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Progress of cleaning up palm stearin
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     The Government today (August 14) continued to clean up the palm stearin on the sea surface and at the beaches.

     From the inspections conducted today, gradual improvement in situation was observed. The oil content of water samples collected from beaches concerned also remained at a low level. Having considered factors such as water quality and cleanup progress, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) announced this afternoon the reopening of South Bay Beach in Southern District, and will continue to conduct routine cleanup at the six reopened beaches. However, there might still be trace amount of palm stearin pellets remained in the sand. The LCSD reminded swimmers to stay alert when using the re-opened beaches, not to play with or take in palm stearin, and to rinse their feet before entering changing rooms to avoid slippery caused by the palm stearin stuck. The government departments will continue to monitor the situation and enhance cleanup of palm stearin, with a view to reopening the remaining beaches concerned as soon as possible.

     On the other hand, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) did not find any mariculturist being affected by the incident so far. No palm stearin was found at fish culture zones or in their vicinity today. The oil boom deployed at Lo Tik Wan fish culture zone kept preventing palm stearin from entering the fish culture zone. In addition, while the Cape D'Aguilar Marine Reserve and the nesting site of Green Turtles in Sham Wan on Lamma Island have by and large been cleaned up after the cleaning work in the past few days, the AFCD will maintain its cleanup efforts so as to remove the palm stearin possibly remaining at the sites. The AFCD will continue to monitor the impact on the fishing industry and the marine environment, especially that of waters with important ecological value.

     The Marine Department, the LCSD, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the AFCD and the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) deployed around 260 staff members in total for conducting inspections and cleanup today to tackle with this palm stearin leakage incident. As at 12 noon today, the government departments collected some 205 tonnes (i.e. 205 000 kilograms) of palm stearin recovered on the sea surface and at the beaches.

     The Government noted the allegation of a specific organisation that the Government provided misleading information on the location of vessels concerned in the vessel collision. A Government spokesman said that allegation is incorrect. The Under Secretary for the Environment, Mr Tse Chin-wan, had clearly pointed out that the vessel collision took place in Mainland waters which was a few nautical miles from the southwesterly Hong Kong waters at a media stand-up session after his inspection at beaches on Lamma Island on August 8 morning. The relevant information has been reported by a few media. The Government did not hide or provide any misleading information in this incident.
 
Ends/Monday, August 14, 2017
Issued at HKT 21:24
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