November 25, 2004
By Sheree Russouw
AN estimated 25 000 litres of hazardous transformer oil from a fire that engulfed an electricity substation on Monday night has flowed into a once-scenic dam in the city's western suburbs.
Conservationists and companies contracted by City Power to clean up the polluted Westdene Dam and rescue its oil-soaked birds have described it as an "ecological disaster" that threatens the survival of numerous bird species, fish and plants.
The burning oil is believed to have swept into the area's storm water drains on Monday evening after a fire broke out at the Hursthill substation on Perth Road, near the dam.
The cause of the fire, which plunged up to 20 000 homes in the western parts of Johannesburg into darkness, is still unknown. Power was restored in the area on Thursday morning after City Power technicians worked around the clock for three days to restore electricity connections to the suburbs, according to utility spokesperson Sol Masolo.
City Power has enlisted the services of environmental firms Interwaste and Drizit to remove the oil from the dam.
Dave Hansen, Hazardous Material Operations Manager at Drizit, says the wetting down of the burning transformer by firefighters on Monday is likely to have aided the flow of oil into the dam.
"There were at least 25 000 litres of oil from the fire in the dam. Because oil is lighter than water, the water probably just picked it up and carried it with it into the dam. This is really an ecological disaster," he says.
City Parks has also deployed workers to help clean the contaminated dam. "The place where the dam is situated is on a slope and there's obviously storm water drainage that flows into the dam as well," said spokesman, Oscar Oliphant. "The dam has now been sealed off and there is no longer any down-flow of oil. The situation is under control." City Parks estimates that at least 50 birds will need to be removed from the dam for treatment.
Flocks of birds, including large ducks, Egyptian geese and dabchicks, were coated in oil on Wednesday. The black gunk stuck on their coats like glue and many of the birds could not move their wings.
A group of urban wildlife rehabilitators, together with a team of canoeists from Emmarentia Dam, have been rescuing the birds since early Tuesday.
"This dam supports a variety of species and we've been picking up badly oiled birds since Tuesday," said Nicci Wright, Centre Manager of the wildlife rehabilitation organisation, FreeMe.
The organisation is trying to lure large birds like the Egyptian geese, flecked with oil, into a boma filled with food, in order to capture and save them.
The birds would be returned to the dam over the next three weeks.
"There has been quite extensive damage," said Wright. "We've had quite a few birds die - mostly the chicks. The oil means that the birds can't regulate their temperatures, so they just get colder and colder. The oil is poisoning them inside."
City Power, she says, needed to create a spillage reservoir. "The same thing happened here in 2001. Again, the birds were covered in oil and most of the fish died."
Hansen says large parts of the dam have already been cleaned up, using cotton wool-like absorbent fibres to literally soak up the oil that covers the dam. He expects the dam to be much cleaner by Friday.
"We've used river booms, which act like an oil barrier, to block the oil. Our other boom absorbs the oil. We've put pumps in to aerate the water and feed back oxygen into the dam for the fish to survive. But the oil will never be completely out of the water and will stick to the reeds and seep into the soil. But we just have to try get as much out as we can."
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