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ASSOCIATED PRESS - December 28, 2004

Oil-spill cleanup makes progress on Mexican beaches, but pollution persists

By Morgan Lee
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY - Mexican state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos on
Monday announced it had recovered about two-thirds of the estimated
5,000-barrels of oil that spilled last week into a river feeding the
Gulf of Mexico.

But major work remained to be done near the source of the spill on
the Coatzacoalcos River in southern Veracruz state, according to a
federal environmental regulator and Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.

The spill occurred after an explosion Wednesday at a pumping station
near Santiago Tuxtla, about 250 miles east-southeast of Mexico City.
The blast caused a burst of high pressure that ruptured the oil line
70 miles (110 kms) away in Nanchital, just south of the Gulf port
city of Coatzacoalcos.

Four of the five people injured in the explosion remained
hospitalized Monday in Mexico City and Coatzacoalcos, with one man in
grave condition, according to a news release by Pemex.

The most visible progress in the cleanup is along the southern Gulf
Coast, where the oil reached about 40 kilometers (25 miles) of
beaches, according to Mexican Environment Department Delegate
Francisco Moreno, who surveyed the cleanup progress from the ground
and air on Monday.

Moreno said about 90 percent of the oil along the coast has been removed.

Pemex announced that the beaches of Coatzacoalcos and Allende, which
straddle a still heavily polluted river, are completely clean. About
4,400 cubic meters of lilies and other oil-soaked vegetation had been
cleared from the Coatzacoalcos River, as a state university begins to
study the impact of the spill on the river and coastal ecosystems,
Moreno said.

The state oil company estimated it had collected about 45 percent of
the 11,000 cubic meters (390,000 cubic feet) of material soaked by
the spill.

Prosecutors at the Environment Department are still considering a
criminal complaint against Pemex, which could be fined it as much as
US$200,000 (euro148,000) for the spill.

Reporting on the public-health consequences of the spill, Pemex said
its medical services have treated 24 people at a company hospital in
Nanchital and 59 patients in house calls after receiving reports of
migraine headaches and irritation of the mouth, nose and throat.
About 300 people continue to work in the cleanup effort.

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