West Tower residents can't go home yet

The more than 80 families who evacuated from the West Tower Condominium in Makati City due to an oil leak there have to wait until the third quarter of this year before they could return to their respective units. This was according to CH2MHill Philippines Inc., a US environmental company hired by First Philippine Industrial Corp. (FPIC) to conduct multi-phase remediation works on busted FPIC-owned petroleum pipeline. “We’re looking at the third quarter, July at the earliest, for the residents to be able to come back, but this will have to pass through government approvals, rules and regulations," said Edmund Piquero, CH2MHill senior environmental geologist, on Wednesday. The Makati City government ordered the evacuation of West Tower residents in July last year after confirming a leak in the petroleum pipeline in Magallanes, which seeped into the basement of the condominium, causing foul odor and putting the residents’ health at risk. Piquero said they will conduct a human health risk assessment to determine if the residents can live in the condominium without any risk to their health. The multi-phase remediation works, which will start in May, would include the extraction of petroleum or “plume" and contaminated water at a faster phase while cleaning the affected soil underground, said Piquero. “We are inclined towards using a multi-phase extraction system that creates a drawdown of the groundwater causing the convergence of the petroleum product and accelerating the recovery of the product," he said. The water and petroleum products will be separated and water will be treated prior to discharge, he added. The contaminants in the soil will be removed using a vacuum system. CH2MHill is now recovering 3,000 liters of water and petroleum products a day from six product recovery wells in the vicinity of West Tower Condominium. Around 37,600 liters out of 1.8 million liters of petroleum and contaminated water have been removed from the recovery wells as of Jan. 11. “We hope to accelerate the recovery of 5,000 to 6,000 liters per day in the next two weeks if we are allowed to install two additional product recovery wells closer to the West Tower," Piquero said. The official said the presence of pure petroleum product covered an area of 7,000 square meters and settled underground at the South Super Highway and the adjacent service road. The dissolved phase, which consists of both groundwater and petroleum products, is said to be within an area of another 8,000 square meters extending beyond the pure product plume area. “This is a positive development because it appears that the petroleum product has not affected a larger area than initial estimates," Piquero said. He said groundwater was not contaminated by the petroleum product in the area. For his part, Anthony Cole, CH2MHill regional environmental management, said it will take around three to five years to complete the entire environmental remediation program. - KBK, GMANews.TV