ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Oil Spill Destroys Environment and Jobs

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 21 2000 (IPS) - Tourism, the fishing industry, animals and vital ecosystems are all victims of the worst oil spill in Rio’s Guanabara Bay since 1975, which has now reached the bay’s mangrove swamp environmental preserve.

The disaster began Tuesday with a rupture in a pipeline transporting industrial petroleum from a refinery to a by-products warehouse on d’Agua Island, located in the bay.

A half million litres of oil were spilled, according to the giant government-run oil company Petrobras, which owns the Duque de Caxías Refinery. The Environmental Secretariat of Rio de Janeiro state, however, put the total closer to 800,000 to one million litres.

The spill’s effects on the environment were aggravated by winds that spread the slick over 50 square km, reaching the Guapimirim mangrove swamps, an environmentally protected area deep in the bay that is considered the principal nursery for local aquatic plant life.

Biologists predict that it will take up to 10 years for the affected ecosystems to recover. In many cases “the damage is irreparable,” according to André Correa, the state’s environmental secretary.

The mangrove swamps provide nourishment for two-thirds of the bay’s fish and are an important habitat for many shellfish and other animals essential for the marine food-chain, explained biologist Mario Moscatelli, an expert on the local ecosystems.

Guanabara Bay has an area of 412 square km, and nine million people live in the surrounding areas, part of the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region. The Duque de Caxías oil refinery is located near the shore.

The disaster has left some 600 members of the local fishing community without a source of income. Their lawyer, George Telles, said they would charge Petrobras 7.3 million dollars in damages for their material losses, as well as monthly payments for the period of forced inactivity.

Area tourism has also been affected. Paquetá island, a paradise without cars in the middle of the bay, was deprived of the 30,000 visitors who were expected to spend the extended weekend, as Thursday was a local holiday. Its beaches are now covered with crude.

More than 700 people, including Petrobras technicians and officials from the state and local governments, as well as numerous volunteers, are trying to clean the beaches and prevent the oil from spreading further.

Environmental authorities convoked biology students to join in the task of rescuing animals, especially birds, that are dying from being covered in oil, or because their food sources have been destroyed.

The national environmental minister, José Sarney Filho, observed the oil spill from a helicopter Friday. He confirmed that Petrobras will be slapped with an “example-setting fine,” which could reach the maximum established by Brazil’s Environmental Crimes Act: 28 million dollars.

This incident is similar to one in March 1997 involving the same pipeline, when 600,000 litres of industrial-use fuel spilled, pointed out Nilton Cesario, president of the Duque de Caxias Oil Workers Union.

The refinery is 40 years old and must undergo repairs and other reforms in order to ensure safety, especially because several industrial chemical plants are to be built nearby, which will only increase risks, warned the union leader.

Petrobras president Henri Phillippe Reichstul assured that the ruptured pipeline is only 10 years old and has a working-life of 30 years. But he added that the company assumes “total responsibility” for the accident and promised to compensate all affected parties.

Guanabara Bay, one of the natural wonders that makes Rio de Janeiro the nation’s number-one tourist destination, is the victim of constant environmental aggressions. This week’s oil spill is inferior only to the one in 1975 caused by the Greek ship Tarik, which dumped 5.8 million litres of oil into the bay.

Smaller quantities are frequently spilled in the area by ships in this international port or by the Petrobras pipelines.

The bay also receives the sewage water from the millions of nearby residents. A decontamination project has been underway for more than 10 years at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, a large portion of which has come from the Inter-American Development Bank.

“All that effort has been lost because of this accident,” lamented Rio state governor Anthony Garotinho, who called on Petrobras to provide major resources for recovering the environmentally damaged area.