Duguid tasked with finding fresh purpose for old Mobil refinery

by Emmanuel Joseph

A quarter of a century after the Mobil Oil Refinery at Needham’s Point ceased operations amid evidence it was a source of crude oil contamination, the government has now embarked on a major project to finish clean up the abandoned site and put it to new use, Barbados TODAY has learned.

Senior Minister responsible for Town Planning Development and Infrastructure Dr William Duguid, seen as the government’s capital works enforcer, has been tasked by the Mia Mottley administration to find a solution to making the disused refinery property usable again.

“I have been asked to find a solution for it,” he confirmed to Barbados TODAY when contacted on Friday. “There is a company that has been doing some assessments to quantify the amount of residual stuff that is there, together with the tanks and the state of the tanks; and we are about to issue an RFP, a Request for Proposals, to have the area remediated.”

While holding the cost of the assessment and the timeline for its completion close to his chest, the senior minister said he was not aware of any areas apart from the old refinery site that remained contaminated.

However, he said: “It is in the best interest of the country to have the area remediated. So, I have taken on that as a project and I am making some progress with it. Yes, I can confirm that I have taken it on as a project and assessments have been done and are being done, and from the assessments, an RFP will be issued. I can only measure and from measuring, I can quantify. Until the measurements are done, I can’t quantify.”

The genesis of the former refinery’s contamination and fears of an environmental hazard next door to two prominent hotels – Hilton Resort Barbados and Radisson Aquatica Resort Barbados – and the popular Pebbles Beach can be found in the June 2002 final report of a scientific analysis conducted in preparation for the construction of a new Hilton, which was opened in 2005 on the site of the original hotel which was demolished in 1999.

The Canadian environmental remediation firm, Fiton Technologies Corporation, was retained by Needham’s Point Holdings Ltd. to apply its proprietary Fiton biocatalysis process to clean up contaminated soil and groundwater at Needham’s Point.

The report said the site that was “designated for the construction of a new Hilton Hotel, was contaminated with various petroleum products including crude, as well as fuel oils used in operating boilers in an old Hilton Hotel, now demolished, to make room for the new one”.

It was under the Owen Arthur administration that the 3 189-word report was prepared and through the then Ministry of Physical Development and Environment required that to protect the environment, the soils and groundwater at the site be cleaned up to Dutch ‘C’ cleanup standard or better. The Dutch ‘C’ cleanup standard is a globally renowned, rigorous environmental guideline that prioritises thorough soil and groundwater decontamination to maximum environmental safeguards. It is used as a benchmark for responsible land and water resource management.

Barbados TODAY was able to examine the report which stated that although it was not originally part of Fiton’s mandate, the firm conducted a site assessment to determine the full extent of contamination in terms of area and depth and ascertain if there were additional sources of contamination other than the leakage of fuel oils from the tanks used to operate the boilers at the old Hilton Hotel.

The analysts discovered that the underlying geological matter at the site is a porous soil matrix of coral, gravel, and loose/dense fine/medium sand that is highly “susceptible to migration of contaminants”.

“Contrary to all previous investigations, the [Fiton] assessment revealed that the contamination at the Hilton site originated from more than a single source,” according to the findings.

The document added: “Four pipelines ranging in diameter from [two inches] to [eight inches] were found to be buried underground. The pipelines originated from the former Mobil Refinery, traverse the Needham’s Point property boundary and run directly into the centre of the property. Three of the pipelines were full of dark heavy petroleum oils under pressure. The fourth contained thick highly viscous oily residues.”

The analysts also realised that two of the pipelines were found to be discharging their contents directly into the areas that were being cleaned up by the Fiton process, thus negating the cleanup efforts. One of these pipelines was broken off and the other was cut off and capped outside the fence of the Needham’s Point property.

It was also discovered that the nearby Barbados Military Cemetery at Gravesend and the Barbados Light and Power Company headquarters had been contaminated as well.

In their conclusion, the assessors said the cleanup levels achieved far exceeded the Dutch ‘C’ cleanup requirements, and that despite the Fiton team experiencing almost three weeks of delays for various reasons, the efficacy of its process was borne out by the fact that the entire cleanup was completed within three weeks of effective work time.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb