Siphoned oily waste from Terra Nova reaches 1 million liters

MANILA, Philippines — More than one million liters of oily waste have been siphoned out from the sunken motor tanker Terra Nova as of Aug. 31, according to the Philippine Coast Guard.

The PCG said that on Saturday alone, salvor firm Harbor Star collected a total of 129,292 liters of oily material from the tanker that capsized in the waters off Bataan. It was the largest haul of oily waste since the siphoning operations started on Aug. 19.

The use of additional pumps on Aug. 31 increased the rate of the flow of oily waste from the vessel to 8,575 liters per hour, the PCG said.

The Terra Nova was carrying 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel when it capsized in the waters off Limay town on July 25.

Earlier, the PCG said the oil extraction process from the Terra Nova would involve removal of a mixture of industrial fuel and seawater.

During extraction, salvors also pumped seawater into the vessel’s cargo tanks to replace the industrial oil that was being siphoned out, in order not to disrupt the stability of the Terra Nova.

Due to this process, the PCG said it was expecting to siphon more than 1.4 million liters of oily waste from the sunken tanker.

The PCG’s oil spill response team has not monitor any leak during the transfer of the oily waste to the dockyard.

On Saturday, up to 346,000 liters of the oily mixture were transported to a waste management facility in Marilao, Bulacan for proper disposal.