Heritage Petroleum launched an investigation in Tarouba after residents reported hydrocarbon fumes and multiple illnesses.
Sascha Wil-son Se-nior Re-porter sascha.wil-[email protected] Her-itage Pe-tro-le-um has launched an in-ves-ti-ga-tion in-to an oil leak near Rang-ie Nanan Dri-ve, Tarou-ba, af-ter res-i-dents com-plained of hy-dro-car-bon fumes, while a moth-er and her 12-year-old daugh-ter sought med-ical at-ten-tion af-ter falling ill.. The com-pa-ny yes-ter-day as-sured that clean-up works were be-ing car-ried out as a pri-or-i-ty to re-move any con-t-a-m-i-nat-ed soil from the area, while air qual-i-ty test-ing and mon-i-tor-ing were on-go-ing as a pre-cau-tion-ary mea-sure to
en-sure safe lev-els were be-ing main-tained.. In a state-ment, Her-itage said the oil sight-ings were re-port-ed on Thurs-day and com-pa-ny rep-re-sen-ta-tives en-gaged near-by res-i-dents, keep-ing them in-formed, ad-dress-ing con-cerns and of-fer-ing time-ly sup-port.. The com-pa-ny added that the Min-istry of En-er-gy and En-er-gy In-dus-tries (MEEI), the En-vi-ron-men-tal Man-age-ment Au-thor-i-ty (EMA) and oth-er rel-e-vant par-ties and reg-u-la-to-ry agen-cies had been no-ti-fied and re-mained en-gaged in on-go-ing re-sponse ef-forts.. When CNC3 News vis-it-ed the Rang-ie Nanan Dri-ve
com-mu-ni-ty yes-ter-day, the scent was still lin-ger-ing.. Res-i-dents said there had been mul-ti-ple leaks over the last few months, but Thurs-day’s in-ci-dent was the worst.. They said the com-pa-ny in-di-cat-ed it was re-plac-ing aged lines with new ones.. Res-i-dents al-so said the com-pa-ny’s para-medics car-ried out med-ical checks on some res-i-dents.. Dawn Phillip-Rawl-ins, 46, and her 12-year-old daugh-ter, who is await-ing her Sec-ondary En-trance As-sess-ment re-sults, be-gan ex-pe-ri-enc-ing headaches and chest pains and went to
a health cen-tre.. They were lat-er re-ferred to San Fer-nan-do Gen-er-al Hos-pi-tal.. Phillip-Rawl-ins said she was treat-ed and dis-charged af-ter mid-night, but her daugh-ter re-mained at the hos-pi-tal un-til lat-er that morn-ing for ob-ser-va-tion.. Re-call-ing that the scent was un-bear-able, she said, “It start-ed mak-ing us feel sick.. You know, chest pain, headache, you know, a strong scent then.. And then we went to the health cen-tre, and they say it’s an ir-ri-ta-tion to the
chest.” She said hos-pi-tal staff car-ried out sev-er-al tests and pre-scribed an-tibi-otics.. “They say if we get worse, we come back and try and be out from around where have the oil.. But where can I go?. Be-cause it’s here I’m liv-ing.. I don’t know where I can leave my place to go.. So, I had to mon-i-tor my daugh-ter.” She said so far, nei-ther her son nor her hus-band had been af-fect-ed.. She said
she had no-ti-fied the com-pa-ny, which of-fered to send her to a pri-vate nurs-ing home, but she opt-ed to go to the hos-pi-tal in-stead.. If the scent per-sists, how-ev-er, Phillip-Rawl-ins said she would ap-pre-ci-ate tem-po-rary re-lo-ca-tion, as she re-mains con-cerned about her health.
Tarouba oil leak, Heritage Petroleum, hydrocarbon fumes, air quality monitoring, Rangie Nanan Drive, EMA MEEI