ATA: Come to Aruba … Sandy White Beaches … Forget About that Valero Oil spill

Aruba is constantly praised by the Aruban Tourism officials for its sandy white beaches and beautiful seas. Well it would appear that Valero just put a chink in that armor. Yet one more cause to worry for potential tourism losses.

 A broken pipe at the Valero oil refinery on Aruba caused undetermined amounts of oil to leak out into the ocean and eventually wash ashore. If the below picture is any idea as to how Aruba dealt with any kind of oil spill, one can only wonder the contamination and affect this spill had on the beaches, sand, water, vegetation and wild life. It continues to astound us, and it should not, how absolutely apathetic Aruba deals with serious issues. It is not an optical illusion in the picture below, oil is in the water and on the beach and they are dealing with it with shovels. Note to Aruba and Holland … please do not ever consider putting a nuclear reactor on Aruba.

Due to a broken pipe of oil-refinery Valero yesterday afternoon, a yet to be determined amount of oil leaked out into the sea.  The pipe had a length of 40 meters and was temporarily not in operation.  With the fast actions of four towboats with sprayers, a helicopter and other material, the biggest part of the oil could be prevented from washing ashore. 

Is that a “yet to be determined amount of oil” or a we are not going to report the amount of oil that was dumped into the ocean and then washed ashore?

At first, the oil-slick was moving towards the open sea, but it still reached the coast through an opening in the reef at Commandeurs Bay and caused the oil to wash ashore on the beach of Santa Largo.   Nobody knows when the oil started to leak out, but Valero received a call around 11:30 that oil was flooding the sea. 

Please tell us that an oil spill did not occur on Aruba and only 15 workers showed up with shovels and wheel barrows to deal with this incident. Please tell us that you do realize that there is more to an oil spill than just what you see in front of your nose.  Aruba has heard of ground and sand contamination? Where are the front end loaders? Where are the dump trucks? Exactly how are you removing the sand contaminated by the oil?

Nobody knows when the oil started to leak out, but Valero received a call around 11:30 that oil was flooding the sea.  According to spokesperson Davis Smith, the refinery would have normally noticed the oil spill much sooner.  “But in this case, we learned about it later, because the pipe in question was not in operation.  Fortunately, it was not hooked up to a ship; otherwise the pollution would have been much bigger.

Among one of the more comical comments was the one by spokesperson David Smith.

Smith says that the pollution was contained due to fast reactions. 

Fast reaction? You previously stated you had no idea when the leak even began. How can one have a fact reaction to an event that no one has any idea when it first started? I guess its not only the Tourism, government and police officials that like to spin on Aruba. Because Aruban officials would never spin a story that could affect their tourism with comments regarding and oil spill or future ones now would they?

Nobody knows when the oil started to leak out, but Valero received a call around 11:30 that oil was flooding the sea.  According to spokesperson Davis Smith, the refinery would have normally noticed the oil spill much sooner.

Protocol Concerning Co-operation in Combating Oil Spills in the Wider Caribbean Region

Read the full story from Amigoe: August 30, 2006 “Oil Pollution Due to Broken Pipe at Valero”.

After oil leaked out from a broken pipe on Monday, employees of Valero cleaned up that same day the oil slick that washed ashore on the beach of Santa Largo.

ARUBA – Due to a broken pipe of oil-refinery Valero yesterday afternoon, a yet to be determined amount of oil leaked out into the sea.  The pipe had a length of 40 meters and was temporarily not in operation.  With the fast actions of four towboats with sprayers, a helicopter and other material, the biggest part of the oil could be prevented from washing ashore. < ?xml:namespace prefix ="" o />

At first, the oil-slick was moving towards the open sea, but it still reached the coast through an opening in the reef at Commandeurs Bay and caused the oil to wash ashore on the beach of Santa Largo.    Nobody knows when the oil started to leak out, but Valero received a call around 11:30 that oil was flooding the sea.  According to spokesperson Davis Smith, the refinery would have normally noticed the oil spill much sooner.  “But in this case, we learned about it later, because the pipe in question was not in operation.  Fortunately, it was not hooked up to a ship; otherwise the polution would have been much bigger.  The oil that leaked out is the remnant that was still in the pipe.”

 

Valero workers started with the repair work immediately after they heard that the pipe was broken.  There was also a good collaboration between environmental inspection, police, and coastguard and also the premier was informed.  Smith says that the pollution was contained due to fast reactions. 

A group of 15 workers of the oil refinery arrived on the beach around 16:00 to clean up the oil that washed ashore.  The polluted coastal area was about 75 meters long.  Smith says that the oil pollution will be cleaned in the course of the day. As far as he is aware of, this is the first time since 2003 that such incident took place.  “The pollution was bigger and worse then.”