Peru declares emergency after oil spill

LIMA－Peru declared an environmental emergency on Saturday to battle an oil spill caused by freak waves from a volcanic eruption in the South Pacific.

The eruption of an undersea volcano near Tonga on Jan 15 unleashed by that tsunami around the Pacific and as far away as the United States.

In Peru, the oil spill near Lima has fouled beaches, killed birds and harmed the fishing and tourism industries.

With its 90-day decree, the government said it plans "sustainable management" of 21 beaches tarred by 6,000 barrels of oil that spilled from a tanker ship unloading at a refinery the day of the eruption.

One aim of the decree is to better organize the various agencies and teams working in the aftermath of the disaster, the Ministry of the Environment said.

The government has called it one of the "most important ecological disasters" on the coast in recent years.

The resolution was approved by Minister of the Environment Ruben Ramirez, who heads the Environmental Crisis Committee that is trying to mitigate the effects of the oil spill.

The spill occurred when the tanker was unloading at one of the terminals of La Pampilla Refinery, operated by Repsol, in the province of Callao, in neighboring Lima.

Repsol reported on Friday that the cleanup of the areas affected by the oil spill should be completed by the end of next month, and that 1,580 cubic meters of contaminated sand had been removed.

Beaches affected

The spill has affected the beaches of Costa Azul, Ventanilla, Cavero and Playa Grande, among others, as well as 512 hectares in the Guano Islands, Islets and Capes National Reserve System, and more than 1,700 hectares in the Ancon Reserved Zone.

Crews have been working for days to clean up the spill.

However, the ministry said it issued the emergency decree because the crude still in the water was continuing to spread, reaching 40 kilometers from the spot of the original spill.

Over the short term Repsol is responsible for emergency cleanup operations, the ministry said.

The refinery is in the town of Ventanilla, near Lima.

In addition to the fishing industry, Peru's tourism sector has taken a major blow, including everything from restaurants to beach umbrella rentals to food and beverage sales.

"In a normal season, between January and March (during Peru's summer) 5 million people visit the affected beaches," Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Roberto Sanchez said. "The economic loss is immense."

Thousands of jobs had been affected and the tourism sector "mortally wounded", he said.

On the pier in the town of Ancon north of Lima, only the crew members of larger vessels that fish on the high seas continued to work, while the fish stalls were empty, because there are no longer any customers.

"The fish more than anything comes out with the smell of oil, and people don't buy it," said Giovana Rugel, 52, who sells fish at the entrance to the Ancon pier. "They don't eat it because they are afraid of getting poisoned by it, by the oil spill."

Fishers and locals who live off the sea and tourism have staged protests over the sudden loss of their livelihood.

Sanchez estimated on Saturday that economic losses total more than $50 million with all sectors combined.

Agencies - Xinhua