Oil spill bigger than ‘Yolanda’ ruin

THE NAPOCOR power barge that was detached from its moorings by storm surge and slammed into communities along the coastline of Estancia, Iloilo. INQUIRER VISAYAS

ILOILO CITY—Susan Semillano’s priority is to rebuild her house that Supertyphoon “Yolanda” blew off in Estancia, Iloilo.

She can’t, however, as authorities are preventing residents of the town from returning as a result of another disaster—an oil spill from a power barge that the storm lifted off the coast and slammed into communities in Estancia.

It will take at least three months before Semillano and her neighbors could return to what was once their community.

“We have nothing left and we can’t repair our house,” she said in an interview at her temporary home at Northern Iloilo Polytechnic College-West Campus.

Semillano, 51, is among the residents of Barangay (village) Botongon who have been staying at the school campus since Saturday after officials ordered a mandatory evacuation due to toxic fumes coming from the oil spill that has contaminated Botongon and six other villages in another town, Batad.

The number of evacuees rose to 294 families, or about 1,200 persons, as of Monday, according to Provincial Administrator Raul Banias.

No match for Yolanda

The 35-megawatt National Power Corp.’s Barge 103 slammed into the rocky coast of the village at the height of Yolanda after 300-kilometer-per-hour winds and waves of up to 20 feet had dislodged it from its moorings.

The oil spill, believed to be from the barge’s punctured hulls, was earlier estimated to reach 200,000 liters of bunker fuel. Another 1.2 million liters are believed to be still inside the barge’s tanks.

The Coast Guard has installed booms around the barge to stop the spread of the oil spill.

Dennis Bruhn, environmental emergency expert of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team who examined the oil spill, said the leaked oil could reach 600,000 liters.

“The leak is still continuing,” he said in an interview at the international humanitarian mission hub in Roxas City.

The barge was sold to Salcon Power Corp. days before the oil spill but has not been turned over to the new owner.

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. has contracted Kuan Yu Global Technologies Inc. to siphon off the remaining oil from the tanker, refloat it and tow it out of the area.

Manual cleanup

The siphoning of oil and the cleanup are being done manually since Nov. 8, when Yolanda struck.

The cost of the cleanup was estimated to be P87 million and would take at least three months, according to Banias.

The Department of Health has recommended the mandatory evacuation of about 5,000 persons who are within a 150-meter radius from the oil spill.

Test results have showed that the level of the toxic substance benzene in the air in the community reached 16.9 parts per million or 30 times more than the allowable level of 0.5 ppm.

But the evacuation of more residents has been hindered by the lack of evacuation centers because all schools and other public buildings in the town were damaged or destroyed by Yolanda.

The provincial government would provide rice and relief and a food subsidy of P30 per person daily for the evacuees, according to Banias.