The cleanup of about 30 tons of mussels dumped by strong waves on the beachfront of three barangays in Valladolid town, Negros Occidental, was completed yesterday afternoon.

Instead of burying the mussels, we crushed them with heavy equipment, to drain the water in them that was causing the stench, Francis Mate, Valladolid Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management officer, said yesterday.

The finely crushed shells were then thrown back to the sea, he said.

They also dug up the shells that they initially buried and crushed them to make sure that the stench would be removed, before they too were thrown back into the sea, Mate added.

The mussels had been dumped by big waves, brought on by typhoon Egay, on the shorelines of barangays Tabao Proper, Central Tabao, and Bagumbayan from June 4 to 6, Valladolid Mayor Romel Yogore said Thursday.

They used backhoes for the cleanup because a manual clean up could take too long, with knee-deep mats of mussels over large stretches of the beachfront, he said.

Mate said they were checking on deep wells in the areas where the mussels were to insure that there was no water contamination.

He said the initial stench in the area has cleared up.

Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. had sent heavy equipment to Valladolid to help in the clean up, and rice assistance to affected residents, Zeaphard Gerhart Caelian, Provincial Disaster Management Program Division chief, said.

Marañon said the volume of mussels dumped in Valladolid goes to show how rich the country is in marine resources.*CPG

back to top