Estancia rid of toxic chemical, says DOH

WORKERS siphon off bunker fuel and manually collect debris on the coast of Estancia town, Iloilo province. NESTOR P. BURGOS JR./INQUIRER VISAYAS

ILOILO CITY—About 2,000 residents of Estancia town in Iloilo province who were evacuated due to a typhoon-triggered oil spill can now go home, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

The residents of Barangay Botongon in Estancia can return to their homes after test results showed that the level of the toxic substance benzene in the air was zero parts per million (ppm). This was lower than the tolerable level of 0.5 ppm, said Dr. Marlyn Convocar, DOH regional director for Western Visayas.

The tests were jointly conducted by the DOH and the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources from Tuesday until Wednesday, she said.

Convocar said they had issued the recommendation to provincial and municipal officials to allow the residents to go home.

Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor said the evacuees could go home but those whose houses were destroyed could still remain at Northern Iloilo Polytechnic State College-West Campus (NIPSC).

Estancia Mayor Rene Cordero said he was still waiting for an official copy of the DOH-EMB test results and recommendation for the evacuees to go home, but they were allowed to start returning to the village early on Friday morning.

The residents of Botongon were evacuated to NIPSC on Nov. 23 after tests of ambient air showed that the benzene level in the village reached 16.9 ppm, or 30 times more than the allowable level.

The increase in toxicity level was due to the spilling of at least 200,000 liters of bunker fuel from the National Power Corp.-operated Power Barge 103.

Strong winds and huge waves brought by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” dislodged the 32-megawattt barge from its mooring and slammed it into the coast of Barangay Botongon.

Storage tanks of the barge were believed to have been punctured in the collision, triggering the oil spill.

A 20-meter radius from the oil spill site will remain restricted from access and continued monitoring of air quality will still be conducted, Convocar said.

Workers involved in the clean-up operations will be allowed to work only if they have the prescribed personal protective equipment, she said.

The transfer of the remaining bunker inside the barge was completed over the weekend. The contaminated water and debris will also be transferred to a treatment facility in Bulacan province, according to Karl Ignatius Young, president of Kuan Yu Global Technologies Inc., which was contracted by the government to clean up the oil spill.

Young said the refloating and towing of the barge off the coast of Estancia Was targeted by Jan. 9, 2014 at the latest.