Black pastures: Unreported contamination after the fire in Matanzas & More Latest News Here – Up Jobs

A black powder or soot that stains clothes and hands and leaves an unusual appearance in the water has disturbed to the inhabitants of the Yumurí Valley, a few kilometers from the city of Matanzas. The fire at the Super Tanker Base has kept the area under a column of smoke that pollutes the air and languishes the plants. The rain of August 7 precipitated particles that, according to report of Dr. José Rubiera, were at 4.5 and 6 kilometers high.

“When a fire like this occurs, a wide area of ​​smoke is produced in which there are gases and particles and, as the temperature is very high, they weigh less than air, so they rise to heights of 4.5 and 6 km. The wind brings all that cloudiness of smoke to the west, that is why we have seen that cloud cross over the western part of Matanzas, the north of the province of Mayabeque, over Havana and over the north of Artemisa. But if there is rain that crosses the central part where the highest concentration of pollutants is, then these can be dragged into the ground locally, ” explained Blonde.

«The animals no longer want to eat the yerba. They chew and throw it away. We have nowhere to give the animals water. The rivers are polluted after [de] that it rained”, alert on Twitter a resident of San Adrián, located between Matanzas and Mayabeque. Black grasses and soot on clothing are the first traces of contamination that the Cuban authorities have not yet accounted for.

In more than four days of fire, with four fuel tanks burning, a great environmental impact is expected in what will become the most devastating event in the history of Cuba associated with the impact of lightning, according to statements of the meteorology scholar Luis Enrique Ramos.

The story behind the Matanzas Supertankers

In accordance with a report of national television, the only supertanker base in Cuba and the largest fuel storage in the country has an approximate capacity of 800,000 cubic meters, distributed in 10 tanks north of the terminal.

Its proximity to the sea favors the fact that it has five docks to which deep-draft ships arrive, making it a strategic industrial area. The deposits that make it up were built ten years ago as part of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), with the support of Venezuela. Standing 12 meters tall and 74 meters in diameter, these deposits were covered with geodesic domes.

A note from the weekly Optionsdated September 4, 2012, highlights aluminum domes with a useful life of more than 25 years are a technological novelty, citing the opinion of engineer Rafael Martínez Peláez, technical advisor for the work undertaken by the Representation Office in Cuba of the Spanish firm Aplicacions Tecnológica SA, who explained that the system was made up of “prefabricated pieces capable of being assembled on the dome with the minimum of tools and few assembly operations. These lightning rods are capable of conducting the energy from an atmospheric discharge safely to the ground». However, in practice it did not work like that.

The fire was caused when lightning struck tank number 52, 50% occupied with national crude reserves. The tank was in that area along with three others, which later also caught fire, at a distance of approximately 50 meters from each other.

This is not the first time an incident has occurred at this facility. In 2018 there was a hydrocarbon spill caused by a breakdown during the unloading of a ship at one of the supertanker base docks. The spill affected the Matanzas Bay area, a wide and open amphitheater of about 19 km.

Fires and oil spills: Effects on the environment

Fuel explosions cause significant economic, environmental and human damage. The environmental balance of the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base can only be known for sure after an evaluation carried out by an endorsed institution, as dictated by international protocol.

According to general data of the report «The Behavior and Effects Of Oil Spills In Aquatic Environments» (1999)the severity of the impact of this type of event, which involves fires or oil spills, depends on various factors such as the characteristics of the oil itself, its surface tension, specific gravity and viscosity, among others.

Natural conditions, such as ambient temperature, wind direction and intensity, and water temperature, also influence the severity of environmental damage. On the other hand, each type of habitat may be more or less sensitive to oil spills. Ricardo Aguilar, Director of Research at Oceana Europe, an organization that works to protect and restore the world’s oceans, told the BBC in 2010 that, for example, Its effect on coastal aquatic systems would not be the same as on the high seas.

In any case, according to World Economic Forum (WEF) in his report on the oil spill in Huntington Beach, California, in October 2021, “the effects of this type of accident on the environment are long-lasting and in some cases irreparable.” This means that they can be evident at the moment, but also in the medium and long term.

Within the imminent effects are those caused by the fumes as a result of the incomplete combustion of the product. According to WEF’s own report, some oil fumes, especially those from more volatile products such as kerosene or jet fuel, can be harmful to the lungs when inhaled, in addition to causing burns, eye irritation and problems neurological in exposed persons.

These fumes also affect animals and birds that surround the area in various ways. The effects can be due to direct physical contact (burns), toxic contamination (poisoning or suffocation), destruction of food sources and habitats, and even cause problems in their reproductive cycles.

The oil bubbles that are released as a result of the explosions impact the vegetation of the place, causing fires that affect the fauna and flora. In the event that the explosions are associated with oil spills, the animals are impregnated in the skin, which can also affect their buoyancy and natural impermeability.

Medium-term effects include the incidence of these fumes and spills on food supplies. Populations of smaller creatures such as plankton, which are at the bottom of the food chain, are severely affected; this affects the malnutrition or poisoning of animal populations over time. If the damage is considerable, the food chain can affect the human supply.

In the case of the fire in Matanzas, to the possible damages mentioned above are added those that would be caused by an oil spill in the bay area; which has been denied so far by the Cuban authorities. Own research “The Behavior and Effects Of Oil Spills In Aquatic Environments” (1999) shows that toxic chemicals remain in the ocean for years, often sinking to the seafloor and poisoning the sediment.

Aguilar, in his interview with the BBC, said that on the high seas there are fewer seagrass beds and fewer areas of algae, so the discharge ends up being deposited on the seabed. In areas near the coast –as is the case of the bay of Matanzas–Where the bottom is sandy or rocky, the oil can infiltrate little by little into the sediment and sometimes remain for more than a century. “When it approaches the coast, it can affect more species and, above all, much more productive ecosystems,” said the expert.

In addition, hydrocarbons have an impact on breeding and reproduction, for example, contaminating the nests of birds and marine animals in the area, in many cases suffocating unhatched chicks. Oil-affected females may lay eggs with thinner shells, more likely to break.

According to experts who analyzed the fire of oil wells in Kuwait, in 1991, the long-term environmental effects also include the formation of black clouds that prevent the passage of sunlight and «which can cause temporary regional climate change to acceleration of the greenhouse effect on a global scale”, due to its contribution to the total emissions of carbon dioxide and the already mentioned by-products of combustion.

What have the Cuban authorities said?

The Minister of Science, Technology and Environment of Cuba, Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya, has assured that there is no evidence of effects on human health, nor of an increase in respiratory difficulties, according to monitoring of medical institutions. But without adequate protection against smoke and a deteriorated health system, lacking basic supplies, Cubans could face consequences in the future that are not reported today. On the other hand, Pérez Montoya confirmed a significant environmental impact that will extend over time, and reported that so far a group of experts is working in the most vulnerable areas and several teams are analyzing air quality.

The minister asked not to expose herself to the dark rains and to wear masks. Similar recommendation she made in the television program Round table Dr. Susana Suárez Tamayo, a specialist in Hygiene and Epidemiology, who, faced with exposure to smoke He suggested “Slightly moisten” the mask to prevent the passage of substances into the respiratory tract.

Most Cubans do not have the type of masks recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for large fires. Particulate masks, known as N-95 or P-100 respirators, are the best protection mechanism. Surgical masks, on the other hand, do not protect against toxic fumes. This organization explains that wet or dry scarves will not help either.

Air pollution from hydrocarbon combustion can be lethal if inhaled in high concentration. Smoke, especially black smoke, is the main risk in a fire. As the plume moves west-northwest, it disperses and the pollution load decreases, but showers and isolated rains could complicate the situation.

In statements Oscar Luis García Martínez, delegate of the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA) in Matanzas, pointed out to the Information System of Cuban Television that “around 6,300 tons of pollutants began to be emitted into the atmosphere since the first moment of the explosion and which will continue to be broadcast until the fire is extinguished.

He specified that the substances that make up these pollutants are nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter of different dimensions, emitted into the atmosphere in the combustion processes. When the column of smoke moves at such high levels, the concentrations in the lower atmosphere are lower and will not directly affect the health of the population.

García Martínez identified the Versalles neighborhood and the Yumurí Valley area as the most vulnerable places, where the occurrence of black rains has already been verified.

So far, no hydrocarbon spills have been recorded in the bay, produced as part of the fire, because there are containment dams that prevent these pollutants from reaching the sea, according to the CITMA provincial delegate. The Cuban authorities also deny that there has been any type of contamination in the water that reaches the homes.

The official media have only explained that a multidisciplinary group with experts from different scientific institutions are taking samples that will make it possible to assess environmental damage and analyze the quality of the air in the three provinces that have been under the cloud: Matanzas, Mayabeque and Havana.

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