NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Environmentalists yesterday challenged the government’s claim that oil spilled during Hurricane Dorian had been cleared from the Equinor site in East Grand Bahama.
Press Secretary Clint Watson yesterday said that he has been in recent communication with the Environment Minister, Vaughn Miller who assured him of this; however, environmentalists at Waterkeepers Bahamas, remain unconvinced.
“I don’t know who’s pulling the wool over the eyes of whom but I’ve said enough and no one has ever come back to me and contradicted what I’ve said,” Waterkeepers Bahamas president Joseph Darville said.
At yesterday’s press briefing, Watson referred to a message response sent to him from Miller.
The message read: “The administration has been back on the ground to assess the area […] samples were collected by our experts there. Samples were collected of the staining on the rocks, the vegetation and soil that was there. The samples collected were sent to Florida for analysis.
“[…] There is oil staining on the rocks and vegetation they have no toxic components as it was analyzed and natural intinuation is just dealing with it, but the report with those samples have come back that those are not oil from Equinor.”
Watson then clarified that research is ongoing to find out what the substance is on the samples that were collected.
”So what is happening now is they’re doing further analysis as to what it is and why it was there but it is not related to Equinor,” he said.
Darville, who has visited the area within the last ten days said that he is not convinced that even two-thirds of the oil has been cleared. He added that there’s a clear difference between the scent of a fresh forest and one that’s heavily tainted with oil.
The environmentalist said that last year Waterkeepers Bahamas had also done a study and the results that came back showed that samples were covered in oil.
“We have taken samples of the soil and the water and sent them away and they came back saturated with petroleum […] they need to have a thorough investigation on that matter […] they cannot say that this whole thing is done,” Darville said.
The dark spots found on rocks can simply be explained as mold which Darville said is obvious, based on what he’s found in the area.
“Go on the north side of the aggregate and get samples from there, it is saturated with oil.
“What they are talking about is something called a black moss that’s on the rocks […] but if they’re collecting that then, of course, it is not oil.
“That’s regular moss in a wetland area. So you know this thing goes with sense and they gotta have people there like the environmentalists.”
Aside from other aspects, Darville said the area was once a sanctuary for animals who have also been greatly impacted since the oil was spilled contaminating the land and he explained that if they are not thorough with the cleanup, it can eventually seep into the ocean.
”You go in that area now because birds cannot stand the stench of petroleum, and for about an hour if you see one bird you’re lucky.
”[…]The wild hogs in that area dig them (potatoes) up to eat them because they’re very nourishing and we’ve found dozens of um dug up but the pigs did not eat them and we wondered why, so we broke them open and they were saturated with oil so they did not eat it.”
Darville said that a number of environmentalists have canvased the premises over the past four years and are quite aware of the situation of the oil still on the site, so he wonders why neither the last administration and this one has consulted with them on the issue.
”Why wouldn’t they ask some of us who’ve been there over one hundred times since hurricane Dorian and know every inch of that area and we know what was done and what was not done and we know what was done properly and what was done in a messy condition?”
