Some Extremely Bad News...

On August 11 the Motor Tanker Solar-1 Petron went down 16.5 nautical miles off the southwest coast of Guimaras (the neighboring island to Panay). The tanker leaked an estimated 50,000 gallons of bunker oil that has thus far affected 220 km of coastline, 1,100 hectares of mangroves, and the livelihood of nearly 10,000 people who rely on fishing. Last weekend I went to Nueva Valencia, which is considered the worst affected municipality, with fellow PCV’s Lloyd and Allan. The scene was truly gut-wrenching. Oil was covering everything on the shoreline and the smell was enough to make you sick to your stomach. We talked with some locals and the clean up crew about the problems. It was obvious a lot of work had been done from the piles of rice sacks filled with oil covered vegetation. Still, it will take years before this area can fully recover. When Allan asked one of the clean up crew about an area of rocks completely layered with oil, the response was, “This area now clean,” when it was painfully obvious to us more work was needed. It is truly tragic that this island was on the rebound from being one of the poorest provinces in the Philippines. It was specifically mentioned by the president as a priority province for tourism and infrastructure before this disaster.
As bad as this incident is, it has the potential to become even worse. The M/T Solar-1 is estimated to still contain 450,000 gallons of bunker oil 3000 feet deep in the Guimaras Strait. Philippine salvage teams are limited to depths of only 120 feet. Without foreign assistance to contain the oil, the tanker remains as a colossal environmental threat to a country which is considered to have the richest marine biodiversity in the world. Currently there is no assistance being provided by the U.S. and minimal from Japan, Malaysia, and Great Britain. The three of us have written to our senators and have also attempted to contact other organizations. We are not sure if any of this will do any good but we all felt helpless, angry, and distraught standing on that beach. I talked with my Sector Manager today to see if Peace Corps was going to get involved somehow. As of now it is doubtful they will send volunteers due to the health and safety issues concerned with chemical dispersants being used to treat the slick. This news is frustrating to say the least.
I guess I'm a bit lost for words on this matter...Here are some more pictures of the mess