TELDE, Spain, September 6 ------ An oil spill off the Spanish island of Gran Canaria forced local authorities to close several beaches in the popular holiday destination and declare an environmental emergency.
Emergency services said on social messaging platform X that they were alerted on Wednesday night of the accidental spill during a vessel's refueling stop at La Luz port of Las Palmas, the island's capital. It involved a maximum of 3 metric tons of IFO 180, which is designated as a Very Low Sulphur Oil. The name of the vessel was not disclosed.
According to the president of Gran Canaria's governing council, Antonio Morales, the oil slick was approximately 2 km (1.2 miles) long and 400 m (1,300 feet) wide. Morales said the slick was moving south towards the neighboring Telde municipality, pushed by winds. Currents were so far preventing it from affecting a nearby drinking water production plant, but it was still unclear whether the oil would reach land. "This contamination sadly has a considerable magnitude, which is why so many resources have been deployed," Telde's mayor Juan Antonio Pena told Reuters. "Something like this is preventable. We will demand accountability because it harms the environment and we cannot allow it to ever happen again," Pena said.
Source: gmanetwork.com
Comments