Ao Phrao beach slowly getting its colour back
Greenpeace says measures employed by PTTGC were acceptable, but pushes for immediate mitigation process.
Thousands of volunteers and officials have been battling for more than 48 hours to remove crude oil that has swamped Koh Samet’s Ao Phrao beach – a mission that PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) says should be completed today.
The oil has been spreading in that area of the Gulf of Thailand after a PTTGC offshore platform sprung a leak on Saturday monring.
Sirasa Kantaratanakul, a Greenpeace campaigner who witnessed the clean-up operation at the beach yesterday, said the techniques used by PTTGC were acceptable but the firm needed to launch recovery plans as soon as possible in order to mitigate the damage.
PTTGC president Bowon Vongsinudom agreed, saying launching the mitigation plan immediately was necessary.
As of yesterday morning, about 10 tonnes of crude oil had been removed from the beach and some areas were relatively clean. Seawater in some spots had even changed from black to light brown, which was seen as a positive sign. However, the clean-up operation was disrupted at around noon yesterday due to heavy rain.
Ao Phrao beach, which is popular among divers thanks to the staghorn coral reefs, was hit by the leak at around 9pm on Sunday.
“This accident does not just affect PTTGC, but also the local community and the entire country. Hence, we’ve decided to join the cleaning-up mission and help our nation,” PTTGC staff Surapol Chaiyahong said. The 50-year-old joined the clean-up operation from Sunday night.
Apart from using pumps, buckets and shovels to remove the oil, the volunteers also deployed five high-power sprays to wash the oil off the rocks yesterday.
PTTGC is expected to transfer the tanks containing debris from the beach on several barges to its oil-refinery. It will also hire a third-party agency to evaluate the damage done to the environment and marine ecosystem before drawing up a recovery plan.
Meanwhile, though Bowon wondered about the cause of the leak, he did not say if he would order an investigation into the incident.
After the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency issued a satellite image of what looked like the spill heading for the mainland at Rayong’s Ban Pak Klong Klang area, Bowon said he launched an inspection of the area but found no crude oil.
“I don’t know what that is,” he said, adding that the spill was now limited to Ao Phrao and it had been contained so far.
