WESTERN BUREAU — Sunday night’s 2,000-gallon oil spill in Reading, St James, has been mopped up without any major environmental damage, officials reported yesterday.

The viscous fluid was released from a 7,000-gallon Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (Petrojam) tanker which crashed into a bus stop at the Reading/Anchovy intersection after its brakes reportedly failed and the driver lost control of the vehicle.

An oil boom was quickly put in place, preventing the Bunker C fuel from reaching the sea and damaging marine life. Petrojam also hired a cesspool emptier that sucked up the spilt liquid and the streets were covered with sand to prevent vehicles from skidding.

Olga Headley, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management’s parish coordinator yesterday commended all the team players, who helped contain the spill, for their quick action on Easter Sunday.

“The St James parish council, the National Works Agency, the coast guard, the National Environmental Planning Agency… all of them pooled in,” she said. “Although it was a holiday, everybody came out to help.”

NEPA and ODPEM will later have to submit a joint report, as part of the usual routine in dealing with oil spills.

At the time of the spill, the fuel was being transported to the Montego Bay harbour where a ship waited to be refueled. The trailer crashed into a section of wall at the Reading Reef Hotel, operated by Sunset Beach Resorts and Spa. The hotel is closed for refurbishing, so operations were not significantly affected.

The accident damaged the Reading/Anchovy traffic lights and created a major traffic pile-up Sunday night, however the police eventually got the situation under control.

The damaged lights, which were installed last year as part of the North Coast Highway project, are to be replaced soon.