Energy Minister visits Vance River

“I am certainly very disappointed that that is the case because this is a serious environmental issue and Petrotrin needs to have a faster response time to events like this,” Olivierre said, adding, “When there are spills offshore the response time has been quite rapid, so perhaps they seem to have fallen back in their response time for oil spills on land. But I certainly encourage residents living within the constituency within the oil producing areas, if you do notice oil spills on land please make every effort to contact the company or my office.” Olivierre was speaking to reporters during a site visit to a watercourse at Fitz Lane, Vance River, Guapo, yesterday. The watercourse is heavily polluted with sheets of oil from an abandoned oil well and was the site of protest action after four-year-old Kaleb Hart fell into the watercourse last Wednesday while on his way to school.

“I was concerned when I learned about the four-year-old and learning of the extent of the oil spill I certainly had to come and make sure that the child is okay and the environment can be cleaned up so that the residents would have a good healthy environment to live,’ she said.

And regarding the oil spill, she said Petrotrin had engaged a contractor to begin the clean-up operations saying a “very viscous oil” seemed to have has sunk to the bottom of the river which would require an extensive clean-up operation.

She said recommendations had been made to Petrotrin to construct a railing across the bridge while a “more long-term solution” was being identified.

Asked whether a review of the abandoned oil wells, which had been capped due to the Point Fortin highway route, and which seemed to have a significant amount of oil remaining, said, “I am aware that some wells were capped as a result of the route for the highway passing through producing areas.

We certainly have to investigate and make sure they were properly capped and that no leakage is taking place and have to rethink whether it was sensible to stymie producing wells.” She also stated that Petrotrin would be asked to provide medical personnel to assess the health of residents “to see what impact the oil spill has had on the residents and see what relief can be brought to them as quickly as possible.”