Oil residues are found on beaches in the Northeast

The State Secretariat for the Environment and Sustainability (Semas) attested to the appearance of oil on beaches in the Metropolitan Region of Recife, in Pernambuco, on Friday (26). The state government claims to have registered the presence of the oily material in six municipalities.

The committee that monitors the appearance of traces of oil on the coast of Pernambuco met earlier this week at the State Environment Agency (CPRH) to discuss the actions to be taken to mitigate ecological damage.

The affected places in Pernambuco, according to the teams that carry out the inspections in the literal, are the municipalities of Paulista, Tamandaré, São José da Coroa Grande, Goiana, Jaboatão dos Guararapes and Recife. The origin of the oil is still unknown.

In a statement, Semas announced the agreement for the expansion of the monitoring teams as of this Monday (29), which consists of providing a structure for the eventual need to contain oil stains with blankets and barriers, strengthening the stock of equipment protection (EPI), meeting with coastal municipalities to reinforce the guidelines for cleaning beaches and strengthening the communication of public utility and emergency reports.

“The samples of the materials collected are being analyzed at the Laboratory of Organic Compounds in Coastal and Marine Ecosystems (OrganoMAR), at UFPE [Universidade Federal de Pernambuco]. The samples collected by the Brazilian Navy were sent for analysis by the Instituto de Estudos Almirante Paulo Moreira (IEAPM),” the secretary said in a statement.

A new meeting of the Monitoring Committee is scheduled for next Thursday (1st) and will assess the evolution of the situation throughout the week.

This Tuesday (30), beaches in Salvador, Bahia, also recorded the presence of oil. The city hall of the Bahian capital says it suspects that the material is the product of the oil that arrived on the northeast coast in 2019.

Historic

Three years ago, oil slicks polluted beaches in the Northeast, which became known as one of the biggest environmental disasters recorded in Brazil. According to Ibama, more than 5,000 tons of oil were removed by the agency by February 2020.

It is estimated that around R$ 188 million were spent by the government to clean the beaches and ocean. In December 2021, the Federal Police investigation pointed to an oil tanker of Greek origin as being responsible for the oil spill at sea.