Petrotrin spared fine for Gulf of Paria oil spill

More crude oil spilled into the already polluted Gulf of Paria after a Petrotrin discharge line from an oil to shore pump of Trinmar’s Platform 17 developed a leak.

While it is uncertain how much crude oil spilled into the sea, it was cleaned up hours after the incident.

EMA chairman Nadra Nathai- Gyan said they have held meetings with the company and have asked for a maintenance schedule.

“There have been no fines at this time because they have been responsive with regards to mopup operations, and addressing the issue in a very urgent manner.

I saw that Petrotrin has already acknowledged integrity issues because of aging assets. They do alert us with regards to every spill that happens, and the EMA’s responsibility lies in ensuring that when that happens we are satisfied with the clean up operations, and if there is any impact on the flora or fauna in the environment that it is dealt with in a satisfactory manner.” Nathai-Gyan was addressing members of the media yesterday during a news conference at the EMA’s head office at Elizabeth Street, St Clair.

She said Petrotrin had made several requests for Certificates of Environmental Clearance (CECs) for decommissioning of wells. She added that was also part of the process and the EMA’s role was to monitor what happened in this case.

Giselle Landeau-Birmingham, legal officer III at the EMA, explained that part of the EMA’s process was to issue CECs.

“Any person or organisation wishing to establish a particular facility which is legislated under the Designated Activities Order has to apply for a CEC from the EMA. Once they put in the application for a CEC, we ensure that mitigation measures are put in to the CEC to ensure that we deal with any environmental impact may occur as a result of the particular activity.

“It makes no sense that we simply fine people. Yes, fines are a punitive measure, but we also want to ensure people do not go back and repeat the same mistakes,” Landeau-Birmingham said.

Vice-chairman at the EMA, Judy Daniel, said fining was procedural, a legal matter that followed litigation.

She said the Environmental Management Act talks about engaging stakeholders or offenders prior to instituting legal action.

She noted that there must be certain evidence based before any legal action was taken through the court.

“The EMA tries to avoid that as a matter of policy because, administratively, legal action takes a long time before it can come to any conclusion,” Daniel said.

“If we can get the parties who are responsible to come to an agreement and ensure compliance and we institute administrative measures, that would take care of the environmental disturbance.

That is much quicker.”