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Monday, August 21, 2006
Robotic equipment to be used to inspect sunken oil tanker
LA PAZ -- A team using robotic submarine equipment plans to inspect a sunken tanker that has leaked oil and wreaked environmental havoc across fishing villages and mangrove swamps in a central province, the coast guard said Sunday.
The Luxembourg-based insurer of the sunken Solar 1 has pledged to ship the equipment from Singapore in a few days after it appoints a salvage company that will undertake the deep-sea inspection and possibly the retrieval of the tanker, Coast Guard Captain Luis Tuason said.
The 998-ton Solar 1 was transporting about 2 million liters (500,000 gallons) of bunker fuel from an oil refinery in northern Bataan province to southern Zamboanga peninsula when it sank in bad weather on August 11 off central Guimaras island.
It then began spilling oil that has polluted coastal areas in a region known for white-sand beach resorts and marine reserves.
Unable to reach the tanker believed to be lying 900 meters (2,950 feet) deep on the seabed, authorities have failed to determine how many of about 10 separate chambers were damaged and leaking oil.
Some fear any undamaged chambers could rupture and spill more oil -- or the tanker may even blow up.
"I told them time is an enemy here," Tuason said. "What if the tanker explodes?"
Tuason said the robotic equipment could take photographs of the tanker and guide authorities on their next steps.
Authorities estimate the Solar 1 has spilled about 350,000 liters (almost 100,000) gallons of oil since it sank, causing one of the Philippines' worst oil spills.
The oil slick has damaged some 300 kilometers of coastline, 500 hectares of mangroves, and 60 hectares of seaweed plantations, affecting 26,000 villagers in Guimaras, provincial governor Joaquin Nava said.
The slick could spread to two nearby provinces and destroy rich fishing grounds in the Visayan Sea, he said.
Two coastal villages in nearby Iloilo province reported on Sunday that oil residues have reached their shores. Up to six towns in Iloilo are under threat from the spill, Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada said.
In Guimaras, environmental activists from Greenpeace and experts from the state-run University of the Philippines were inspecting corals and mangroves to assess the impact on Taklong island, a 1,143-hectare (2,824-acre) national marine reserve.
Philippine officials have pressed tanker owner Sunshine Maritime Development Corporation and Petron Corp., which hired the tanker to transport its fuel, to take rapid measures to prevent further spillage near impoverished Guimaras, about 500 kilometers southeast of Manila. (AP)
(August 21, 2006 issue)
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