Peru: Navy Investigates Responsibilities for Oil Spill

Prosecutor's Office investigates ecological disaster due to oil on beaches in Peru 2:53

(CNN Spanish) --

The Peruvian Navy indicated this Thursday that it is already investigating the causes of the oil spill on January 15 at the La Pampilla refinery, in Ventanilla, which occurred after a strong wave that was recorded after the eruption of the volcano submarine near Tonga.

In a statement, he pointed out that, "before the information released in some media and in order to avoid speculation, the National Maritime Authority has opened a summary process to determine the causes of this incident and those responsible."

• The oil spill in Ventanilla is "the worst ecological disaster that has occurred in Lima in recent times", says the Peruvian Foreign Ministry

The statement comes a day after Tine van Den Wall Bake, Communications Manager at Repsol, which manages the La Pampilla refinery, told a local media outlet that the Navy's maritime traffic authorities had not issued any alert after the volcano eruption.

Furthermore, Wall Bake told the local RPP radio that, upon learning of the situation near Tonga and after verifying that there were no tsunami alerts for the Peruvian coast, they themselves consulted the authorities.

"We proactively consulted the Peruvian Navy Unit for maritime traffic to see if there was a tsunami alert. They confirmed that there was no type of alert for the coast and that we could continue with the unloading," said the official. of Repsol. "We would not have started an unloading in rough seas, for us it would have been ideal to stop the unloading," he added.

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See the great devastation from an oil spill in Peru 0:43

Repsol's Communications Manager also indicated that as soon as the incident occurred, contingency plans were initiated, and that the country's maritime and environmental authorities were notified.

CNN has tried to obtain directly the version of both the La Pampilla refinery and Repsol and the Navy on these events, but they have not yet responded to our requests for comment.

• Watch these beaches in Peru turn black due to oil spill after eruption in Tonga

For its part, the General Directorate of Health of the Ministry of Health recommended that citizens not go to 21 beaches on the Peruvian coast due to the health hazard posed by this spill.

In addition, he pointed out that local authorities must, to the extent of their powers, restrict entry to these beaches.

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