7 News Belize

7News On-Site, Investigating The Sarstoon Oil Spill
posted (July 5, 2017)

For the past two nights we've been reporting on the oil spill in Guatemala on July first - caused by a tanker truck that crashed not too far from the southwestern Belize - Guatemala border.  It caused thousands of gallons of oil to spill into the Rio Chacon which feeds into the Sarstoon River on the Guatemalan side of the border.  

Well, at around 4:00 this morning, our team left out from the city to accompany OCEANA and the Belize Territorial Volunteers down the Sarstoon to see if the spill had gotten into the Belize side of the river.  

They've been on the water all day and just got back to Punta Gorda at around 6:00. Here's what Will Mejia told Alex Courtenay about the importance of the expedition:

Will Mehia
“It’s always good to come all the way up the Sarstoon all the way to Cadenas and all the way to Gracias a Dios. And I think, you know, because of the events that has happened with the oil spill it was very important for us to ensure that no oil spilled over to the Belizean side. I mean, we can’t tell the river where Belize is and where Guatemala is but it was good to come here and verify and see and, you know, be assured that there was no oil flowing into the Belize side. This is a wakeup call for us to know that there are thousands and thousands of crude going back and forth within a few hundred feet of the Sarstoon River; I mean, you can see the river right behind us and you can hear the trucks and the Pan-American highway. There needs to be some kind of medication put in place to prevent any accident that should happen. We hope that no accident would happen but accidents do happen. The fact is this river flows into the Gulf of Honduras; there is an amazing birdlife down there, there is amazing fishery down there and if oil should spill into those areas it will affect thousands of people, not only on the Belize side but also on the Guatemala and Honduras side.â€￾

Our team is on the road back to Belize now and we'll have the full story of our findings tomorrow.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize