Workmen lay a boom across the harbour following an oil spill yesterday.

OIL from Guernsey Electricity flooded into St Sampson’s Harbour yesterday.

A clean-up operation was launched using absorbent materials, floats and detergents after a 50-metre slick stretched across the marina.

Marine and General director David Norman said his staff noticed the oil early in the morning.

‘It looks like a heavy fuel oil, a relatively unrefined crude,’ he said.

‘If it was diesel fuel or lube oil it really disperses in the water and just forms a sheen, but with this there are lumps of black substance.’

The black blobs clung to steps leading into the marina.

Director of the Environmental Health Department Val Cameron said: ‘We understand that, due to a technical problem, a quantity of heavy oil has escaped into St Sampson’s marina from Guernsey Electricity.’

The department checked the scene.

‘There appears to be no public health implications arising from this incident. We are satisfied with the remedial work being carried out to deal with the effects of the oil on boat hulls and the sea wall. These measures also have no impact on public health.’