Ecologist: Don’t use hair in oil slick cleanup

First posted 00:25am (Mla time) Sept 04, 2006
By Carla Gomez
Inquirer Editor's Note: Published on Page A20 of the September 4, 2006
issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

BACOLOD CITY—A Negrense microbial ecologist warned against the use of hair and oil dispersants in cleaning up the oil slick from the sunken MT Solar I.

“If you really want to help Guimaras, don’t cut your hair. Donate biodegradable absorbents instead, like sugarcane trash, corn cobs, rice hull,” said Aidine Galvan, who discussed bioremediation of the MT Solar I oil spill at a forum hosted Friday by the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation Inc. and the Negros Forest and Ecological Foundation in Bacolod City.

She pointed out that when persons die and are buried, hair is usually found to be intact long after, when their bodies are exhumed.

She said it would be difficult to dispose of bunker fuel-covered hair, as it will only cause contamination.

On the other hand, biodegradable absorbents covered in oil and placed in a lined pit could be degraded into soil-like material, which can later be used in one’s garden, she said.

Galvan also warned that the use of oil dispersants is only effective in open deep water but never along the coastline or in shallow waters within 50 feet deep.

“That is because if you use these dispersants in shallow water, it will bring the oil to the bottom and endanger the marine life, like corals,” she said.

The cleanup of the MT Solar I spill should be designed to deal with a notorious oil type, she said.
Bunker fuel is notorious because of its complex hydrocarbon structure that is hard to degrade and is very toxic, she said.

Maria Athena Ronquillo Ballesteros, Greenpeace International Climate and Energy campaigner, also said her group has not called for donations of hair, which she said was just a media spin.
Unfortunately President Macapagal-Arroyo and politicians jumped on the issue, Ballesteros said.

“So let’s keep reiterating the need for more practical indigenous materials to help as absorbents,” she said.

Gov. Joseph Marañon Thursday said Negros Occidental has purchased coconut coir from Oriental Negros at P7 per kilo to be used for spill booms.

Marañon said it has also been suggested that the bagasse from sugar mills can be used for spill booms. Oil covered bagasse would be more effective in the generation of electricity at sugar mills, he said.

Melvin Purzuelo of the Save our Seas Movement also called on advertising firms or groups that have used tarpaulins to donate these for the cleanup of Guimaras. These can be reused as liners of temporary containment areas, he added.

Purzuelo said Petron is yet to deliver the barge it promised two weeks ago to Governor (JC Rahman) Nava, as a temporary containment area of debris gathered.

The groundwater source of communities are gravely threatened by oil leaching from piles of debris, he said.