The Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement (OEFA) reported that Repsol faces up to 49,200 tax tax units (UIT) in fines, which is equivalent to S/ 226.3 million, if it fails to comply with the 12 administrative measures that have been imposed as a result of the oil spill in Ventanilla.
The OEFA revealed that there are nine administrative measures imposed due to the first spill:
- Identification of areas affected by the spill
- Cleaning all affected areas
- Containment and recovery of hydrocarbon
- Adequate management of hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste as a product of the cleaning that the company must carry out
- Rescue of affected fauna in protected natural areas (ANP)
- Rehabilitation and return of this fauna
- Containment and recovery of hydrocarbon in ANP
- Sampling of soil, water and sediment in ANP
- Hydrobiological monitoring that must be carried out on the fauna of the ANP
In addition, three additional measures linked to the second spill in Ventanilla, which was smaller:
- Containment and recovery of hydrocarbon
- Sampling of water and sediment in the affected area
- Proper disposal of solid waste
“Each of these measures has different deadlines. As of today, three have already expired, and on this basis we have already verified that the company has failed to comply with these measures”pointed out the president of the organization, Miriam Alegría.
He revealed that the OEFA has already initiated legal actions and notified Repsol to initiate the imposition of coercive fines for non-compliance with the containment and recovery measures of the hydrocarbon in the affected areas, at a general level and in the ANP.
He explained that for each case the coercive fine amounts to 100 UIT (S/ 460,000), which will be imposed successively until the company proves compliance with the measure.
“In parallel, for the breach of each of these measures, and within the framework of the sanctioning administrative procedure, the fine that can be imposed as a sanction amounts to 4,000 UIT, which approximately represents S / 18.4 million”Joy pointed out.
“In the scenario that the company fails to comply with the 12 administrative measures ordered so far by the OEFA, we would be talking about a total of 49,200 UIT in fines, which represent S / 226 million”he added.
Finally, the official indicated that these imposed measures are independent of the supervision and control process carried out by the OEFA in the framework of the investigation of the spill.
“Regarding the information that the company would have reached OEFA about the magnitude of the event, as well as the effective activation of the contingency plan; these investigations are still ongoing and are completely independent of the measures we have applied”he pointed out.
