Chennai: ‘The quantity of oil spill stated is an estimation of the sludge collected. The exact amount of the spill can only be stated by MT Dawn Kancheepuram,” said the Commander, Coast Guard Region (East) Inspector General, Rajan Bargotra on Friday.
Six days after the oil slick floated along the Chennai Coast following the collision of two merchant ships — MT Dawn Kancheepuram and M T B W Maple, senior officials from Coast Guard and Chennai Port addressed the media on Friday.
Disclosing the details of the accident, he said, “The information about the collision — which happened at 2 nautical miles from the coastline — reached us two hours after the accident. We had to address the initial concerns — safety of the ship and the potential hazard of oil spill.”
Twelve kilometers of the total 74-kilometre coast between Ennore and Mahabalipuram has suffered oil pollution. In all, 250 metres of R K Kuppam is worst affected, said the official.
Announcing to complete the oil retaining operation within three weeks, Rajan Bargotra said, “We did not use chemicals near the shore because we can’t use one pollutant to get rid of another.”
The merchant carriers were in the possession of 32,000 kiloliters of fuel. We had to be certain of averting a disaster, he said. To neutralise the oil spill in the deep sea, Coast Guard officials are using Oil spill Dispersant (OSD) — which contains one part of a chemical and three parts of seawater. It is understood that the procedure is carried out, without mapping the ecologically sensitive zones on the coast.
“OSD binds the hydrocarbon molecules of the oil to increase the density of the particles. It subsequently reaches the ocean bed,” said a coast guard official.
“A team of officials from Directorate General, Shipping led by Captain Muthali is conducting a probe already to find out the lapses that resulted in collision,” said a DG shipping official to this newspaper. A report will be sent to the shipping ministry.
