Human rights group claims Marathon residents may still be at risk

Wed, Aug 31st 2016, 02:59 PM

The Grand Bahama Human Rights Association (GBHRA) claimed yesterday that dozens of people who live near the Rubis gas station on Robinson Road and Old Trail Road have yet to be switched from well water to city water despite ground contamination concerns over a controversial gas spill in late 2012.

The association called on the government to take the health and safety of Marathon residents seriously, insisting that every household near the Rubis gas station should be connected to public water supply, and those wells must be tested for contaminants.

"Though the government has repeatedly insisted that residents of the area are now all safe, it has come to light that many were never switched to the public water supply as promised with some claiming the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) demanded that they pay for their own conversion," GBHRA said in a statement.

"This is totally unacceptable.

"After keeping the public in the dark... about the spill and the associated health risks the government has a duty to ensure that all Marathon residents are out of harm's way.

"This includes providing them with a safe and reliable water supply free of charge."

The spill occurred in late 2012/early 2013, according to consultants Black & Veatch.

In April 2013, WSC Senior Manager of Commercial Operations Bradley Darville said Rubis was absorbing the cost for a group of Robinson Road and Old Trail Road residents to be connected to WSC's network.

New connections range from $557.50 to $625 per home.

At the time, Darville said four homes using water wells in the area and another dozen homes with existing WSC connections, but were using water wells intermittently, were fully connected to public water supply.

The government received a report into the spill in February 2014, but sat on it for more than a year.

The Black and Veatch report concluded that residents who live near the gas station and people who work in adjacent buildings were exposed to chemicals that could create health risks.

It was released to the public in April 2015, a day after outraged residents expressed their disapproval at a town meeting.

In May 2015, Rubis officials said based on testing households earlier that year the affected area was "small, has been contained and has not expanded" since June 2013.

Late last year, the government announced that residents of Marathon had a "clean bill of health" based on remediation efforts, screening, samples taken in 2014 and 2015, and the assessments of international bodies.

But GBHRA said some ground wells in the area remain untested and it appears the government's "much-publicized favorable findings were based on a conveniently limited area of investigation that totally ignored the homes of many residents".

"While this may be politically expedient for the government it could spell disaster for the people of Marathon," the association said.

"Families still forced to use ground water may be at risk of exposure to extremely harmful toxins, including Benzene, a well established cause of aggressive cancer in humans.

"The substance can lead to a host of other serious illnesses as well, including anemia and mutations in newborns.

"And while initial health screenings were conducted, the necessary and promised follow-ups never took place and many residents say they are still awaiting the results from the preliminary round of tests."

The GBHRA added that the government must ensure periodic health screening for residents who reside in the impacted zone.

In a document titled "Report To The Nation: The Oil Spill in Marathon", the ministries of health and the environment said based on the health screening there was "no significant adverse effects on the persons tested".

Royston Jones Jr., Guardian Staff Reporter

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