THE amount of oil present at the Lauis Ledge in Talisay City after the sinking of a cargo ship there last Sunday exceeded the allowable standard, said an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Central Visayas yesterday.
The DENR-Central Visayas’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) said that the oil collected in three areas at Lauis Ledge in Talisay City exceeded the standard allowable limit of three milligrams (mg) per meter.
But Mair Angelie Barrot, EMB-Central Visayas head executive assistant, told VoxPop Cebu that they need to conduct a second round of water sampling at Lauis Ledge, as they want to get a conclusive finding on the alleged oil spill that occurred there.
Barrot said that based on the results of their sampling, they found out that the water sample they secured from the first sampling area yielded oil residue of about seven mg per meter.
In the second sampling station, the water sample they collected there yielded oil residue of eight mg per meter.
While at the third sampling station, the water sample shown oil residue of four mg per meter.
The EMB official said they conducted the sampling last Tuesday, just two days after MV Fortuner sank.
But Barrot clarified that their findings cannot be considered as conclusive and cannot prove if the oil residue found on the samples they collected are really from the sunken MV Fortuner.
She said they need to conduct a second round of sampling to determine a conclusive result.
Barrot said they were told by officials of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) that Lauis Ledge is considered as a designated anchorage area for ships.
“It’s possible that the oil accumulated there may have been from other ships,” Barrot said.
Last Sunday, MV Fortuner, which came from Mindanao, was going towards Cebu City when it sank in Lauis Ledge, just a few miles from Talisay City’s coastline.
The vessel’s 22 crew members survived the ordeal.
DENR and PCG officials have been monitoring Lauis Ledge for a possible oil spill as the vessel was reportedly carrying 4,300 liters of special fuel.
