Algeciras (Cádiz) (EFE).- Remains of hydrocarbons from the ship “OS 35”, stranded east of Gibraltar since last August 30, are reaching the coast of the Campo de Gibraltar region of Cadiz.
This has been warned by the Verdemar Ecologistas en Acción collective, which maintains in a note that remains have appeared on beaches in the Cadiz municipalities of Algeciras and Los Barrios.
“Today, hydrocarbon slicks were frequent from the area of the Palmones river -in Los Barrios- to La Concha beach, in El Rinconcillo, in Algeciras”, specifically “balls of hydrocarbons mixed with seawater and oil slicks” .
“We believe that the ship still has traces of hydrocarbons in its holds and oil circuits that may come out as a result of the storm,” they add.
For his part, the mayor of Algeciras, José Ignacio Landaluce (PP), has confirmed in a statement the arrival of remains of the spill on the Rinconcillo beach and calls on Gibraltar to assume responsibility for this situation.
He considers that this incident “puts Gibraltar back in the spotlight as responsible for a situation” that he considers that the Gibraltar government has managed it in a very bad way and “for which the Government of Spain bears a large part of the responsibility”.
200 kilos of waste from the ship OS35, stranded in Gibraltar, arrive at La Línea
The Beach Delegation of the City Council of La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz) has reported this Friday the collection of some 200 kilos of waste from the ship ‘OS 35’, which has been stranded off the coast of Gibraltar since August 30 from last year.
The council has reported that due to the Levante storm that hits the Strait, the ‘OS 35’ has suffered a complete rupture of the hull, separating it even more and causing the leak of fuel that has reached the Santa Bárbara beach in Linen.
The Gibraltarian government, however, recalled this week that last year they withdrew all the oil that could be extracted.
The affected beach area is about 200 meters long and two meters wide, where so far some 200 kilos of waste have been collected between fuel oil crackers and contaminated sand.
The City Council of La Línea has assured that the cleaning device carried out since early in the morning has reviewed the entire Línea coastline and no other affected area has been found so far.
For the tasks of collecting waste and fuel biscuits, there have been five beach cleaning operators from the SIFU company, four machinists, a manager and a service manager who has coordinated the cleaning tasks.
The Government of Gibraltar assured in the last hours that new oil leaks cannot be ruled out, since “it is impossible to know the possible quantities and locations of the remains of oil and residues trapped” inside the ship.