The History of the Oil Storage Tanks on South Church Street
Dear Sir,
I have been following the on-line reports
of Cayman Net News on the study of the oil storage facilities
on Grand Cayman.
Beginning in the 1950's Esso representatives from Jamaica and
the Cayman Islands leased the area where the Esso tanks are today,
as told to me by my grandfather:
It is alleged that the representatives of that company visited an elderly lady who was the original owner of the property. She was offered ten pounds sterling per month to lease the property to erect oil storage tanks. They leased the property for ten pounds per month with an agreement to purchase at her death for forty thousand pounds.
A number of landowners in the area made objections to the government and the application went before the eighteen vestrymen at that time for permission to construct the tanks. Eleven voted against it and seven voted for it including the local representative for Esso, and everyone thought that they had won the battle. The governor of Jamaica at that time was also the governor of the Cayman Islands and it is alleged that he vetoed the bill and allowed the tanks to be constructed there.
In so far as we are aware this is the only one time in the history of the Cayman Islands that a bill has been vetoed by a governor.
One of the first managers of Esso was a Caymanian and a number of local residents suggested to him that the old lady that owned the original Esso property had been taken advantage of and after much insisting Esso decided to increase the rent to 20 pounds per month. And it is alleged that after the death of the elderly lady that the property was bought for a song.
Not too long after this took place Texaco decided to erect a second oil facility and they secured a property just north of the Esso compound.
South Church Street then became an oil storage area and to add to the potential danger, propane tanks were installed just off Walkers Road and not too far from the Esso tanks. As recent as last November during hurricane Michelle, I understand that oil was spilled all over the area and the Fire Department instructed the surrounding neighbors to leave and stop all vehicular traffic for fear of igniting the oil that could have created a massive destruction.
The sea wall at Esso was destroyed and I don't know if it has ever been repaired. This is an example of the inherent danger in a prime residential area on South Church Street and we believe that the feelings are that all three facilities should be removed to a safer area.
It was recently published in your newspaper that in 1984 there was an LPG Gas accident in Mexico that killed 500 people and wounded 7,000. In 1990 in Bangkok Thailand 68 people were killed with 100 injured from a small quantity of gas of only 22,000 gallons. In 1966 in France 18 people were killed and 81 injured with a quantity of gas being 320,000 gallons.
It has been said that Esso storage tanks have a capacity of over one and a half million gallons of gasoline and nearly four million gallons of diesel. It is also said that Texaco storage is even larger than Esso including jet fuel therefore it is reasonable to believe that there are somewhere between ten to twelve million gallons of various oils stored between the two facilities at any one time, in addition to over 200 thousand gallons of propane in the Walkers Road area. This without a doubt is a most serious situation not only to think of the many residences but of the over 16 hundred schoolchildren in the nearby schools.
If there was ever a serious accident at one location it would undoubtedly spread to the other locations, in which case not only the neighbors and school might be blown out of existence, but the entire South Church Street area on up thru Walkers Road, and only the good lord knows how far it would go and what would actually take place. The only thing that could compare to this would be the bombing of the World Trade Centers on September 11th 2001.
This is a serious serious accident waiting to happen and I implore the Government to seek professional advise on this very very urgent matter.
Leon Bush