Lima (Reuters) – The Peruvian government declared this Thursday (26) an environmental emergency in a northern coastal area, where the state oil company Petroperu spilled a shipment of oil into the waters of the Pacific Ocean last weekend.
A ship carrying out pre-boarding maneuvers caused the spill on Saturday at a terminal at the Peruvian Talara refinery, in northern Peru.
Petroperu did not say how much oil spilled into the sea, but Peru’s environmental body OEFA said in a preliminary report that the spill affected about 10,000 square meters of seawater surface, and the Environment Ministry said it reached at least seven beaches, as well as local wildlife.
Peru’s Environment Ministry said the 90-day emergency aims to “guarantee the sustainable management of the area and the execution of recovery and remediation work to mitigate environmental contamination.”
Petroperu said on Wednesday it had deployed cleaning brigades from the time of the spill and coordinated with the fishermen’s union and local authorities so that local economic and tourist activities could continue normally.
Petroperu said in a statement that it maintains cleaning personnel, boats and drones in the affected area to “carry out preventive monitoring to ensure early detection of any eventuality.”
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Local authorities said the spill damaged coastal plants and animals such as crabs, while fishermen say the spill prevented them from working.
“We haven’t been able to go out for six days,” fisherman Martin Pasos told local radio station RPP. “It’s chaos, what happened in Lobinhos. So far, we have not received any response from the oil company.”
