Clean up operations in Muthurajawela will take atleast a week

Colombo (News1st) - The Marine Environment Protection Authority reports that the operation to clean up the coast of Muthurajawela following a major oil spill will take up to a week to complete. The oil spill was caused by a leak in the pipeline transporting fuel from a buoy in Muthurajawela to the Kollannawa storage complex of CPSTL. The leak in the pipeline was identified when 35,000 metric tonnes of furnace oil was being unloaded from a ship which arrived from the United Arab Emirates. Reports say that about 25 metric tonnes of furnace oil had leaked into the ocean While authorities acted promptly to repair the leak, the damage had already been done to the coast and surrounding sea area. A joint operation was conducted by Sri Lanka Navy, Sri Lanka Army and Coast Guard to extract the oil on Monday (Sept 10) According to the General Manager of Marine Environment Protection Authority Dr. Terney Pradeep Kumara, it will take the biodiversity of that part of the ocean, at least 2 to 5 years to return to normalcy.