Rubis Managing Director for The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Gordon Craig has addressed calls for a boycott of that company head on, urging Marathon residents and Bahamians at large to examine "the facts" and stressing the breadth of the company's remediative efforts in the wake of a fuel leak at its Robinson Road gas station that affected Marathon residents and Cable Bahamas' offices next door.

The leak began in late 2012 and was discovered and stopped in early 2013 when it was discovered. Rubis claims to have immediately begun the process of remediating the effects of the leak, and the government hired consultants Black and Veatch to investigate the matter. The Black and Veatch report was completed in February 2014, but not publicized until a town meeting in Marathon some weeks ago.

The furor that has erupted following the shocking revelations contained in the report -- and the outrage over the fact that the government failed to make the report public for more than a year -- has culminated in some quarters in a call for Bahamians to boycott Rubis gas stations. Craig encouraged people to consider "the facts."

"If people are making claims or allegations -- if they don't have any scientific data, if they haven't tested the water, if they haven't tested the air, they are speculating, they are giving opinion. They don't know."

"...If anybody makes a (call) to boycott Rubis, or whatever -- because to us it's more important that they are reassured about their wellbeing -- that's (based on) speculation. If you have not done what Arcadis has done -- drilled holes in the ground, taken samples of water, sent them to a laboratory, get them analyzed -- they have done all of this, and they've been doing it ongoing for over two years now so we've got the facts and the data."

"So if someone makes an allegation, say how do you know?"

Arcadis is a U.S.-based environmental consultant hired by Rubis after the leak to implement an intensive clean-up and begin air and water evaluation. Craig also addressed the Black and Veatch report, and why Rubis had not pushed for its publication before now. He said the company was not trying to hide its activities.

"We had also not seen the Black and Veatch report. We saw it the same time the public saw it, so there's no reluctance. We're here (now). We're giving the scientific facts: we don't want to give opinion (or) speculation (about) who should have done what -- whatever. We're saying that we want to reassure the residents of Marathon that over two and a half years, work has been going on daily," he said. "Experts are doing it. Scientists are doing it on our behalf. There's no expense being spared, and these are the facts."

The Rubis executive also addressed accusations that the media is spreading "misinformation" about the leak and how events have fallen out in the aftermath. He answered carefully when pressed about allegations from various government -- or government-affiliated -- spokespersons that what is in the media is "misinformation."

"I believe that the media is reporting what is being said out there in the public sphere. We don't believe that the media have any objective of their own. My opinion -- and it is an opinion -- is the media reports what people are saying," Craig said.

"We do not comment on the government. We are here to give facts about what Rubis is doing, and what Arcadis is doing. We don't know what goes on in the government, and it is not our position or place to speculate or give opinion on that."

Arcadis Vice President Jorge Ramirez answered the critical question.

"Yes, at this point, the people are safe," he said. "There is a remediation system -- soil vapor extraction -- that is sucking air from the subsurface to (ensure that no) vapor could migrate to (the affected) properties. We did that before we concluded our investigations, but the latest results have confirmed that even if we didn't have that system, vapors couldn't migrate to the indoor air. That was an added layer of protection that we put in place to protect those citizens," Ramirez said.

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