A larger portion of pollution caused by oil spills at King Fahd Industrial Port in Yanbu has been brought under control, according to Abdullah Al-Mutairi, spokesman of the National Center for Monitoring Environmental Compliance. “The air, marine, and coastal surveillance work and containing pollution is underway by using the latest remote sensing technologies via satellite,” he said. Al-Mutairi said that the center received a report from the port authorities about monitoring of pollution caused by an oil leak at around 11 am on Saturday, October 1. Subsequently, the Environmental Protection Department of the Royal Commission in Yanbu, and the Border Guards conducted a survey to verify the presence of several affected sites. All the concerned agencies and teams started their major operation to bring the pollution under control. The Environmental Emergency Operations Room, led by Eng. Omar Taha, director general of the center in Madinah, worked around the clock, with the participation of all the relevant government, security and private agencies to bring the pollution under control, according to a statement of the center. The environmental emergency teams at the center also started activating the marine, air, and coastal operations with the participation of the Environmental Protection Department under the Royal Commission in the Yanbu Industrial City, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, the Border Guards, the Aviation and Desalination Security wings, and the Yanbu Municipality, represented by the Madinah Mayoralty, with the support of other security, governmental and private sectors in the region. The relevant environmental centers also participated in surveys to ensure the safety of wildlife and vegetation in the areas where pollution was observed. Work is underway to control pollution through the use of techniques and equipment to deal with environmental incidents of this type, with the assistance of a group of specialists and experts to deal with such cases so as to limit the spread of pollution and its access to beaches.