With clear seawater finally visible and no sign of any oil off the coast of Ernavur, the clean-up operations for the January 28 oil spill officially came to an end on Thursday. A total of 208 tonnes of sludge was physically removed as were 99,000 litres of oil mixed with water by super suckers. The chemicals were removed from the spot where thick black oil from the MT Dawn Kanchipuram had accumulated in a curve formed on the shore and spread down the coast.
The oil spill was a result of a collision between two ships — the diesel and lube oil-carrying MT Dawn Kanchipuram and the LPG carrier MT Maple — in the early hours of January 28 off the Kamarajar Port Ltd. in Ennore.
Sources in the government said that the recovery of oil had been completed and the cleaning of the boulders on the sea wall would be taken up soon. “The boulders got oil smears during the recovery of oil from the sea to the shore. Once cleaned, we will apply high pressure cold water jets to clean the boulders,” said the source.
Sources said that officials of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board had visited the shoreline of the Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chennai districts, along with representatives of the insurance company that had been deputed by the owners of MT Dawn Kanchipuram . “They have listed out the places that require attention. If there are stains on the boulders, we will get it cleaned up through the shipping company,” said a source.
The oil spill that spread to the beaches of Chennai and led to depositing of black tar on the sands up to Vettuvankeni, was cleaned under the supervision of the Coast Guard by over 1,200 persons, including personnel drawn from the Highways Department, Rural Development, Revenue Department, Fire Services and various NGOs. The oil collected from the water and the beaches has been collected and sent to the Kamarajar Port, where scientists from the Indian Oil Corporation’s Research and Development Wing were treating it through bioremediation.
The Director General of Shipping is conducting an investigation into the incident and is expected to soon fix responsibility after which the quantum of compensation and persons to be compensated would be fixed.
