By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

LOCAL farmer Harold Adderley says he was forced to abandon his farm of ten years after the 2019 oil spill at the Equinor South Riding Point plant in East Grand Bahama.

Today, the animals he left behind are freely roaming the constituency unkempt in search of food.

Mr Adderley, a Grand Bahama resident, said the oil spill during Hurricane Dorian in September 2019 contributed to “extensive damages” to his five-acre farm.

He said he is at a loss for words over how his passion ended abruptly.

He said the oil spill, which has been estimated at 55,000 barrels (2.3 million gallons), led him to close his lucrative business, Big H Livestock Farm, in South Riding Point, East Grand Bahama.

“Frankly, words cannot begin to exemplify how saddened and crushed I am as a result of this misfortunate situation,” he told The Tribune yesterday. “I feel like the prophet Job in the Bible who lost everything. However, I am forever grateful to God for my life and a second chance to restart.

“I have endured the burden of immense pain for approximately four years while undergoing depression. I still had to be strong and care for my wife who was diagnosed with cancer in 2018.

“Then on December 3, 2022, I buried my beloved 29-year-old son who was admitted into the Rand Memorial Hospital in the ICU ward, which continues to plague me to this day because I was unable to fly him out of the country to receive better medical attention in the United States when he faced his calamity, due to me exhausting all my funds on the restoration of my farm.”

The 63-year-old said he first harvested papayas and pigeon peas, goats and pigs but eventually stopped raising goats and primarily focused on pigs.

He said all of his crops and livestock were severely damaged as a result of the oil spill.

Initially, he said, the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources assisted with five 100-pound pig feed supplies and clearing the farmland, but on July 29, 2020, he was given a devastating notice from the ministry.

The letter read: “The Department of Agriculture has conducted an inspection of your five-acre farm located in South Riding Point, East Grand Bahama on the 27th July, 2020. The inspection has revealed that the integrity of pigs belonging to you were compromised due to their exposure to oil or oil by-products.

“The oil spill in September 2019 at the Equinor facility as a result of the passing of Hurricane Dorian has led to the compromised state of your pigs and you are hereby encouraged to neither slaughter them nor sell them for human consumption as they represent a health risk to any prospective consumer.

“This letter serves as a notice for you to take the necessary precautions moving forward.”

At the time, Mr Adderley said he presumed that following the Department of Agriculture’s assessment, it would begin preparing to relocate his farm to another site. However, the department considered his farmland condemned.

Since then, Mr Adderley said he has not returned to the farm site as it brings him pain and anguish after suffering such loss.

He said successive governments have failed both himself and the residents of East End who have been affected by the oil spill.

“I feel like both the FNM (Free National Movement) and PLP (Progressive Liberal Party) administration has failed me, including the defenceless residents of East End who have suffered irreparable damages similar to me and now have to reside in an oil-infested environment that poses a great threat to their health.

“This is absolutely not the time to rant in the House of Assembly and point fingers debating who did not do their part. The point of the matter is simply this, the past and present government has allowed Equinor company to come to Grand Bahama, establish a lucrative oil business, and earn billions of dollars.

“However, following the oil spill which affected many local residents in the East End community, the government has not rendered any support nor made any attempt to ensure that affected victims are justly compensated.”

Mr Adderley said he is too traumatised to consider reopening another farm in the near future.