MARGAO, FEB 28
Deputy Collector, Margao Johnson Fernandes on Monday directed the owners of two petrol pumps to shut down the fuel tanks in a bid to check any seepage, even as panel of experts got down the business of ascertain the exact cause of contamination of Comba wells by an oily substance.
The Deputy Collector said the owners have been told to find out the quantity of fuel with a gauge to rule out the possibility of seepage of petrol underground.
“This is being done as a matter of abundant caution. Though the exact source of the contamination is yet to be ascertained, the checking of the tanks is being done to rule out the theory of underground tank seepage”, he said.
Meanwhile, a panel of experts, including the Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, Dr Srikanth Mutnuri said only detailed analysis of the water samples of the contaminated wells will help throw light on the source.
Officials of the Goa State Pollution Control Board, besides representatives of oil companies participated in the inspection exercise.
The team also inspected the waters of Ana Fonte spring since the waters flows down towards Comba. Incidentally, the team found that the drinking wells on the eastern side of the Abade Faria road are unaffected by the contamination, while only those located on the west of the road are the worst hit.
A local resident Govind Ghode said the wells in COmba locality have been left contaminated since the beginning of this month and pointed fingers at the nearly petrol pump as the source of the pollution.
The deputy collector informed that the analysis report from BITS Pilani as well as from the Goa State Pollution Control Board is expected early next week, which will help throw light on the mysterious contamination of the wells.
“The experts said that the source of water contamination can be other than the petrol pumps. But, we are examining the issue from all angles”, Johnson said.
He said the the task before the expert panel is to locate the source of pollution and then to identify the polluter before taking further action as per law.
It’s nearly a month since a cluster of drinking wells were hit by water contamination, and the worst fears of the local residents were confirmed when the report from the Goa Pollution Control Board stated that the well were hit by oil and grease.