[UPDATED] Palo Seco residents call for compensation for oil leak

Palo Seco residents are calling for compensation after oil from a nearby "faulty line" belonging to state-owned Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd, leaked into their private property.

At least ten people from Webber Trace said they are directly affected.

They do not have a figure in mind for the compensation, but hope the company gives one as soon as possible.

When Newsday visited on Tuesday afternoon, the spill had already been cleaned up.

The directly affected people live in three houses on the same property.

Mark Alexander, who lives in one of the houses, said he saw black-coloured water filling the drains and stagnating in the yard after rain fell last Thursday night.

Whenever heavy rain falls, he said, the yard floods.

Initially, he assumed his 80-year-old mother Dorine, who lives in the house in front of his, had thrown oil to stop insects from crawling into her home.

He later realised it was a leak from a line in a bushy area at the back of the property.

"Heritage workers came on Sunday night and did some work. They told me not even to light a cigarette. On Friday, more oil came down together with the rain. On Sunday, it was the same thing," Alexander said.

"We inhaled a lot of toxic fumes. Our eyes were burning."

He lives downstairs, while a family of five, including a two-month-old baby, lives upstairs. Owing to the fumes, relatives took the baby elsewhere at nights.

Alexander, who spoke on behalf of the affected residents, said clean-up work on Tuesday started at around 8 am and ended around 3 pm.

"This is not the first time this happened. A few years ago, it happened, and Petrotrin (now Heritage) compensated us. Whenever it had spills here, we (residents) never had issues with them. They would come and deal with the issues," Alexander said.

"Up to now, no one from the company offered as much as a glass of milk. I spoke to an official from the legal department who claimed that an air quality test found there are no toxic fumes."

A release on Wednesday from Heritage said workers responded to reports of oil seen in the yards of three residents from Weber Trace.

The company dispatched a spill response team to the location.

"Our inspection determined the source of the leak to be a corroded flowline. The oil had leaked into about 300 feet of a nearby drain as well as a dasheen bush patch belonging to one of the residents," the release said.

"The leaks were secured, and clean-up activities were executed with a view to ensuring the health and safety of the residents."

The release said the drain was scraped free of contaminated soil. The team also recovered the free oil.

The team washed the concrete areas of oil and performed air quality testing throughout the process.

"All air quality readings were well within the acceptable parameters.

It is expected that due to rainfall, some leaching of oil will occur, " the release said.

"As such, Heritage continues to monitor the area for this as well as air quality. In keeping with its emergency response plan, Heritage has an oil spill containment crew on standby to immediately respond should it become necessary."

This story has been adjusted to include additional details. See original post below.

Palo Seco residents are calling for compensation after oil from a nearby "faulty line" belonging to state-owned Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd, leaked into their private property.

At least ten people from Webber Trace said they are directly affected.

They do not have a figure in mind for the compensation, but hope the company gives one as soon as possible.

When Newsday visited on Tuesday afternoon, the spill had already been cleaned up.

The directly affected people live in three houses on the same property.

Mark Alexander, who lives in one of the houses, said he saw black-coloured water filling the drains and stagnating in the yard after rain fell last Thursday night. Whenever there is heavy rainfall, he said, the yard floods.

Initially, he assumed his 80-year-old mother Dorine, who lives in the house in front of his, had thrown oil to stop insects from crawling into her home.

He later realised it was a leak from a line in a bushy area at the back of the property.

"Heritage workers came on Sunday night and did some work. They told me not even to light a cigarette. On Friday, more oil came down together with the rain. On Sunday, it was the same thing," Alexander said.

"We inhaled a lot of toxic fumes. Our eyes were burning."

He lives downstairs, while a family of five, including a two-month-old baby, lives upstairs.Owing to the fumes, relatives took the baby elsewhere at nights.

Alexander, who spoke on behalf of the affected residents, said clean-up work on Tuesday started at around 8 am and ended around 3 pm.

"This is not the first time this happened. A few years ago, it happened, and Petrotrin (now Heritage) compensated us. Whenever it had spills here, we (residents) never had issues with them. They would come and deal with the issues," Alexander said

"Up to now, no one from the company offered as much as a glass of milk. I spoke to an official from the legal department who claimed that an air quality test found there are no toxic fumes."

Contacted for comment, an official promised to issue a media statement.