Equipment to siphon oil from sunken ferry will arrive this week

quip ent that would be used to siphon off the oil fro the sun en ship M/V St. Thomas Aquinas will arrive fro apan on hursday, a hilippine oast uard official said yesterday

entral isayas istrict co ander o odore illia elad said there was a need to extract the re aining 1 0,000 liters of bun er oil, 0,000 liters of lube oil and 0,000 liters of diesel oil fro the ship to prevent further da age to the environ ent

o ravel, the owner and operator of the 11, 0 gross ton M/V St. Thomas Aquinas, has contracted alayan owage and ippon alvage to re ove the re aining oil fro the wrec age

hey would have to draw out the contents fro the Aquinas six tan s, though officials do not have an esti ate of the volu e of oil in the ship

tugboat of alayan owage reportedly fetched the equip ent fro apan last hursday and it would ta e the until ept to travel bac to ebu

“ hey would siphon the oil and it would be transferred to a container on board the tugboat and this would put an end to the oil spill, ” elad said

elad, however, clarified that the ept date of arrival of the equip ent was only tentative since it would depend on weather conditions

t the ti e of the accident on ug 16, Aquinas was reportedly carrying 1 0,000 liters of bun er oil, 0,000 liters of lube oil and 0,000 liters of diesel oil when it collided with a cargo vessel near ebu

ut elad said the danger of the oil spill has been “substantially reduced” since o r a v e l has plugged so e of the lea s in the sun en ship

“ e wrote to o and infor ed the that it is their responsibility to re ove the oil and to underta e onshore clean up hey have plugged the vents where the oil was seen co ing out but oil loo s for its own level here are still crevices that they are still trying to locate,” he added

ocal govern ent units and national govern ent agencies obili ed personnel and volunteers to clean up the ess left by the lea ing oil on the coastal areas