THE National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) says it has received a report from RUBiS Energy Jamaica of a “pollution incident” which it said happened at the company’s Rockfort facility in east Kingston on Tuesday.

“The company reported that there was a release of petroleum products which entered the terrestrial and marine environment,” NEPA said yesterday.

Senior manager for the environmental management subdivision at NEPA, Richard Nelson, explained in a Jamaica Observer interview that the incident involved fractures to two pipelines, resulting in petroleum products seeping into a drain and getting into the marine environment.

He noted that, while it was not a large spill, as the pipeline was not totally ruptured, it is expected that the petroleum marketing company will be served with an enforcement notice.

In the meantime, he said NEPA’s technical team had investigated the incident and confirmed that RUBis has deployed a containment boom to prevent the chemicals — 87 gasolene and toluene — from spreading after which steps are to be taken to recover the substances.

“We haven’t observed any major negative impact [such as] fish kill, or marine organisms being affected. These are very light petroleum products,” Nelson said.

He explained that, under its mandate, the agency must take the necessary enforcement action, as this is a pollution incident. “We may serve an enforcement notice to instruct them to clean up and remediate the area. When that is served, and if the company fails to comply, then we can take the matter to court. But we don’t want to go there,” he said, noting that RUBis has already been verbally instructed to take immediate action.

Nelson said NEPA has also deployed its own team to investigate the incident. “So far we have served onsite warning notice, which will be followed by the enforcement notice. The agency is [also] continuing to monitor the situation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nelson informed that NEPA has taken West Indies Alumina Company (WINDALCO ) to court over a separate pollution incident which occurred in the Rio Cobre in October causing a massive fish kill. WINDALCO was served with an enforcement notice at the time of the incident, which involved effluent from the St Catherine bauxite plant seeping into the Rio Cobre in the vicinity of the Bog Walk Gorge. NEPA said this constituted a breach of Section 11 of the Wild Life Protection Act, which carries a maximum fine of $100,000.

The parties made their first court appearance in December, and another date has been set for early this year.

Member of Parliament for St Catherine North Central Natalie Neita had threatened to file a lawsuit against the bauxite mining company on behalf of residents who live along banks of the Rio Cobre. It was alleged that some residents of the constituency had become ill after using water or eating fish from the contaminated river.