Emergency oil spill recovery work in Ennore completed: Tamil Nadu govt

The NGT had expressed displeasure over the slow pace of the recovery process, even as the Indian Coast Guard said the oil spill had spread to about 20 square km.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday night said it has completed the emergency oil spill recovery work in the ecologically-sensitive Ennore Creek area by removing 105.82 kl oily water and 393.5 tonnes oily sludge since December 12.

The oil spill from the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) refinery in Manali, which was let into the flood water on December 4-5 when the city was swamped under the influence of Cyclone Michaung, spread into an area of about 20 square kilometers, severely affecting people’s lives and the livelihood of several fishermen.

While fishermen didn’t venture into fishing due to the fish catch smelling of oil, residents of Ernavur and near-by areas had to deal with oil stains which damaged their household items and faced several health issues due to strong odour of the oil that entered their homes.

After the Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) took up the case suo motu, the Tamil Nadu government took up the oil spill cleaning work by splitting the affected area into four stretches – Ennore Creek mouth to Bridge, Bridge to Railway Bridge, Railway Bridge to entrance of Buckingham Canal, and Sivanpadai Veedu to Sathyamurthi Nagar.

“A total of 105.82 kl of oily water and 393.5 tonnes of oily sludge was removed until date,” a press release from the government said. It added that CPCL, which was blamed by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) for the oil spill, has deployed three ambulances with a team of specialised doctors to take care of health concerns in the impacted areas.

The NGT had expressed displeasure over the slow pace of the recovery process, even as the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said the oil spill had spread to about 20 square km.

Nearly 900 people, including trained personnel from sea cleaning agencies and local fishermen, worked for over eight days to complete the emergency cleaning work, which was necessitated to ensure that the oil sludge doesn’t enter the sea.

A team led by Environment and Forests Secretary Supriya Sahu took a boat to review the completion of operations during which it observed that while the oil recovery and mitigation was over in most of the areas, deposits of oil in Mangroves needed a longer time period, as it is a specialized task and has to be done carefully. In consultation with experts.

“It was decided to shift the entire focus now on cleaning oil ingress in Mangrove areas. It was further decided that for this purpose, the Forest Department shall engage local fishermen through CPCL resources to undertake oil cleaning work in Mangroves with the help of smaller boats using oil boomers and soak pads,” the statement added.

Besides deploying five gully sucker machines, the Tamil Nadu government also installed containment booms in an area of about 1,100 metres to prevent the oil from entering the ocean.

The oil which was released by CPCL into flood water reached the Kosasthalaiyar River via the Buckingham canal.