Farmers assured spills ‘won’t happen again’

A three-million-dollar project to repair oil pipeline damage in the community of Pegwell, Christ Church, is being overshadowed by residents’ concerns of a long-standing environmental catastrophe.

While a senior official of the Barbados National Terminal Company Ltd (BNTCL) has assured the residents oil damage to their farms and water will not occur again, many of the victims voiced concerns about a loss of income, lack of compensation and contaminated wells during a town hall meeting Friday evening.

“We want to ensure what happened in Gibbons will never happen again,” technical operations superintendent Terrence Straughn told community members of Pegwell. Straughn and consultant Barry Mayers, while empathising with residents, noted the environmental damage could be traced to prior ownership of the oil pipeline and not the state-owned oil company.

Farmer Wesley Nurse and other residents traced the damage from oil spillage to between 500 and 600 acres of land to Shell oil company, a prior operator of the pipeline. (HH) 

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