Oil spill contaminates wildlife, beaches and protected areas in Peru

The central coast of Peru is cleaning up after a catastrophe due to a large oil spill on Jan. 15, 2022. The environmental emergency occurred after a pipe ruptured between an Italian oil tanker, the Mare Doricum, and  the refinery of La Pampilla, owned by Spanish oil major Repsol.

On Jan. 17, Rubén Ramírez, Peru’s then-minister of the environment, spoke of “a spill of 6,000 barrels of oil.” However, at a Jan. 28 press conference, the government announced that the total amount of crude oil that spilled into the ocean was nearly double that initial estimate.

“The new estimate is 11,900 barrels,” said Alfredo Mamani, the vice minister of strategic natural resources development. Mamani added that “there are 4,225 barrels recovered, but it is an emulsion of water and oil; it is not net [oil].”

Oil-covered birds and seals, among other marine species, were some of the evidence of the magnitude of the environmental disaster, which occurred along the coast of Ventanilla district in the port of Callao outside Lima, where the refinery is located. The effects of the oil spill have even spread to the protected area known as the Guano Islands, Islets, and Capes National Reserve System.

At the Jan. 17 press conference, Ramírez said Repsol could face a fine equivalent to more than $37 million.

“There will be a sanction according to the action or omission that the company has committed,” Ramírez said. He added that it’s important to note that Repsol did not report the incident in a timely manner  and that the company failed to describe the magnitude of the disaster, alluding to Repsol’s initial claim that only seven barrels of oil had been spilled.

Miriam Alegría, the president of Peru’s Environmental Evaluation and Enforcement Agency (OEFA in Spanish), said that drone flyovers determined that the oil slick had covered 18,000 square meters (194,000 square feet) of the ocean.

This is not the first environmental incident involving the refinery of La Pampilla. On at least three other occasions, according to the OEFA, La Pampilla has been fined a total of nearly $230,000 for infractions committed in 2013, 2016 and 2018.

The impact on natural protected areas

The photos of the wild animals during the first days of the spill showed some of the devastating impacts. There were seals covered in oil crawling through the sand, and birds practically immobilized by black oil blanketing them from head to toe. Many of them were rescued by people who found them on beaches in Ventanilla, like Costa Azul Beach, Bahía Blanca Beach, and Cavero Beach.

Specialists from Peru’s National Forest and Wildlife Service (SERFOR in Spanish) traveled to the beaches to tend to the wildlife affected by the oil spill. Over the first month, they rescued more than 70 birds. They also logged more than 300 dead animals, nearly all of them birds but also one sea lion.

“The oil’s environmental impact on the ocean is very grave since — because it does not mix with water — it quickly spreads over the surface, initially damaging all the organisms on the surface and the shores of the ocean,” said marine biologist Yuri Hooker, director of the biology lab at Cayetano Heredia University.

Hooker said marine oil spills have three devastating effects. The first is directly on the marine birds and aquatic mammals like dolphins, seals and otters, which need to surface to breathe air, and on the fish that inhabit the surface, including the Argentinean silverside or pejerrey (Odontesthes bonariensis) and lisa fish (Mugil cephalus). Plankton are also a crucial part of these ecosystems.

“Not only are these microorganisms food for many species, but this is also where the eggs and larvae of almost all fish and invertebrates [shellfish] that live on the coast are found,” Hooker said.

The second impact is on sandy or rocky beaches, which are part of the intertidal zone. According to Hooker, an enormous number of organisms live on beaches and cannot escape the oil. These include Pacific sand crabs (Emerita analoga), mollusks called palabritas (Donax peruvianus), clams, painted ghost crabs, starfish, sea urchins, sea anemones, mussels, and many species of snails and crabs. There are also bird nests and otter dens in rocky areas.

“The effect on the intertidal [zone] is catastrophic,” Hooker said.

Finally, the third level of impact, according to Hooker, is at the ocean’s bottom. The oil, which does not initially mix with the water, captures many plankton and grains of sand as it hits the ocean floor.

“The oil becomes heavier and sinks like a sticky rain that adheres to the rocks and organisms on the ocean floor, in addition to the gills of fish,” Hooker said.

On Jan. 18, Peru’s National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP in Spanish) reported that the oil spill had reached the Guano Islands, Islets, and Capes National Reserve System, which includes Fishermen’s Island and the Ancón Reserved Zone.

The Guano Islands, Islets, and Capes National Reserve System was established in December 2009. The reserve system includes 22 islands and 11 capes that are home to seabirds along Peru’s coast, with an area of 140,833 hectares (348,006 acres) of islands, coastline, and ocean.

In terms of the Ancón Reserved Zone, which spans 10,452 hectares (25,827 acres), there are relatively few waves and the temperatures are slightly higher than the surrounding water. These conditions allow for the presence of a large group of diverse species, making the zone extremely important for the reproduction of coastal aquatic fauna.

“It is a grave situation, and it has reached protected areas with fauna and flora that must be conserved,” said marine biologist Andrea Collantes, an expert on oil spills, adding that the oil had spread from the original spill site “over 50 kilometers away by land, about 27 nautical miles in the ocean.”

Collantes added that the oil spill’s impact can be seen both at the biological level, which has to do with the impacts on the ocean and biodiversity, and the socioeconomic impact for artisanal fishermen and for tourism.

Investigations into Repsol

The Specialized Environmental Prosecutor’s Office in northwestern Lima opened an investigation into La Pampilla for alleged environmental pollution. The refinery is owned by the Peruvian branch of Repsol.

In a statement, the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor’s Office reported that after a tour of the affected area, prosecutor Ariel Tapia Gómez indicated that the large amount of oil in the ocean differed from the preliminary information provided by refinery officials. The latter had initially claimed that only seven barrels of crude oil had been spilled.

It would later come to light that this figure was inaccurate when Ramírez, the environment minister at the time, reported that 11,900 barrels of oil had been spilled instead of the 6,000 barrels that were reported.

The OEFA also issued administrative measures against Repsol, giving the company two days to identify the areas affected by the oil spill and 10 business days to clean up the affected area, among other remediation efforts.

Two weeks later, the OEFA announced that after Repsol’s failure to comply with some of the 12 administrative measures imposed on the company, it would initiate the process for imposing fines upon Repsol.

In 2013, the refinery was punished for an oil spill that also occurred in the ocean near Ventanilla. According to an OEFA report, the fine at that time amounted to the equivalent of about $83,000.

According to the OEFA, Repsol was fined in 2013 for failing to efficiently control and mitigate the negative impact on the environment, which had an immediate consequence on the sediment on Cavero Beach. The company was also accused of presenting inaccurate information in OEFA’s final disaster report, claiming that it had only spilled seven barrels of oil.

In 2016, Repsol was again fined, this time amount to about $142,000, for exceeding the maximum allowed limit of industrial liquid effluents and for failing to monitor air quality.

Repsol was fined a third time in 2018, for about $4,300, for failing to comply with an environmental management plan to monitor its chemical effluents.

“In addition to the administrative measures and sanctions imposed by the OEFA, the legal liability of the company’s representatives should be looked into,” said Percy Grandez, legal consultant for the marine governance and nature conservation initiatives at the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law (SPDA in Spanish).

Grandez also questioned why the company had been allowed to continue operating despite the abnormally large waves that occurred on Jan. 15, the day of the spill. The waves were generated by the Tonga volcanic eruption and ensuing tsunami some 10,000 km (6,200 mi) across the Pacific.

Initially, Repsol said in a statement that its operations  produced a “limited spill” of oil in the ocean in Ventanilla “during the process of unloading [oil] from the tanker ship Mare Doricum, of Italy, due to the violence of the waves on Saturday on the coast in Lima.”

“The company, in its contingency plan, must anticipate any force majeure, like abnormal waves. The infractions are also being imposed upon[them] for not adopting preventative measures to avoid these spills,” Grandez said.