The Ministry of Environment fined Falconbridge Dominicana (Falcondo) RD$7.6 million for damage caused after a fuel spill from one of its pipelines in the municipality of Haina. The ministry also ordered that the company shutdown the pipeline from the docks in Haina to its facility in Bonao until all of the repairs are completed.
According to Environment Minister Francisco Dominguez Brito, the ministry is imposing strict guidelines to ensure the company cleans up the site where the spill occurred and takes measures to prevent future spills.
In a press release, Dominquez Brito is quoted saying that technicians from the ministry have visited the affected areas and verified the evidence of the environmental violations. The environmental assessment by the Ministry showed “strong odor of hydrocarbons in the inhabited area, soil contaminated with hydrocarbons, a lack of signage indicating the routes of the pipeline, a lack of information regarding risks associated with the material being transported by the pipeline and finally, a lack of implementation of preventive plans.”
Last August 2017, according to the Ministry, an oil spill occurred and the company should have taken a series of measures. The Ministry of Public Health staff also reported to the Ministry of the Environment on health aspects.
Gabriel Rodriguez, the executive director of Falconbridge, told the editors of Diario Libre that the company had acted promptly both with the removal of the spilled fuel oil as well as with the persons possibly affected in the area where the spill occurred. He said: “It is not that we reject that people might be getting sick, it is plain and simply that there is no way that the incident in question, the fuel oil contamination of 15 lineal meters of a creek in Quita Sueño in Haina, can cause the health effects in the time frame that has been cited, because of a very fast response (by the company).”
Rodríguez told the editors that Falcondo has tested the air and they have detected no type of contamination that could affect people. He noted that they had talked to the residents in the area and offered to relocate them if they so wished and he added that this would be a decision made by each affected family.
Falcondo alleges that their pipeline was deliberately damaged by people living in the area and they are gathering evidence to support this allegation.
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Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Listin Diario
Diario Libre
27 September 2017
