Oil spill plugged, concerns remain: Coast Guard

Pesticide drums from vessel fall into sea, Dutch firm to render help

“The leakage of oil from the ship has stopped on its own,” SPS Basra, IG Coast Guard (Western Region) said. For almost six hours, “the fuel from the ship tank has stopped coming out.” 

Oil was leaking from two of the 12 tanks of the vessel which had got damaged due to the collision. The two tanks could together hold 879 tonnes of oil, Coast Guard sources said.
The ship contained around 2,600 tonnes of oil of which 500 tonne is believed to have leaked into the Arabian Sea, threatening marine life and ecology along the Mumbai coastline.

Two Panamanian cargo ships—MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia 111—collided on Saturday off the Mumbai coast causing an oil spill from one of the vessels. The Navy and the Coast Guard carried out anti-pollution operations for the third consecutive day on Monday to check and neutralise the oil spill.

They fought throughout the day to stave off an environmental disaster with over 500 tonnes of oil having already spilt in the sea and containers of pesticide from the damaged vessel also having detected in the waters.

As the grim battle to plug the leak caused by the collision continued, the Mumbai Port Trust (MPT) appointed SMIT Salvage, a Netherlands-based company, to control the spill, a senior port official said. Another team of experts in handling maritime disasters arrived from Singapore to assist in the operations. “The company is working there with 11 off-shore vessels out of which six are from Mumbai-based Great Offshore Limited,” an MPT official said.

While the oil leakage stopped, an oil slick formed by the leaked oil was seen spreading fast with about three to four tonnes of oil spilling from the grounded vessel every hour. In addition, drums filled with pesticide detached from the Chitra, which continued to tilt precariously, but which may not sink.

The drums with pesticides were seen floating in the sea, causing a navigation hazard as well as threat to marine life. There are least 31 containers with hazardous chemicals, including organo-phosphorous pesticides, sodium hydrochloride and pyrethroid pesticides on board and quite a few of them might have tumbled into the sea and their contents leaked.