FFOS calls for a hydrocarbon state of emergency
Date: February 22nd 2019
Dear Editor/Newsroom,
We are shocked at the near death disaster of our Adelle Cyrus (12) and Darrel Clarke (13) of Egypt Village Point Fortin who fell into an unsecured PETROTRIN oil pit. FFOS honors the bravery and courage of Mr. Small who jumped in to save them. These citizens should be given the best care available as there may be long term degenerative effects. The Minister of Energy and the Chairman of the EMA must be held accountable for this near fatality.
FFOS publicly calls on our Minister of Energy to immediately identify and secure all such areas of public endangerment. Numerous unsecured pits litter the South and Southwest of Trinidad. Avoidable energy disasters plague our people daily and causing human and ecosystem mortality.
On April 23rd 2017, TANK 70 ruptured spilling an alleged 126,000 barrels of crude oil into our foodbasket Gulf of Paria even though it was one of the eleven (11) Petrotrin Tanks located in the Point-aPierre Tank Farm, that was condemned in the 2003 Shell Tank Integrity Report. Fourteen years later these other Tanks are still being used! Why is the Government turning a blind eye on potentially fatal risks?
In July 2018, an abandoned and orphaned gas well exploded near Orange Valley in the Gulf of Paria. The Minister admittedly could not find the well files that give the full detail of the well history and the nature of the contaminants that were being expelled in the Gulf. While Extractors abandon once lucrative wells, why aren’t they bearing the cost to properly decommission and monitor these wells?
Does OSHA and the EMA have a double standard when it comes environmental policy compliance by State Enterprises?
The time to act is now! While our PM is running after new oil and gas contracts, what are we doing to secure our own resources? Public safety and health are most important, most cherished, most valuable that have been endowed on to us. Shouldn’t we be protecting our children as a first priority?
Until all oil and gas facilities are safe and regulated, FFOS call on our Government to declare “a hydrocarbon state of emergency
Sincerely,
Gary Aboud
Corporate Secretary Fishermen and Friends of the Sea