Brazilians Battle Massive Oil Spill

R I O   D E   J A N E I R O, Brazil, July 19 -- Hundreds of workers dug runoffchannels and strung barriers across a river in southern Brazil onTuesday in a race to contain the country’s worst oil spill in 25years.

State oil company Petrobras said late Tuesday that its crewssucceeded in containing the spill near Balsa Nova, a town about 25miles downstream from the Getulio Vargas oil refinery.

But Jose Antonio Andreguetto, president of Parana State’sEnvironmental Protection Agency, disputed those reports saying atleast 20 percent of the slick had breached the barriers.

Conflicting Reports

A pipe in the Petrobras-owned refinery burst Sunday and spewedmore than 1 million gallons of crude oil into a tributary of theIguacu River.

But on Tuesday night, a Petrobras official who declined to beidentified, said the spill was smaller than the company hadinitially believed, though he didn’t provide a new estimate of itssize.

He said crews already had removed more than 85,000 gallons ofoil from the river, and at least 20 percent of the oil already hadevaporated.

Environmentalists said the chances were remote that the oilcould reach Iguacu Falls, 400 miles away. Iguacu is one of theworld’s biggest water falls and a major tourist attraction.

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“I am very optimistic about our ability to stop the oil beforeit reaches the falls,” Andreguetto said. “But the possibilitycannot be discarded.”

Deadly Trail

Dead fish, birds and mammals coated in oil were washing up onthe Iguacu’s banks, environmental officials said. Egrets andcapybaras—the world’s largest rodent—were particularly hardhit. Riverside residents were told to stop irrigating cropsand cooking with the water.

Environmentalists said their goal was to keep the spill fromreaching Uniao da Vitoria, a city of 70,000 people about 125 milesbelow the slow-moving slick. The city depends on the Iguacu fordrinking water.

Andreguetto said the spill already has hurt the water suppliesfor about 10,000 riverside residents. And while the water qualitycould recover within two or three days, environmentalists said theoil-coated river bed and banks will take longer to bounce back.