The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Monday reported that over 1.2 million liters of oil waste were collected from the sunken MT Terranova in Bataan by its contracted salvor, Harbor Star.
The PCG said that in its first operation in September, the salvor collected 222,332 liters of waste from the said tanker. This was the second-highest collection following the August 28 operation that collected 232,187 liters of oil.
The salvor said it deployed additional pumps from the site and the oil waste flow rate from the last operation was 22,315 liters per hour.
The Oil Spill Response Team (OSRT) monitored the transfer of oil waste at Orion Dockyard and no leaks were observed during the operation.
“As of yesterday, 698,000 liters of oil waste were loaded to trucks at Orion Shipyard for transport to a waste management facility in Marilao, Bulacan for proper disposal,” the PCG said.
BRP Malamawi (FPB-2403) on the other hand utilized a portable fire pump to agitate oil sheen at ground zero. Coast Guard divers conducted underwater operations to monitor the siphoning activity.
