It's expected to take days to remove the 7,200-gallon slick that spewed into a man's garden after heavy rains brought on a giant spill at nearby BELCO.

Staff at the electricity company are now working to remove the giant mix of oil and water that landed in the Pembroke property after days of downpours caused the overflow of a tank containing waste oil.

Yesterday morning two days after Saturday's spill the stench of oil remained in the air.

White absorbent pads similar to the inside of a diaper, remained floating atop the garden to sop up the mess. Despite that, the homeowner said he was pleased with BELCO's response to the spill, which had covered the majority of his lawn.

Under BELCO's instruction, four truckloads of the mixture totalling 1,800 gallons each were pumped out of the garden on Sunday.

"The morning we discovered the spill we contacted BELCO and they responded by sending an engineer over. He apologised for BELCO and he gave me an assessment of what has happened and he's planned the clean-up," said the man, who did not want to be named.

"I was impressed because they did have an idea of what to do. Even on the [Cup Match holiday] weekend, they were able to mobilise a team of guys and the truck."

He continued: "They sucked up a lot of the liquid. There's still remaining liquid and [the diaper-like items] are absorbing devices designed to suck up the oil."

The man said BELCO is expected to return to his house to remove the pads and do more cleaning. "I was pleased to see that they were looking to take steps to restore what has been damaged in terms of the soil and the grass that's been contaminated. It has to be removed and redone. They're stepping up to the plate."

BELCO notified media of the spill at its Serpentine Road plant in a press release on Sunday, saying emergency measures were quickly put into place.

The company said the recovered spillage was around 70 percent liquid and 30 percent oil.

A spokesman said yesterday: "BELCO continues work to clean up and make repairs, after an oil and water spill that occurred at the company's Oily Water Treatment Plant on Saturday, 31 July, after several days of heavy rain.

"Clean-up work is also ongoing at a neighbour's property. This includes temporarily relocating several banana trees and cane plants, so that grass and soil can be removed, then replaced. "Representatives of BELCO's Environment Business Centre and the Ministry of Environment have met to review the spill and agree [on the] next steps. BELCO will continue to work closely with the Ministry throughout the clean-up and remediation process."