Air quality levels have been deemed normal in Vessigny a day after residents complained of feeling unwell following an oil spill in the Vessigny River.
As officials investigate the cause of the spill, Heritage Petroleum Company Limited says it has directed lease operator Trinity Brighton Operations to suspend pumping and isolate the pipes.
When Guardian Media visited the area, containment crews were busy pumping out the oil using vacuum hoses. Thick pools of oil swirled in the river which runs near the Vessigny Reserve Road.
An ambulance was stationed at the Vessigny beach and booms were placed in the tributaries near the beach to prevent the oil from entering the Gulf of Paria.
Kavina Dickson who lives near the beach said she started smelling oil fumes on Tuesday evening.
“From around 10 pm, the smell started to get stronger. I started to get nauseous and dizzy. We passed the night and I observed they were doing work on the river. This morning I saw fire trucks. Heritage came to us and said don’t use any open flame and there is a hydrocarbon release in the river. They said they will provide us with meals but I am still waiting,” Dickson said.
Another resident Raphael Ramlal said he started to see oil in the river around 1:30 pm on Tuesday.
“It was a thick amount of oil. I am coughing, the gas smell is making me dizzy. My sister-in-law got sick and she had to move away. This is bad. We could not stay in the house,” Ramlal said.
He said he was disappointed that Heritage did not provide meals in the community.
“They had a delayed response. The leak was further up the road,” he said. Ramlal said even his dogs were affected by the oil.
“All of them were black with the oil and we had to wash them out,” Ramlal said. He said the cleanup works were ongoing and the smell of the oil had decreased by mid-morning.
Another resident said she had to leave her home and spend the night at a church in Guapo. An elderly woman stayed at her granddaughter’s home because she started feeling unwell with the fumes.
Meanwhile, Heritage Petroleum in a statement said the air quality had returned to normal.
“In accordance with its incident response protocols, Heritage immediately directed the lease operator, Trinity Brighton Operations, to suspend pumping and the pipeline was isolated,” Heritage said.
Residents and other impacted stakeholders are being engaged, the company added.
“Heritage officials are on-site with stakeholders to share up-to-date information and address the related concerns of those impacted. In keeping with international best practice, vacuum trucks have been mobilized to recover the spilt oil and excavation equipment remain on-site to assist with containment and repair works,” Heritage said in its statement.
Regulatory bodies including the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, and the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) have been notified about the incident.
Heritage also said it is conducting air quality tests in the area and so far the readings are within normal levels.