KE­JAN HAYNES

En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Agency clean-up crews worked late in­to Thurs­day night clean­ing an oil spill near the Ca­roni Bird Sanc­tu­ary. The oil was in a drain near the en­trance of the Sanc­tu­ary, just off the high­way.

Ch­agua­nas West MP Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly was on the scene. Af­ter be­ing briefed by the EMA of­fi­cials on the scene he said they were work­ing on two pos­si­ble the­o­ries

"It is pos­si­ble ac­cord­ing to what I have been told. It is pos­si­ble that you it could have been a truck that would have been here ear­li­er and prob­a­bly poured out some old oil or what­ev­er it may be, but it is al­so pos­si­ble that it can be a leak and that is some­thing they will have to in­ves­ti­gate," Ram­bal­ly said.

As crews worked, there was con­cern be­cause of the dark­ness the full ex­tent of the spill would not be known un­til morn­ing. While Guardian Me­dia was on the scene, much of the clean-up was tak­ing place in one spot.

The Ca­roni Swamp is a pro­tect­ed are and home to the na­tion’s na­tion­al bird the Scar­let Ibis, which eats crabs that live in the man­grove. An oil spill in that area could have far reach­ing con­se­quences.

"The Ca­roni Swamp re­al­ly a trea­sure trove,” Ram­bal­ly said. “My con­cern is that im­me­di­ate steps are tak­en. All the right proac­tive steps are tak­en to en­sure that we con­tain this oil. We mop up what­ev­er has al­ready been re­leased in­to the en­vi­ron­ment. And I am very con­cerned about where this spill has reached if it has ac­tu­al­ly reached any river­ine ar­eas, be­cause then that could spell cer­tain dis­as­ter for the wildlife.”

The EMA has not yet re­leased an of­fi­cial state­ment on the in­ci­dent.