7 News Belize

Training For A Spill
posted (December 9, 2014)
A National Oil Spill Training workshop started today and facilitators say that there is hope beyond the 'spill'. The training focuses on strategies to prevent oil spills, to recover oil in the event of a spill and to ensure the safety of people and the environment.

Belize has not had a catastrophic oil spill but there have been several incidents that posed serious threats to the environment. One of those incidents happened in January of 2007. An oil tanker was punctured in Orange Walk draining hundreds of gallons of oil unto the street.

Elliott Taylor, representative for the International Maritime Organization on the Oil Spill response training, told us how this training can minimize these incidents.

Elliott Taylor, Rep. International Maritime Organization on Oil Spills
"We are going to be looking at many different aspects of preparedness and emergency response starting out with oil and oil properties, what happens with oil when its spills. How it changes. We will be looking at containment strategies; how do you contained it, whether it's on land or whether it's in rivers, streams or offshore. Sometimes if you can't contain successfully one hundred percent, maybe there is other strategies that you can consider in some areas such as dispersant or In situ burning. We are also be going into the field. We are going to look at a facility. We are going to go at a pool of facilities, look at operations, what are some of the prevention and controls around spills, so that it don't happen or if it does happen, you can minimize it reaching and impacting the environment."

The workshop ends on Thursday with the practical session.

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