Thai oil spill spreads on tourist island
Print Edition
Workers in white suits used buckets to scoop up globs of crude oil blackening the once white sands and emerald waters of a tourist island in Thailand’s eastern sea yesterday, as the oil slick continued to spread three days after leaking from a nearby pipeline.
Progress was being made on cleaning the oil that washed into Prao Bay on the west coast of Samet Island on Sunday night, though not fast enough, and rough seas and strong winds spread thin films of dispersed oil to a rocky bay farther north, said Rayong deputy governor Supeepat Chongpanish.
“The most urgent issue is to get rid of the oil from the bay as soon as possible,” Supeepat said. “The longer it stays on, the worse effect it will have on the people and environment.”
Provincial authorities have declared Prao Bay a disaster zone, but said that more popular beaches on the island’s east coast remain untouched. There is concern, however, that if not contained soon the slick could spread to beaches across the island and on the nearby mainland.
Authorities said it would take some time to assess the environmental damage.
About 50,000 liters of oil — about the amount contained in one and a half tanker trucks — spilled into the Gulf of Thailand off Rayong province on Saturday morning from a leak in a pipeline operated by PTT Global Chemical Plc, a subsidiary of state-owned oil and gas company PTT Plc.
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