Caribbean Petroleum Corporation (CAPECO); San Juan, Puerto Rico

Source report excerpt: “DEVELOPING STORY: A dramatic explosion near San Juan, Puerto Rico tonight is believed to be missing Spirit Airlines Flight 837 tha left Fort Lauderdale, Florida on it’s way to Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan. The airplane was reportedly an Airbus A319 that left Ft. Lauderdale 34 minutes late. Authorities aren’t giving any details except to say that emergency crews are currently responding to a large explosion outside the island city. More as the story develops. Story via @RodrigoBNO of BNONews.com. Photo via Picasa user, Guillermo Carrion”

Source report excerpt: “Arial Iglesis reports: Governor Luis Fortuño offered a press conference around 0700. Between 11 to 15 tanks out of 40 are currently on fire. A total of 22 tanks have been affected. First responders continue to fight the fire and attempt to cool off adjacent storage tanks to prevent them from catching fire. The tanks affected contained diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, jet fuel, and petroleum products. It is estimated that it may take at least three days for the affected areas to burn themselves out. The municipalities affected are Bayamón, Cataño, Guaynabo and San Juan. The Department of Education suspended classes in these municipalities. At least 350 people have been evacuated. Some facilities […]”

Source report excerpt: “Summary report of actions taken by EPA in Response to the Petroleum Tank Farm Fire at the Caribbean Petroleum Refinery Corporation , Bayamon Puerto Rico. (jdaloia 10-26-09 1145hrs) EPA was requested to respond to a major petroleum fire at the Caribbean Petroleum Refinery Corporation Facility, Bayamon Puerto Rico. This facility is a petroleum Storage facility and ceased refining oil in the mid 90’s. EPA was requested by the Common Wealth of Puerto Rico through the NRC to provide air monitoring support and to assist in any assessment and eventual clean up activities associated with the fire. The facility is in the EPA inland zone and therefore EPA is the lead federal agency for environmental […]”

Source report excerpt: “EPA held a RRT incident specific conference call at 1300 to discuss the current status of the response and begin discussion related to the environmental cleanup and trustee concerns. The fires have ben out since 12:30 local yesterday (Sunday, 25 Oct). Once the fires were all extinguished, the response assets and command post was dismantled, leaving EPA to reorganize a response structure and find a new command post for the remaining containment and cleanup efforts. It is reported that some oil and fire fighting foam have been released into an adjacent wetland and have affected some of the waters associated with this wetland. EPA is still assessing the impact and extent of impact at this […]”

Source report excerpt: “DOI requested that EPA check with USFWS and NMFS to ensure there are no issues related to protected species during this response. EPA said they will cover that base as well as check for any EFH concerns as well. The President did declare this an emergency but only from the standpoint of public assistance. The response is still under the EPA authorities not Stafford.”

Source report excerpt: “I arrived on site today, the facility is about 1 mile from the coast, currently there is an earth dam cutting off drainage to the Malaria Creek. There have been some fish kills in the channel that drains the facility, mostly tilapia. The wetland is the most impacted. it got burned bulldozed. took a hit from the pipeline, a tank collapse and the regular spill. The thickest oil is by the pipeline, but for now that is closed by the FBI. I'm working with EPA to do an emergency Sec 7 for three speceis, the yellow-shouldered black bird, PR boa and brown pelican. Some oiled birds have been recovered by DNER, today I saw two partially oiled egrets.”

Source report excerpt: “Caribbean Petroleum Corp. Explosion FPN E10201 October 28, 2009 Arrived at command post at 8AM. Worked on Sec 7 emergency consultation with EPA. Also worked on a wildlife plan with FWS LE. FWS LE is concerned that there are several agencies recovering injured wildlife or carcasses. We are having trouble getting PR Department of Natural and Environmental Resources engaged. Either they do not send anyone to the CP or they send one observer. DNER law enforcement has been collecting injured or dead birds for the past few days without coordination with anyone, we still do not have what and how many has been collected. Unified command is also a bit concerned at the lack of DNER participation. The […]”

Source report excerpt: “Caribbean Petroleum Corp. Explosion FPN E10201 October 29, 2009 Finalized the emergency Sec 7 consultation today. Boqueron FO sent a letter concurring with the NLAA determination by the EPA. Iguana carcass removal was becoming a concern with EPA since yesterday. Exotic South American iguanas have made a home in Puerto Rico and are very common in the San Juan area. Many were caught in the initial blast and fire that burned through the wooded areas and marsh. With the help of PR DNER and the local municipality an iguana team was formed call sign India. In the past few days most of the iguanas had been scavenged but the iguana team managed to recover 14 iguana carcasses. The plan for federally […]”

Source report excerpt: “Caribbean Petroleum Corp. Explosion FPN E10201 November 2, 2009 Arrived on scene at 8:30 AM. This weekend FWS LE picked up two more birds. Most of the birds that have been found probably died in the fire than from being impacted by oil. Over the weekend the Unified Command excavated a shallow ditch through the wetlands in an effort to collect oil in that area for recovery. The ditch excavation stopped when the soil was too soft. UC is looking for wood mattresses to place on the ground to allow excavation to the center of the marsh where it is thought that there is more oil. Today I inspected the facility with EPA and USCG, there is still material in the detention basins of some tanks, and […]”

Source report excerpt: “Caribbean Petroleum Corp. Explosion FPN E10201 November 3, 2009 Thanks to the coordination of the FWS LE agent Ariel Vazquez, and the ES Field Supervisor Edwin Muñiz, 23 FWS biologist and LE from Refuges, ES and the PR Parrot office showed up today to help with the carcass survey. Also along was one NPS LE (making it a joint DOI effort) and 8 Commonwealth natural resources LE. FWS covered all the sites including the Army base Fort Buchanan. I lead a small team through the facility with USCG escort. We picked up one oiled killdeer, and two carcasses. Other birds were picked up in Fort Buchanan and in the wetlands. Some of the bird deaths were caused by the explosion and fire, not by oil. The […]”

Source report excerpt: “Caribbean Petroleum Corp. Explosion FPN E10201 November 4, 2009 Rains last night brought new situations at the site. The underflow dam at Lajas creek was working but apparently the rains pushed some of the firefighting foam laden waters down from the facility. Foaming was noted at the underflow discharge. This was discussed with the FOSC, FWS and DNER, fortunately this area is a semi closed system and most of the fish here are exotic tilapia. No risk to San Juan Bay is expected, downstream sections will be monitored. Rain also tore out the sorbent pads and booms placed into the creek, wadded up pads and booms were found in three sections of the creek, these were removed by work crews. The […]”

Source report excerpt: “Caribbean Petroleum Corp. Explosion FPN E10201 November 5, 2009 Did I mention that it rained last night? Well today it rained as well; this has caused several incidents in the facility. Tank 403 started to show jet fuel in the detention basin. It was overflowing into tank 402 between a break in the berm that separated them. This was fixed but now both tanks have jet fuel in secondary containment and jet fuel found its way out in front of Tank 402. Tank 104 still has problems. As I drove in today, I noticed that the tank had yellowed vegetation in the detention areas. Tank 103 immediately adjacent to it had yellowed vegetation in the areas adjacent to 104. Later Gulf said that the rains had […]”

Source report excerpt: “Caribbean Petroleum Corp. Explosion FPN E10201 November 12, 2009 Arrived back on scene at 9AM, checked the diesel recovery at tanks 104-102. Oil recovery had started in earnest. Rope skimmers had been placed in tanks 102 and 105. Tank 202 had booms placed around the leaking valve. Water had been drawn down in tanks 104 and 103 at the request of FWS to avoid attracting birds into the contaminated areas. In an effort to resolve the discharge of aeration basin water, a temporary outfall was constructed out in the wetlands. About 300 feet of perforated 6inch pvc pipe was laid out along the edge of the marsh to serve as an outfall. This has not been used yet, but it is there in the event of […]”

Source report excerpt: “I saw in the paper today that DNER is finalizing an report on the environmental damages caused by the explosion, fire and subsequent spill at the Gulf refinery. They will be submitting the report to FEMA. They may also process criminal charges under their Wildlife Law and Environmental Crimes Law. I guess that is their new version of an NRDA. Felix Lopez USFWS”