Gibraltar, the polluter that doesn't pay

The Strait winds blow the smell of rotten eggs into Punta Europa, on the southernmost tip of the Rock. The stench is coming in from the ships that are refueling offshore while anchored in Algeciras Bay. Coupled together with large hoses, they look like asymmetrical partners conducting some kind of extravagant mating ritual: fuel barges are paired up with 100-meter long boats, and tankers with merchant ships over 300 meters in length.

"That smell is the gas that escapes from the tankers while the ships refuel; it is penetrating and unpleasant, but they say it is not harmful," explains a resident of Gibraltar.

The bay of Algeciras is an environmental time bomb with its refinery, its thermal power plant and its British nuclear submarine base. It is the spot in Europe most at risk for hydrocarbon spills and the world's fourth largest bunkering center (supplying ships with fuel). Over 106,000 vessels, of which 5,000 are oil tankers, representing 10 percent of global traffic, cross the Strait of Gibraltar each year.

"This is a black tide," despairs Cádiz's environmental lawyer Navarro

Cheap gas is the draw for the more than 106,000 ships in the Strait

"What we have here is a black tide of constant spills, and a unique endemic situation," says Patricia Navarro, the environmental attorney for Cádiz.

The Grey Hunter (which spilled 100,000 tons of Libyan oil), the Petrogen One, Camponavía, Sea Esprit, Hesperus, Segundo Teniente J. P. Bobo, Spabunker Cuatro, Avemar Dos, Atlas, Ocean Globe, Sierra Nava, New Flame, Torm Gertrud, Fedra, Tawe and Ropas 1 have all left their mark on the bay in the last 20 years.

But even though the combined volume of their accidental spills may be enormous, the greatest damage of all may nevertheless come from fuel losses during daily bunkering procedures and bilge cleaning performed offshore.

"Very often we don't even find out about those spills, and besides that, it is very difficult to demand accountability because Gibraltar is highly irresponsible when it comes to pollution. There is no such thing as 'the polluter pays' here. Rather, the impression is the contrary, that anything goes," says Navarro.

Since Spain began to use specialized air patrols to help reduce the impunity with which, until now, ships from all over the world cleaned out their holds in Spanish waters, the Bay of Algeciras and Gibraltar have been revealed as a black hole of pollution.

It is as though Gibraltar was sending out the message: 'Come and see! We sell marine fuel 20 percent cheaper and you can refuel offshore, without putting in at port. Save yourself those annoying port inspections and mooring costs! We won't check whether your ships are single-hull or whether they break other EU laws. This is Gibraltar, the great floating gas station between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.' The pull effect is unquestionable. A decade ago, the volume of fuel being transferred in the bay was not quite a million tons; by late 2009 it was five times that.

According to Greenpeace, two-thirds of crude oil is transferred in Gibraltarian waters and the rest in Spanish waters via barges that fill up at the Cepsa refinery, in the Spanish municipality of San Roque. A calculation of the bunkering activity yields a total of 60,000 annual unloading procedures, and 60,000 coupling and uncoupling procedures with their inherent risk of spillage. Dozens of vessels that can hold up to 300,000 tons of fuel are moored on a daily basis east of the Rock and between the North Mole and the estuary of Gibraltar. Some of these are barges with less than 2,000 metric tons, but there are four large ships with enough capacity for 100,000 tons.

This concentration of super-tankers and other large vessels just a short distance from the coast - the British colony awards itself a mile and a half of territorial waters - blocks the views of the bay. A quick look at the website localizatodo.com is enough to confirm that the Bay of Algeciras has become a refuge for the endless trail of ships passing through the Strait.

Satellite images typically show a few isolated vessels hugging the coast, creeping up from the east at low speed. These boats are waiting their turn at the floating gas stations and, in the meantime, crossing back and forth between Spanish and Gibraltarian waters - the colony claims jurisdiction over three miles on that side of Gibraltar - invoking what is known in marine jargon as "innocent passage."

Although it not always accepted by states, innocent passage establishes the right to cross other countries' territorial waters in a fast, uninterrupted manner and without harming or endangering the coastal state.

But given the effects of bunkering, it is difficult to sustain that those ships are not potentially harmful for the municipalities of Algeciras, La Línea and San Roque, which are already suffering greatly from industrial pollution, and where life expectancy is 20 percent lower than the national average, according to a study by Pompeu Fabra University professor Joan Benach.

But as the chief attorney of Algeciras, Juan Cisneros, points out, every time a Civil Guard patrol boat comes anywhere near the ships conducting innocent passage, a British vessel comes out to block the way.

Cisneros holds that, by virtue of the Utrecht Treaty of 1713, in which Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain, Gibraltar does not actually posess any territorial waters even if today it acts as if it does, and the Spanish authorities accept this in practice.

The latest incident took place Tuesday, when Gibraltarian authorities reported a skirmish between a Spanish navy patrol boat, the P74 Atalaya, and a merchant ship east of Gibraltar, in waters it considers its own.

The navy boat allegedly ordered the ship to move away since it lacked a Spanish permit to anchor there. Gibraltar, which called the incident "a very serious challenge to British sovereignty," ordered the ships moored in the area to remain where they were, and sent out its own navy boat to meet its Spanish counterpart and warn it that it was in British waters.

The Spanish Defense Ministry later stated that the P74 Atalaya acted "in waters under Spanish sovereignty and in observance of international legislation."

"The great problem of pollution in the bay has a name, and it's Gibraltar," says Cisneros. "On Spanish territory, we have more control over things. Gibraltar does not place any restrictions on the ships that contravene European legislation for the same reason that they don't place restrictions on money laundering: because that is their business. We can start as many legal proceedings as we like and send as many investigative committees as we wish, but it's a waste of time because their willingness to cooperate with the justice system is nil."

Spill cases are shelved because the perpetrators remain unknown and because it is impossible to investigate the matter, says Cisneros, who believes it would be preferable to deal directly with Britain, since "at least we could address them in the EU context."

The message that Peter Caruana, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, sends across on this issue is that bunkering does involve a higher risk of accidents than land facilities, but that Gibraltar carefully observes all international and European laws. "We are not environmental terrorists," he replies every time green groups warn of the "daily risk of catastrophe." Caruana argues that Spanish criticism conceals the desire to enter into a debate over territorial sovereignty.

As a matter of fact, the EU has not banned bunkering, although it demands that established safety measures be scrupulously followed. On that point, and on the lack of legal cooperation, is where Gibraltarian authorities clash with Spanish environmental attorneys, who use the example of the cargo ship New Flame to illustrate Gibraltar's attitude.

On August 12, 2007 the New Flame slammed into the oil tanker Torm Gertrud in Punta Europa and it remained half-sunken until it finally went completely under on February 11, despite Gibraltar's commitment to adopting "all opportune measures to prevent any accident."

The New Flame spilled out its 700 tons of fuel and 50 tons of diesel in successive waves. The pollution reached the beaches of La Concha, Getares, El Rinconcillo and El Chicharral, as well as the mouth of the River Pícaro and part of the port of Algeciras, but all that the government of Gibraltar would admit to were "slight diesel traces," and it refused to cooperate with the Spanish investigation.

"There was no alternative but to dismiss the case," recalls the attorney Navarro.

Far from considering the need for a reduction in bunkering, Gibraltar is planning to create a new area east of the Rock to increase trade in fuel even further. The fact that this area is formally part of the natural park of the Strait, home to protected species, does not seem to be an obstacle.

"Since they don't have room for more ships and they still want to expand their supply capacity to 400,000 tons, they are now planning to build a new dam using the Dutch system of reclaiming land from the sea," explains Antonio Muñoz Secilla, the founder of the association Verdemar.

According to him, Gibraltar is trying to gain more space, more ships, more business, and to consolidate its control over waters that it claims as its own and which Spain does not recognize.

His colleague at Ecologistas en Acción, Raquel Ñeco, underscores the disappearance of the underwater meadows of Poseidonia oceanica, an endemic Mediterranean seaweed that used to cover the bay bottom. She also cites a study by the researcher Concepción Cruz Rojo, who says that the risk of specific cancers and allergies in this area is up to 40 percent higher than the national average.

"My own father worked at the refinery and died of bladder cancer because of the benzene," she adds.

Given the lack of cooperation between Spanish and Gibraltarian authorities, environmental groups from both sides of the border are working close together, arguing that economic and political interests are taking precedence over the health problems of area residents.