Officials in northern Spain have sent out alerts after millions of tiny plastic pellets spilled by a cargo ship off Portugal last month reportedly washed up on beaches, raising fears of environmental damage and triggering a political row.
According to available reports, Spanish state prosecutors have also launched an investigation after receiving information suggesting the non-biodegradable pellets could be toxic. The emergency is said to have started on 8 December after the Toconao, a Liberia-registered vessel chartered by the shipping firm Maersk, lost six containers while sailing about 50 miles (80km) off the coast of northern Portugal. One container held 1,000 25kg sacks of the tiny balls, which are used in the manufacture of plastic products.
In the weeks since the spill, millions of the pellets have washed up on beaches in north-west Spain, prompting a clean-up operation by regional workers and volunteers. On Tuesday, the regional governments of Galicia and neighbouring Asturias issued level 2 alerts, which will allow more personnel and resources to be assigned to the task as well as logistical assistance from the Spanish government’s environment and transport ministries.
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Alfonso Rueda, who is the regional president of Galicia, said that there was still time to stop more pellets washing up on the shoreline.
“There are hundreds of sacks right now that have not reached the coast,” he said on Tuesday. “The time to collect them, or at least to try, is now that they are at sea. It seems there will be currents these days that will make it a little easier.”
The regional government of Asturias said it has raised the alert level after detecting “a significant increase in the strip of coast affected and an increase in the number of spots identified”.
The incident has led to a political row between Galicia’s conservative regional government and the socialist-led central government. Rueda said the central government had known about the spillage for two weeks before it informed his administration on 4 January. The Galician government has also said it is satisfied that the pellets are not toxic.
When asked why he had waited so long to secure central government help by declaring the level 2 alert, Rueda said that his team had found out about the situation only “a few days ago”, while the national government “has known the details for a month”.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
