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Oil Spill on a River,
Co. Antrim
What Occurred?
A Co. Antrim homeowner only became aware of an issue when someone from Northern Ireland Environment Agency arrived at his property. A spillage of home heating oil had been traced from a nearby watercourse to his property. Upon investigation his tank fittings wee found to be leak, but since the tank was located behind some sheds it wasn’t obvious. This resulted in an oil spill on a river in Co. Antrim.
Solution
The priority at the start was to control the impact to the nearby water Watercourse course. A response team from Gaea attended on a Friday evening and Saturday morning to perform an emergency response. It was found that the leaking fittings had caused a sizeable plume at the source property which migrated off-site via some land drainage. The land drainage ran below ground for a considerable distance before discharging into the watercourse. Once approved Gaea were able to start removing the contamination at the source, insuring no further impact to the watercourse could occur. Whilst this was undertaken the watercourse was continually attended and monitored. Once the land based contamination was fully remediated a final clean up of the nearby watercourse as undertaken.
Outcome
The property was reinstated to a very high standard with no further risk being posed to the nearby water course. The NIEA who were initially threatening prosecution were totally satisfied with the response, communication and work.
