Thousands of people clean up Balikpapan Bay after oil spill

Balikpapan, E Kalimantan (Antaranews Kaltim) - Waters in the Bay of Balikpapan in East Kalimantan have been clean again but only after thousand people were involved in the cleaning up efforts following an oil spill.

Waters before Semayang port looked green and bright again with no oil slick being seen, state-owned oil company PT Pertamina`s regional manager for communication and corporate social responsibility Yudi Nugraha said here on Thursday.

"We have deployed no less than one thousand people in addition to volunteers, university students, environment communities and activists (to clean the waters," he said.

He said Pertamina sent 15 vessels and divided the spill zone into four and assigned one team to clean it up.

The first zone covers Jetty 1 Pertamina area up to Kampung Baru while the second zone Semayang port area, the third Monoera coastal area and the fourth waters around Balikpapan Bay.

Vacuum truck completed with oil boom and oil spill dispersant was used to clean the first zone while vacuum truck and oil absorbent were used in the second zone.

Vacuum truck was also used to clean Semayang port to the Bay area up to Plaza Balikpapan on the side of Makassar Strait area.

Left slicks found in Penajam and south of Balikpapan Bay were cleaned using oil spill dispersant.

"To clean up offshore waters we use oil skimmer and tug boat," Yudi explained.

Oil skimmer is used to absorb oil after itbis localized with oil boom and sprayed with dispersant.

Manually people in Kampung Atas Air Margasari were able to collect thousands of liters of crude oil that were later taken to be processed as hazardous stuff.

"We conducted clean-up operation since Monday afternoon after the city administration declared oil spill emergency," chief of Margasari village said.

Pertamina in cooperation with Pertamina hospital opened a command post and provided a health team to serve people with health services.

Hundreds of people from various elements moved in the coast of Makassar Strait to clean the area using buckets from oil slicks.

"We called all communities, students and activists to work together to clean up the coast, our coast," activist Husein Suwarno from Balikpapan Bay Saviour Forum said.

The East Kalimantan police command has aldo deployed hundreds of its personnel to participate in the clean up efforts.

Pertamina also received help from Pertamina Zhulu Mahakam, Pertamina EP Asset V, Chevron and Petrosea.

The oil spill, which occurred earlier on Saturday, had caused a fire. Four people were killed, one person was injured, and one person was reportedly missing.

The fire was detected at 11 a.m. local time, and by noon, it had been extinguished by local authorities.

The oil spill in Balikpapan Bay waters is thought to have originated from Pertamina oil installations in Balikpapan.

The oil spill was caused due to a broken oil pipeline owned by PT. Pertamina. The oil spill affected two areas in East Kalimantan province, namely Balikpapan and Penajam Pasir Utara. (*)