Work begins to identify historic oil deposits on beach in Gunton
Specialist contractors are going to be there all week.
Investigation work to find out how much oil there is still on the beach in Gunton from a historic spill in the 1970's gets underway this week.
Specialist contractors are on Lowestoft North Beach to carry out searches for oil deposits which have been there since the Eleni V spill in 1978.
It's thought the work will take around a week, with a rig used to track the affected area of the beach and detect the deposits.
People planning to visit the beach are being urged to take care around the machinery.
Cllr James Mallinder, cabinet member for the Environment said: “Establishing the extent of the buried oil deposits will give us the information necessary to make a detailed assessment of the risks they pose to beach users and the wider environment.
"What happens next will depend on the results of our analysis of the findings of the survey work. Any excavations at the site may affect the rate of coastal erosion, and the surrounding environment, and so any decision about removing the deposits will be carefully considered.”
Earlier this year, large outcrops of oil were exposed following a spate of high tides and some of the loose drier material was removed by East Suffolk Norse, working with a specialist disposal company. During the summer, the beach has built up, re-covering the previously exposed material.
The council says any freshly exposed material will be dealt with in a similar manner.