Chennai oil spill: 70 per cent of slick cleared

Chennai: Five days after two merchant ships collided at Ennore port resulting in an oil leak, Kamarajar Port officials said that 70 per cent of the pollution has been cleared as on Wednesday.

In a review meeting conducted on Wednesday, A.P. Sawhney, additional secretary, ministry of petroleum, Barun Mitra, joint secretary (ports) and Amitabh Kumar, additional director general of shipping and port chairman participated.
 “Thin film of oil was noticed at some places, light oil sleek was also observed today inside the KPL port basin.  About 75 litres of oil dispersant was used in KPL to clean the oil pollution,” said a port official.

Meanwhile, Indian Coast Guard said it has cleared 40 tonnes of oil sludge and 27 tonnes of oil mixed with water so far. ‘No contamination in fish reported: Fisheries minister D. Jayakumar and senior government officials inspected the coast following the reports on contamination on fish. “We took some samples of the dead fish from Ennore, Marina and Thiruvanmiyur. The results from laboratory have clarified that it is safe to consume,” he said.

Adopt scientific methods: NGT: Acknowledging the petition filed by Ennore fishermen regarding the oil spill on the Chennai coast, the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) on Wednesday to adopt scientific measures for the remediation of the spill.

Stating that oil was being removed manually with buckets, counsel for the petitioner put forth the lack of technical expertise before the tribunal