The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly says the Min­istry of En­er­gy has tak­en re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the fi­nal dis­pos­al of the pits of bunker fu­el stored at the Stud­ley Park dump.

At a press con­fer­ence ear­li­er to­day with Health Sec­re­tary Faith B Yis­rael, To­ba­go Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency di­rec­tor Al­lan Stew­art and chair­man of the THA’s mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary oil man­age­ment com­mit­tee, Lin­ford Beck­les they de­nied there had been en­vi­ron­men­tal or wa­ter con­t­a­m­i­na­tion by the hy­dro­car­bon stor­age.

The THA con­firmed that it is no longer han­dling the site, fol­low­ing a re­quest made last Fri­day for for­mal ac­cess by NGC on be­half of the min­istry to be­gin prop­er dis­pos­al op­er­a­tions.

B Yis­rael stressed that the stor­age had al­ways been a tem­po­rary one pend­ing the fi­nal de­ci­sion of the Min­istry of En­er­gy for its prop­er dis­pos­al.

On Sun­day, re­ports of im­prop­er dis­pos­al and pos­si­ble en­vi­ron­men­tal con­t­a­m­i­na­tion at the dump sur­faced. The THA has since de­nied re­ports of any leak, im­prop­er dis­pos­al or es­cape of the hy­dro­car­bon. —Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les