The coast of Peru was affected by an oil spill. For this fact, the Government decreed 90 days of environmental emergency following the fact that affects the areas of the National Reserve System of Islands, Islets and Puntas Guaneras in 512 hectares and the Ancón Reserved Zone in 1,758 hectares.
The Ministry of the Environment of Peru declared this Saturday an environmental emergency due to 90 days the geographical area of the Peruvian coast affected by an oil spill, while more information is known regarding the circumstances of the discharge into the sea when a refinery operated by Repsol was supplied.
The Environment Minister, Rubén Ramírez, heads the Environmental Crisis Committee and approved this declaration to guarantee the sustainable management of the territories affected for a week and where recovery and remediation work is being carried out on the spill.
The Agency for Environmental Assessment and Control (OEFA) verified the presence of hydrocarbons in the sea and on the beach strip in several districts of Lima and the neighboring province of Callao.
In the same way, the National Service of Natural Areas Protected by the State (Sernanp) verified that the oil moved with the current in a northerly direction, affecting the areas of the National Reserve System of Guaneras Islands, Islets and Puntas in 512 hectares and the Ancón Reserved Zone in 1,758 hectares.
“The crude oil spill constitutes a sudden event with a significant impact on the coastal marine ecosystem of high biological diversity and a high risk to public health,” stated the resolution declaring the Environmental Emergency.
The oil spill, which up to now has affected an extension of regarding 3 square kilometers of beach and sea, occurred on the 15th when an oil tanker unloaded its crude oil at one of the multi-buoy terminals of the La Pampilla Refinery, which Repsol operates in Ventanilla, in the municipality of Callao, the port region near the capital Lima.
Currently, the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating those responsible for the alleged crime of environmental pollution and the Mare Doricum ship, which unloaded the oil, is immobilized on the high seas with a bail letter of 39 million dollars.
Repsol indicated on Friday that it has removed more than 1,580 cubic meters of compromised sand and that it has more than 840 people trained for this cleaning task, which it does not calculate to finish until the end of February, which was also confirmed by the Ministry of the Environment.
For its part, the El Comercio portal interviewed a group of sailors who were participating in a championship the day the spill occurred in the vicinity of the site, but who abandoned the competition due to lack of wind and waves.
Sailor Alec Hughes recalled that he heard a very loud, shrill noise coming from the ship when a group of ten sailboats sailing towards Callao passed by.
“It was a metallic sound, almost like a pop, and two minutes later there was another. The sea was flat, there were no waves, there were no winds, no particular conditions,” Hugues told El Comercio.
Repsol had attributed the abnormal waves to the volcanic eruption on the remote island of Tonga, which according to them generated the oil spill off the coast of Lima and Callao.