Diolch, Lywydd. As Members will be aware, on 4 October, Natural Resources Wales were notified of a kerosene spill from the pipeline adjacent to the A48 near Nantycaws.

In the immediate response to the incident, the fire and rescue service deployed emergency oil spill containment booms on the Nant Pibwr and Natural Resources Wales established a multi-agency co-ordination centre. Specialist clean-up contractors engaged by the operator, Valero, were on site by Tuesday afternoon to begin the work of removing the oil from the stream. According to Valero an estimated 140,000 litres had escaped from the mainline pipeline. However, more than two thirds of this has now been recovered by Valero’s specialist contractors. A series of oil spill containment booms remains in place while the oil is being removed. Valero and its contractors are undertaking the clean-up response with advice from Natural Resources Wales.

NRW is undertaking monitoring of potential environmental impacts, together with Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, Public Health Wales and Carmarthenshire County Council. People are of course concerned about their drinking water. An article in yesterday’s ‘Western Mail’ about the Nantycaws kerosene spill mistakenly stated that Welsh Water confirmed on Friday that there was an impact on water supplies, when it should have said that they had confirmed there was no impact on public water supplies. This was a mistake and Dŵr Cymru contacted the editor yesterday to get this corrected as soon as possible, and a correction has been printed in today’s edition of the newspaper. I understand all other relevant media outlets have been informed that this was an error on the part of the newspaper and Dŵr Cymru have also put out a message on social media in order to mitigate any unmerited levels of concern.

Four local properties of the 12 that draw water from private supplies in the immediate area as a precaution are not using their supplies for the time being. Dŵr Cymru has provided bottled water and will continue to do so on request. Dŵr Cymru has also offered to temporarily connect those properties to the public water supply network. One property has accepted this offer. The other properties have been advised to contact the Valero liaison officer who will then liaise with Dŵr Cymru on their behalf should they wish to connect.

Initial river ecological surveys have been carried out to assess the significance of localised damage to the river ecology and a fish kill assessment was also conducted. The ecological impacts appear to have been limited to a small section of the Nant Pibwr and there is no sign of significant impact downstream on the River Towy.

Work on site to monitor and remediate the potential longer term impact will continue, and a number of boreholes are to be drilled around the point of discharge to enable monitoring of the impacts on groundwater. Natural Resources Wales are providing advice on weather and hydrology and are overseeing the proposals for remediation submitted by the operator.

On Saturday I visited Nantycaws to see the ongoing work to minimise the impacts of the oil spill for myself. I met Emyr Roberts, chief executive of NRW, and his local team, and thanked NRW staff at the incident centre in Cross Hands for their work in co-ordinating the response. I also met senior representatives and contractors of the operator, Valero, to see the remedial work that they had put in place.

Whilst such an incident should, of course, be prevented in the first place, I am satisfied with the incident response and handling. The speed of the response has contained the spread of the kerosene and avoided wider impacts. I am receiving regular updates on the situation and will continue to monitor its progress.

In order for Valero to replace the fractured pipeline, the A48 will unfortunately need to be closed in both directions from the evening of 14 October to early Monday 17 October. All traffic will be diverted along the official diversion route through Llangunnor. Whilst I acknowledge this will cause inconvenience for people and businesses in west Wales, the weekend closure should minimise the impact on the travelling public and allow a speedy completion of the necessary works to restore the pipeline and seal the affected section.

Once the incident is concluded, the Health and Safety Executive and NRW, as the relevant regulators, will investigate the cause of the pipeline breach and the pollution incident respectively, and will take appropriate action under their powers.