Authorities in the South American nation of Ecuador have confirmed that an oil spill released about 1,200 barrels into the Pacific, contaminating kilometres of oceanfront.
Rafael Armendariz, transportation manager for the state-owned oil firm Petroecuador, confirmed on Thursday that the incident took place a day earlier when a tank in the marine terminal in the port of Esmeraldas surpassed its capacity.
“It is estimated that around 1,200 barrels were spilled,” Armendariz said at a press conference. “Not all of them fell onto the beach. A part was contained by the pool inside of Petroecuador’s facilities.”
About half of the crude spilled out of Petroecuador’s facilities, spreading across about 4km (2.5 miles) of Las Palmas Beach, a popular destination for recreation and tourists.
An investigation into the cause of the spill is taking place. General Manager Ramon Correa said problems like negligence, mechanical damage or sabotage could not yet be ruled out.
Esmeraldas is about 150km (93 miles) south of Ecuador’s northern border with Colombia. The company says it has controlled 90 percent of the spill’s impact on land and 60 percent at sea through initial cleanup efforts.
Environmental Minister Jose Davalos told the TV station Ecuavisa the spill could affect wildlife such as birds and crustaceans. He expected the cleanup to take about a week.
Davalos noted that he is awaiting an assessment from Petroecuador before deciding on appropriate penalties.
You think we are a failure ? Say that to the dinosaurs : they had millions of years and never built Rockets to prevent asteroids from destroying them. We did it in just a few thousand years.
I think he just meant that we are a failure to our own ideals, for such a smart species we failed to be responsible or keep these companies accountable. Lets say that dinosaurs had millions of years of existence and we achieved more in thousands of years, but wouldn’t it be a shame if our achievements is what led us to our own extinction? Icarus’s fall would be nothing in comparison to ours, and that in itself can be considered a failure.
Constructive criticism of our own species is very good … I don’t want it to become a social disease. Young generations have mental issues and anxiety looking toward the future.
Well, I totally agree with you. I somewhat fall into that category as well (younger-ish generation anxious for the future).
yea… something like this. We are the smartest on this planet I guess, but not smart enough to punish those responsible for poisoning and destroying the world we live in. Or at least destroy these companies with no possibility for them to revive themselves with different logos and slogans. Why the forgiveness for such acts of greed and no regard for biological life? Those running these companies and the governments that protect them at all cost don’t have time to care about you while they count the dollars they earned by taking our human rights away from under our noses.
