Green Line: Cleanup Operations Must Start Now
Beirut, 15 August 2006
As long as the oil remains in the environment, the damage to marine life and human health will continue to increase tremendously. At the small fisherman port in Delieh, Beirut, Green Line experts voiced their concern during a press conference announcing the start of the oil spill clean up operations1.
After exactly one month after the spill occurrence, no cleanup operations have started yet, as evident in the fishermen port of Delieh. Consequently, the oil has settled deeper into the sand, has been absorbed by the rocks, scattered further into the sea, and settled on the seabed. The longer the oil remains in the environment, the more it will disintegrate into its constituents, entering marine ecosystems, and bio-accumulating into live tissues. All of this increases the danger of this oil spill, and sets it as one of the most dangerous oil spills in the history of the Mediterranean, comparable to the infamous Exxon-Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989.
The speakers at the press conference were Wael Hmaidan, the Green Line Oil Spill Working Group Coordinator, and Ali Darwish, a Green Line member. Ali Darwish presented Green Line’s position regarding the oil spill. On the other hand, Wael Hmaidan summarized the assessment and cleanup processes that needed to be carried out.
Green Line began conducting assessments of the oil spill, two days after the Jiyeh power plant was hit. Through the assessments, base maps of the polluted Lebanese coasts were produced, as well as details of the magnitude of pollution of each coastal area. Other than the assessment operations, Green Line is also working on cleanup plans and scientific and economic research of the oil spill in order to determine the real cost of the damage and how to minimize its impact to the best extent possible.
Green Line demands that the cleanup operations be carried out as soon and as fast as possible. Green Line also puts the primary responsibility of this spill on Israel, and urges the international community to impose all pressure on it to pay the cost of this crime and other crimes against humanity.
Notes to editor:
(*) The Israeli air raid on July 15th, on the Jiyeh power plant, 30km south of Beirut, resulted in the biggest environmental disaster ever to hit the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Around 15,000 tons of heavy fuel oil was released into the sea, causing the contamination of more than 100km of Lebanese coast North of Jiyeh. The Syrian coastline around the port city of Tartus has also been hit, while oil slicks continue on moving slowly towards Turkey, Cypurs or Greece, depending on wind and current conditions.
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