Heavy rain caused a giant oil and water spill at Belco, leaving a nearby homeowner with a 7,200 gallon slick in his garden.

The problem stemmed from several inches of rain that's fallen in the past few days. The water flooded a tank where waste oil is processed at the company's Pembroke plant, causing it to overflow.

The smell of the oil was still hanging in the air as the homeowner who requested his name not be printed spoke to The Royal Gazette last night.

He explained: "I have a tenant downstairs and he called me at 8.30 this morning because he smelled the fumes from the oil. First of all there was a pool of water from all the torrential rainfall. Above that was a black layer of oil. I have a pretty big garden and it extended from one side to the other."

The man called Belco to report the problem, and a "very apologetic" manager soon got in touch.

"He said there was a leak. They have a dyke around the (oil) containers and somehow it failed. They're 30 feet away and it came over here. I was grateful he set things in motion to remedy things. It's a weekend, but within an hour there was a cleanup crew here," he said.

Four truck loads of water, totalling 1,800 gallons each, were pumped out of the garden yesterday. There are now booms floating around the edge of the property to contain the slick, which has flooded flower beds and the lawn and left bluebird boxes sticking up out of the water.

A series of white absorbent pads have been placed on the lawn to suck up the remainder of the oil.

The homeowner says the Belco manager pledged to repair the damage once the clean-up is finished, and he does not believe wildlife has been impacted.

"I'm sure there may have been a few little singing frogs suffering but I've not seen any birds or wildlife affected," he said. "It looked like a dark slick, like my own little Gulf oil spill but I guess he did well in the PR department and he didn't come off like that BP president."

Explaining how the problem unfolded, Belco spokeswoman Susan McGrath Smith said: "At approximately 5.20 p.m on Saturday, Belco workers reported seeing oil on the ground near the company's Oily Water Treatment Plant, where waste oil is separated from water, processed and containerised for shipment overseas where it is recycled."

By Sunday, rainwater had flooded the system at the plant in Serpentine Road, Pembroke, causing the oil and water mixture to overflow.

"Immediately, Belco's Major Environmental Emergency Contingency Plan was set in motion with teams working to contain the spill with absorbent materials, including booms across the Pembroke Canal that runs through the central plant," said Mrs. McGrath-Smith.

"At the same time, a Belco incident command team was called, including representatives of the company's operations, administration, environment and safety departments, arriving at the C. Eugene Cox Operations Centre by 6.30 p.m to coordinate and monitor the containment and clean-up effort.

"Simultaneously, Bermuda Fire Service, Ministry of the Environment and Works and Engineering were notified, and contractors were called in to assist."

According to Mrs. McGrath Smith, the liquid recovered is around 70 percent liquid and 30 percent oil. Belco estimates that 600-700 gallons of the mixture spilled.

Approximately 3,600 gallons of oil and water were pumped from the Oily Water Treatment Plant to reduce the amount of liquid in the tanks on Saturday, and sent to Government's hazardous waste facility.

Clean-up work is expected to continue for several days with booms remaining in Pembroke Canal throughout the process, and Mrs. McGrath-Smith said an investigation into the incident is ongoing.

According to Bermuda Weather Service, around three-and-a-quarter inches of rain fell between Thursday July 29 and last night, but the weather is due to improve this week.