More than six months after the government led health screening for residents of Marathon in the aftermath of a underground gas spill, several Old Trail Road residents said yesterday they feel forgotten and expressed misgivings about the government's announcement that there are no long-term health risks to those residents.

Consultants Black and Veatch concluded in a report that residents who live near the Rubis Bahamas Limited station on Robinson Road and Old Trail Road, and people who work in adjacent buildings were exposed to chemicals that could create health risks.

The government sat on that report for more than a year. It finally released it after residents expressed outrage at a town meeting last April. The government subsequently expressed regret for failing to release the report sooner. It announced late last year that residents of Marathon had a "clean bill of health" based on remediation efforts, screenings, samples taken in 2014 and 2015, and the assessment of international bodies.

Ted Forbes, owner of Picture 21 Studio, acknowledged the government's statement, but suggested that its handling of the spill, particularly the report, damaged the government's credibility on the matter.

"How can we settle on the information?" he asked. "I think the whole thing was not serious. There has been not a word on it since the screenings. And the screenings were not set up properly in the first place."

Forbes, who lives with his 23-year-old daughter, said before being connected to city water he and his daughter used the ground water to bathe in and wash food.

In a document titled "Report To The Nation: The Oil Spill in Marathon", the ministries of health and environment pledged to "continue testing and monitoring for the next several years under the advisement of international environmental consultants" and provide regular updates to the public.

The document said based on the health screenings there was "no significant adverse effects on the persons tested". But Lillian Russell, a resident of Old Trail Road for over 40 years, who was among the residents who were tested last year, said no officials have contacted her about further testing.

Despite the 'clean bill of health' statement, Russell said she is hoping to sell her home and move out of Marathon because of concerns about fumes and a potential spill in the future.

"The testing was a waste of time as it would not prove anything, but like everything else we still got tested" Russell said. "... The government should be accountable for what it said it would do. Rubis has also gone back to being silent. Who knows what's going on."

Haslemere Road resident Trevor Sangster also insisted that without further testing in the months and years to come long-term health affects may go undetected until the eleventh hour.

"Don't just test once and just drop the ball there," he said. "Come back and let us know what's going on. We have been left out of the loop since day one and we don't know what's happening. They need to say x, y, and z is being done. As a community we ought to know."

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