Three months of environmental emergency were declared due to the pollution caused by the spillage into the sea, on January 15, of 6 thousand barrels of crude oil during the refueling operations of a refinery of the Spanish company Repsol off the coast of Lima, Peru.
The accident occurred while the unloading operations of the tanker flying the Italian flag "Mare Doricum" were in progress through the underwater infrastructure of the La Pampilla refinery, probably due to the rupture of a joint in the pipes lying on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
The companion claims that the accident was caused by the eruption of the underwater volcano off the coast of the Tonga Islands and has assured that it has acted promptly to suspend the transfer of crude oil and to apply a contingency plan provided for similar emergency situations. But it was not enough: a thick black layer was deposited on about twenty beaches, according to the Environmental Assessment and Control Body (Oefa), while the National Service of State Protected Areas (Sernanp) reported the death of fish. , birds, other animals and severe contamination of marine vegetation.
The relative decree of the state of emergency, published today in the official newspaper El Peruano, defines the damage caused to the marine and coastal area of Ventanilla involved as "the worst ecological disaster that has occurred in Lima in recent times".
The decree also contains the terms of application of an immediate action plan to minimize the damage to the environment of the geographical area concerned. The decision was also adopted in response to a report submitted to the government by the Directorate General for Environmental Quality, according to which oil dispersion at sea "has had a significant impact on the coastal marine ecosystem with high biological diversity and on hydrobiological resources" and represented "a high risk to the public health of the population living in the area".
(Unioneonline / D)