Caltex Coughs Up Millions
Caltex South Africa
constructed a oven refinery in the 1960's which became one of the
largest industrial undertakings in the Western Cape.
This
refinery turns raw materials of crude oil into various fuels for
end-user products such as fuel and diesel. It operates 24/7, 365 days
a year, employs approximately 2000 people and takes up a massive piece
of land.
The actual refining process takes place inside a maze
of pipes, boilers and other vessels that looks like a 'metal spaghetti
factory'. All refineries perform three basic functions: separation,
conversion and treatment.
The Caltex refinery in Milnerton is
now owned by the US oil giant Chevron. Their reputation for not caring
for human health continued to precede them even after the name change.
The ones most affected by their extravagant pollution habits are their
neighbours. It has been many years now that the local residents of the
Milnerton community (close to Cape Town in South Africa) have been
complaining about chronic respiratory problems due to the regular toxic
chemical spills from the refinery into the air and purposefully pumped
into the ocean by the very popular Blouberg kitesurf beach.
During a public meeting in 1994, the Chevron manager at the time made a public statement saying it does not matter what anyone says or does, they will not stop doing what they have been doing, until they get forced to change by law.
But
luckily the battles have not all been in vain. In 2001 our local board
shaper and kite-surfer got involved in a water/air pollution debate
that ended up costing Caltex millions of dollars.
Angus Welch is
the man we are talking about who changed the kiteboarding environment
in Table View for us. In the beginning
days of kiting many of us were made aware of a very strong fuel smell
coming off the water. You will not be able to smell that any more,
because Caltex had to clean up their act and it cost them millions.
For many years Caltex was
polluting our ocean with a permit to do so. Many beachfront residents
complained about it numerous times and Caltex always denied that there
was a problem and that they were in their rights to do what they were
doing. Then one day Angus changed the thinking of the entire polluting
debacle. He asked if they were in their rights to pollute the ocean,
then how many rights do they have to pollute the air above it?
Juanita of iKiteboarding.com went to speak to Angus (aka Goose) to
hear exactly how he went about it and what they ended up having to do
to fix their pollution habits.
iKi: Goose, give us some back ground, when did u start kiting?
Goose: It must have been the latter part of 1999
We have not seen much of you, where have you been for the last 2 years or so?
I
have been sitting in on endless environmental meetings, in a board room
overlooking the ocean, watching people kite, wind howling, stuffing my
face with complimentary Caltex snacks. I missed being on the water for
sure!
How did u get into kiteboarding?
They were
building all those beachfront houses at Sunset Beach - which was at the
time my local windsurfing spot and is now my kitesurfing spot. I was
particularly concerned about the fact that this new development was
going to make the wind more gusty there. Then I noticed a guy on a
Walland Air Foil kite. If Im not mistaken, it might have been our
italian friend Michelle. George was also there that day. That was the
first time I saw this sport and was very interested in the effect of
the gusty wind on the kites so high up in the air as opposed to our
windsurfers right on the water level.
I then got into it and
eventually the guys moved to what is today the original kite beach. We
did many body drags and learning to jibe the directional boards. Most
of us back then, spent most of the time in the water and not on the
water. This was when I first noticed a very disturbing smell coming
off the ocean more often than not. In 2001 I decided to make a call to
Caltex and find out what this diesel oil stench was that they are
pumping out into the ocean.
What did Caltex have to say in response to your concern about the diesel smell?
I
must say, they never denied it. They said that fresh water is being
used in their processing plant in a cleaning process. This basic
'treatment water' is then pumped out into the sea afterwards. At first
I gave them water samples to prove my concern to them, but they seemed
to have 'lost' it. Then they also could not find anything significantly
wrong with the water when they did their own testing.
Then when
I opened my shop in 2001 on the beach front in front of kite beach, I
could smell this same diesel smell now more often. It was a especially
strong stench of diesel in a westerly when the wind blew onshore. I
then approached them again about the smell, and they asked me to give
them an air sample.
What did you do to give them an air sample, surely this could be taken from anywhere?
Well
they gave me an air sampling balloon to collect the air with. I wanted
to give them the real thing. I then kited out to where I thought the
smell was the strongest, then I lay on my board, being trashed by
waves, getting high on diesel fumes, trying to collect the air into
this scientist balloon type ball. I still remember that day like it was
yesterday.
What did they find with the air in the ball that you collected?
I was shocked but not amazed to hear that the air was flammable!
I also contacted the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
(DEAT) to lodge a formal complaint. When you lodge a complaint with
any authority, they have to follow it up. I spoke to as many people as
I could to get to the bottom of this. My name must have got out in the
open somehow and people started to notice the mission that I was on.
Cindy and I joined all sorts of environmental groups and forums to get
to speak to the right people. My best was when I got a call from a
female reporter starting to ask me questions about Koeberg.
What kind of questions did the female reporter ask you?
She
said: What can you tell us about Koeberg? Ha ha, that was a super
dodgy phone call. She was hoping I has something slimy to tell her of
what she wanted to hear. My mission was Caltex not Koeberg. So that
conversation ended there.
When did any real action start to take place in your opinion?
I
got the City Air Pollution involved, also the Department of
Environmental Affairs and Tourism came on board, then the media started
to get involved. There happen to be a few small articles in the local
papers after that. Nothing major, but this is where the ball seemed to
start rolling. One day I was sitting in a meeting and heard that there
was a change in management at the refinery. The new man at the top was
a Mr Steve Woodruff. I approached him in an instant. He took a real
big interest in the issue and this was the start of significant action
taking place.
What kind of changes did Mr Woodruff start to implement?
He
started environmental forum meetings, requesting input feedback from
all. I also then got in touch with the guys from the CSIR. Initially
there was no problem that they could pin-point to, because they were
always testing the water.
You mentioned something about a
chemical reaction that took place that everyone first completely
overlooked. Tell us more about this.
I asked the guys at the
CSIR about the chemical reaction of the salt water, fresh water, the
oil and the air. It turns out that when Caltex pumped their nonsense
out into the ocean, it became a combination of fresh water and oil,
which naturally floated to the surface of the ocean. The combination
of the wind and the waves were churning up this concoction and
releasing a flammable gas into the atmosphere. This was when they all
realised how bad the problem really actually was, as it now officially
became an airborne pollution issue and not just a sea pollution issue.
Then the real action started taking place. Myself and all the regular
okes were involved.
What was the next step after they realised how bad this problem really was for the environment?
Caltex
realised that they had to clean up their mess, and Mr Woodruff set up a
task team to investigate how this was going to be fixed and what needed
to be done to do it. They contacted other refineries around the world
to get advice on how to solve the matter.
What exactly did they find out needed to be done to solve this problem?
They
had to design a new plant. First they had to do an environmental
impact assessment study, then they had to budget for this and get the
finance approved. The Department of Environmental Affairs gave Caltex
various deadlines to reach in getting this matter resolved as soon as
possible. About a year ago all the lights were green and the building
of the new plant started. I was fortunate enough to be there for the
first official 'dig' to start the construction of the new plant.
What kind of money are we talking about here Goose?
Juanita,
I heard something in the line of $50 million USD to rebuild this
specific plant. Apparently it was one of the biggest spends of this
nature in South African history.
The new refinery filtering plant, when will it be in operation?
As
of the 13th of December 2007. I went to the official opening of the
new cleaning plant. They took us on a tour through the plant and
showed us the process of water coming in and water coming out of the
plant. The difference is phenomenal.
The crucial question is, will you drink that water that is now coming out of the new cleaning plant?
No, I dont think so, but I will use it in my garden if I had to for sure.
Can you explain to us in laymen's terms how the filtering process works?
They
use a bio mass (which are oil eating little bugs) to eat off this tiny
little barrel type thing. There are millions of these tiny barrels in
one tank. These bugs eventually die and fall off to the bottom, and
become a cake of fertiliser.
Did they clean the pipe leading into the ocean too?
I
dont know. The yellow buoy is the outlet point of the pipe.
Officially, this has been operating since the 13th of December 2007.
Full efficiency will take up to 2 months. Im monitoring it almost all
the time.
Is there anything we as kitesurfers and or the public can do to assist you in the monitoring process?
Yes, please can you let me know if you ever smell any chemical type smell coming off the ocean while kiting or being on the shore.
By: Juanita Welgemoed