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Oil spot pollutes sea in N. Italy after pipeline breakage

Xinhua, April 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

A large oil spot was pinpointed off the coast of Liguria region in northern Italy on Saturday, days after an underground pipeline connected to a refinery broke and polluted a creek flowing into the sea.

"Our guard ship has located a two km long and 500 meter wide oil spot," the head of Ligurian capital city Genoa's port authority, Giovanni Pettorino, was quoted as saying by local media.

The leakage occurred during the transfer of crude oil from a ship in a Genoa port to a refinery on last Sunday night.

Emergency measures were immediately enacted by Iplom, a company headquartered north of Genoa which runs the refinery, but dozens of wild animals were found dead or near death when the oil polluted two creeks, of which one flows into the sea.

"The situation is complicated, we do not know how much crude oil could end up in the sea. The port authority has declared the state of local emergency," Genoa civil protection councillor Gianni Crivello said.

Meanwhile, spots of oil have been also reported on a seashore of the region, which is a renowned touristic destination.

The Italian environment ministry on Saturday deployed two ships in the stretch of sea where the oil spot was pinpointed, according to ANSA news agency sources.

The Liguria president of Italian environmental group Legambiente Santo Grammatico told Xinhua that the broken pipeline was around 60 years old, and investigators will have to ascertain responsibilities because "if maintenance had been adequate, the damage could have been avoided." Enditem