve got the plans in place, as well as the response teams in place for the event,” he had said.
As for a time frame?
“Corrosion is not something that starts and stops. It’s out there all the time. And so what is important for us to do is make sure that we have the right repair programmes in place to address those issues that we’ve identified, as well as a robust inspection programme to identify new areas. So for me in terms of that safety aspect and the integrity aspect is not something that ever really stops, we will need to continue to have programmes to address that,” he had said.
In May 2023, several households were evacuated after a 16-inch trunk oil pipeline ruptured at Massahood Junction. The line was isolated and later repaired.
The Sunday Guardian was unable to get data on mop-up exercises and relocation costs for oil spills.
Recommendations not being implemented
Following the 2013/2014 massive oil spill, a National Environmental Assessment Task Force was appointed to deliver a report. The task force delivered its final report on ‘Recommendations to Improve Oil Spill Preparedness and Response’ in June 2015.
Guardian Media understands that little to nothing has been implemented from the report. It stated that “Surveys carried out in the Gulf of Paria over many years document an ongoing decline of the marine environment from a number of sources including trace metal pollution.”
A 2019 study by University of Trinidad and Tobago researchers Aaron Balgobin and Natasha Ramroop-Singh found that fish in the Gulf of Paria pose a cancer risk when consumed.
The Task Force’s 2015 report made 9 recommendations. They were as follows:
1) Prevention is the First Line of Defence–“Avoidance of accidents remains the best way to assure the quality and health of our environment. The relevant agencies and Industry must continue to take steps to minimise the probability of oil spills. Critical to this is Asset Integrity/Inspection/Preventative Measures by Petrotrin and the role that the Ministry of Energy has to play to ensure compliance.”
2) Preparedness Must be Strengthened–“Petotrin was not prepared for a spill of this magnitude–nor were the Ministry of Energy or the Environmental Management Authority. It is clear that the planning for and response to the incident all agencies were unequal to the task.”
3) Enhancing Capabilities and Resources to Combat Oil Spills Through a Structured National Response System–“An incident like this involves multiple complex dimensions that need to be factored in if to be effective.”
4) National Planning for Oil Spills Must be Improved.
5) Response Capabilities Must be Enhanced to Reduce Environmental Risk–“Oil spills–even small ones–are difficult to clean up. Oil recovery rates are low. Both public and private research is needed to improve clean-up technology.”
6) Some Oil Spills May be Inevitable–“Oil is a vital resource that is inherently dangerous to extract, store, use and transport. We therefore must balance environmental risks with the nation’s energy requirements.”
7) Legislation on Liability and Compensation is needed–“The Petrotrin incident has highlighted many problems associated with liability and compensation when an oil spill occurs. Comprehensive oil spill liability and compensation guidelines and possible legislation are necessary as soon as possible to address these concerns.”
8) Trinidad and Tobago Should Ratify the International Maritime Organization 1984 Protocols.
9) Studies of the Long-Term Environmental and Health Effects Must be Undertaken Expeditiously and Carefully–“Broad gauge and carefully structured environmental recovery effects, including damage assessments, remediation and rehabilitation are crucial to assure the eventual full restoration of affected areas.”
Fines for environmental breaches inadequate
In March 2019, EMA’s Managing Director Hayden Romano told the Public Accounts Committee on the EMA that the $10,000 fine for environmental breaches was woefully inadequate and he called for the breaches to be criminalised.
“We need to do the amendments to the EM (Environmental Management) Act in terms of enforcement so that we give ourselves more power and have, maybe criminal offences in the act,” he pleaded.
Several environmental scientists told Guardian Media that they are very concerned about the long-term impact of oil spills on mangroves and fisheries. They said if there are impacts on the mangroves, fisheries are impacted because fish and crabs are spawned at the mangroves.
“Is it going to be that after we finish this cosmetic clean-up, we just basically leave it alone? How seriously do we take the environment? Are we interested in knowing what the medium-term and long-term impacts of these events are? Where is the psycho-social aspect of this whole thing? That it’s affecting people?
“From the Tobago standpoint and the fisherman standpoint, yes, there is an impact. The oil, depending on the oil, will have different effects on wildlife and the environment on the whole, and by virtue of that, it can have an impact on human health,” said one scientist, who spoke off the record.
A timeline of well-known oil spills in recent years:
August 2010 – Petrotrin pipe leaked oil into the Godineau River
December 2011 – PowerGen’s bunkered fuel tanker spills out into Invaders Bay.
December 2014 – The country’s largest ever oil leak – More than 7,550 barrels of fuel leaked from Petrotrin lines into the Gulf of Paria
April 2017 – Bunker fuel seeped into the Guaracara River
November 2017 – Oil spill in Chaguaramas
March 2018 – Leakage at Catshill Field, Moruga
September 2018 – Oil Spilled into Vistabella River, San Fernando
November 2020 – Oil Spilled near New Cut Channel in Woodland by leaking Heritage pipeline
April 2021 – An open Heritage valve leaks 318 litres of oil in La Brea watercourses
September 2021 – Heritage leak in Pt Fortin
October 2021 – Heritage leak in Agapito Trace, Santa Flora
June 2022 – Oil spill near Beachfield, Guayaguayare
August 2022 – Leakage at Caroni Bird Sanctuary
February 2023 – Spill at Heritage’s Ferrier Circular, Guayaguayare operations
May 2023 – Oil pipeline ruptures in Fyzabad, forcing members of four households to be evacuated
July 2023 – Oil Spills from an offshore platform off Cedros
February 7, 2024 – Two vessels leak oil off Tobago after overturning off of the Cove Industrial Park
