BRAZIL : July 19, 2000

CURITIBA - Workers raced yesterday to contain Brazil's biggest oil spill in 25 years as it flowed down the southern Iguacu River, endangering drinking water, farm land and animal life along a 140-mile (230 km) stretch.

Parana state officials said the 1.06 million gallons (4 million liters) of crude oil that leaked on Sunday at a refinery operated by state-owned oil giant Petrobras constituted the worst river contamination ever in Brazil.

Parana's environmental agency said the situation was much worse than Petrobras' oil spill six months ago in Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay, where 345,000 gallons (1.3 million liters) blackened beaches and decimated marine life.

"There it was much easier to control the situation because in the river you have a current," agency president Jose Antonio Andreguetto told reporters.

Environmental experts downriver said the slick was nearing an area where the Iguacu widened, at which point it would be very difficult to bring under control.

"What we are seeing is disorganization and Petrobras is improvising solutions," said Tereza Urban, coordinator of environmental group Rede Verde.

Petrobras brought in 400 people to place floating barriers and dig ditches off the river banks to divert oil and has hired U.S. cleanup specialists Clean Caribbean Cooperation. It expects to finish the operation in 10 days.

So far, Petrobras said it had collected 66,000 gallons (250,000 liters) of oil - less than a tenth of the total.

The spill occurred 13 miles (20 km) downstream from the state capital of Curitiba, sparing the prosperous city's 1.5 million inhabitants of any immediate danger. Curitiba is located 240 miles (390 km) south of Sao Paulo.

But authorities warned that the slick could advance by Today to Uniao da Vitoria, a town of 75,000 people located 140 miles (233 km) west of Curitiba that depends on the Iguacu for drinking water and has an important hydroelectric dam.

OTHER COUNTRIES THREATENED

Andreguetto said the oil "could contaminate not only other states but also other countries."

The Iguacu runs west nearly 400 miles (635 km) to the world-famous Iguacu Falls on the border with Argentina and Paraguay. It flows into the Parana River, which turns into the River Plate before discharging into the Atlantic Ocean after Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

Brazil's Foreign Ministry said it had informed the governments of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay of its efforts to keep the oil from spilling over Brazil's borders.

Vice-president Marco Maciel, standing in for President Fernando Henrique Cardoso while he is in Africa, called a meeting yesterday afternoon with top environmental officials.

Environment Minister Jose Sarney Filho has warned that Petrobras may be slapped with more fines than the 50 million reais ($28 million) handed down on Monday because it had committed the same infraction twice in six months.

Fernando Gabeira, renowned activist and federal congressman for the Green Party, said the company - Brazil's biggest - lacked the software and emergency controls to stop the spill, which lasted two hours on Sunday afternoon.

"The team that was working that day was not trained to avoid this type of accident nor did they have the necessary equipment," Gabeira said at the site of the spill.

Environmental organisations were gathered in Curitiba to draw up a preliminary inventory of the wildlife threatened along the long stretch of river.

"We have seen many birds affected, some stained and some dead, as well as dead fish," said Urban. "So far, we have not spotted any mammals."

The environmentalists are urging neighbouring populations to find, clean and warm the birds until professional rescue groups arrive. The river is home to kingfishers, wild ducks and herons.

The current spill is the country's biggest since a 1974 spill in Guanabara Bay.

Story by Carolina Matos

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE