A clean-up crew from the petroleum and wind energy company Equinor arrived in Grand Bahama on Tuesday to manage the oil spill at their storage facility in Grand Bahama. 

National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesperson Carl Smith said at the agency’s daily press conference yesterday that the Ministry of Environmental Health went to the facility to assess the damages.

“Based on this assessment, there’s no reason to be of concern to public health. The tank themselves appear to be structurally intact and there’s no evidence at this time of an ongoing leak,” Mr. Smith said.

In terms of other environmental concern and clean up, Minister of the Environment Romauld Ferreira listed numerous spillage in the area near the facility.

“Firstly, there’s the bounded area, which is simply just a containment wall that is designed and engineered to keep oil in and then there is the area immediately beyond that which has been contaminated,” Ferreira explained.

“There’s the coppice and the forest and the pine trees which are also contaminated. There’s a wind driven smear in the forest that is impacting the trees and the ground obviously.” 

Former Minister of Transport Glenys Hanna-Martin voiced her concern about the lack of transparency and late response from Equinor when the oil spill was initially reported.

“We realize that maybe the principle might have been distinction, but certainly it was days late and I’m a bit surprised that they weren’t there more quickly because while there is economic interest it has a more fundamental meaning to the Bahamian people,” Hanna-Martin said.

“We would hope and expect them as partners they would’ve been on site as quickly. We’d like to know what the status is. Are they there now?  What is the update? We should be getting now daily updates of what is happening.”