CHENNAI: The oil spill that has been creating havoc in north Chennai for the past 10 days has now reportedly reached Pulicat coastal waters and inland Buckingham Canal, which is tidally connected to Pulicat Bird Sanctuary.
Several local fishermen confirmed and shared pictures with TNIE on Saturday showing the presence of thick tar-like oil balls along the coastline between Koraikuppam and Kattupalli. The oil slick managing to reach the Pulicat is worrisome since these waters are rich fishing grounds for over 30 coastal villages and a biodiversity hotspot for thousands of migratory birds that congregate every year.
R Vinod, a fisherman from Koraikuppam, told this reporter that around noon the fishermen saw the tar-like oil sludge beaching on the coastline. "The smell of oil was noticed both in seawater as well as in Buckingham Canal. We received information about oil sludge on the Pulicat bar mouth as well. This is worrying us," he said.
When contacted, a senior government official said the tar balls found in the Pulicat coast were the last stage of oil spill dispersal.
He said, "Once volatile compounds evaporate the remaining matter becomes tar balls. All oil escapes into the ocean will form tar balls and will beach in the coming days before the north and south of Ennore. This is expected in all oil spill areas."
Durai Mahendran, General Secretary, Tiruvallur District Traditional United Fishermen Association, claimed fish kill was being reported. He said, "We request Chief Minister MK Stalin to intervene and take appropriate action providing relief to the fishermen."
Officials from the fisheries department, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and Ponneri Tahasildar visited Pulicat to take stock of the emerging situation.
In their report, it was claimed that there is no oil sludge on the surface of the seawater. So, the situation doesn't need the removal of the oil from the surface of the beach. The environmental engineer part of the team said that the situation would be monitored continuously and an inspection would be carried out on Sunday as well.
The block development officer asked the Minjur panchayat union to use the sanitary workers in the respective panchayats with necessary safety equipment including gloves to collect the oil sludge that is on the beaches.
Meanwhile, a high-level coordination meeting was convened at the Oil Spill Management Coordination Centre by Additional Chief Secretary Supriya Sahu to review the ongoing oil mitigation works.
"The primary focus was on accelerating the oil recovery process and comprehensively covering the impacted area under the mitigation plan," Sahu said.
The impacted area has now been categorised into four stretches for the purpose of intensive review and mitigation. Each stretch will be taken care of by a dedicated team with the objective to complete the process of mitigation by December 18-19, authorities said.
CPCL deploys more resources for clean-up
The Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited, which is the source of the oil spill, has deployed more oil removal equipment and materials received on an emergency basis from Paradip and Mumbai.
Two additional containment booms of 300 mts and 50 mts have been deployed in addition to the four layers of booms already placed at the Ennore Creek area.
Further to the two oil Skimmers that were in operation, four more oil skimmers from Mumbai and Paradip have been made ready. However, the oil level in the containment zone is now very low. As of now, four specialized agencies are in place with around 182 trained personnel.
"Mechanized cleaning efforts have successfully cleared two out of five shore villages and the remaining areas will be completed within 2-3 days. It is being ensured that all workmen involved in the clean-up activities are using requisite Personal Protective Equipment," a press release said.
Minor fire at CPCL
A minor fire broke out in the metal scrap yard of CPCL at around noon on Saturday. The fire was put off immediately within 5 minutes, the TNPCB officials said.
The site was inspected by the environmental engineer of the Board and the reason behind the accident was learnt to be auto-ignition of pyrophoric material (corroded metal dust) in the scrap yard. Sources in the CPCL told TNIE there was damage to the property and the operations were unaffected.