Went out to Tanah Merah in the afternoon and the acrid smell of the oil spill filled the air near the PUB waste water treatment works. The location was about midway between SAF Yacht Club and Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.
There was a lot of sludge which had accumulated in the drainage canal leading out to the sea. I lifted one of the grilles to get a look at the sludge which kept thrashing about as the waves moved along the canal from the shore opening.
Despite the absorbent booms (now a deep chocolate colour) which had been placed at certain points in the canal, it seemed as if the booms were useless against the continual onslaught of the waves.
Shortly thereafter, a huge tank truck drove up alongside the canal. It had the words 'Vacuum Tanker' on the rear. The workers quickly set up the vacuum hose and slowly lowered it into the drain. The idea was to suck up all the sludge...harder than it seems...as they did not want seawater as well...only sludge...this meant that the hose had to be kept at the surface and could not go too much below the surface. This was very difficult with the constant wave action sloshing around the sludge in the drainage chamber. The system was probably not designed to handle wave action as the workers could only momentarily suck up sludge in between the ups and downs of the waves in the drainage chamber.
It was only when I walked out along the narrow canal towards the shore when I saw that there was another stretch of oil close to the shore. This was about 200m (probably longer) and about 20m wide. The wave action seemed to compress the slick within 20m band near the shore and there was a visible demarcation in the colour of the water further out. The light green of clean seawater vs. the chocolate brown of the slick. The PUB contractor promptly reported the slick and it was not long before an NEA officer appeared on site to take stock of the situation.
If this slick moved south, then the public beaches farther south would need another cleaning.
More pics here.
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