Pollution

Citation

(1999), "Pollution", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.1999.07308bac.001

Pollution

Pollution

10 April 1998 ­ Portsmouth, USA

Following received from United States Coast Guard, Portsmouth, timed 1120, UTC: M tug Elizabeth M., 303 gt, official No.262962, 101 ft, operated by Campbell Transportation Co, Charleroi, towing 17 empty hopper barges, ran aground yesterday on the Ohio River, puncturing her fuel tank and spilling approximately 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel from her No.l hold starboard. Crews dispatched to clean up spill. Leakage stopped and remaining diesel fuel transferred to vessel's other holds, which now full. Salvors on scene and attempting to refloat vessel, which expected to take several days. Ohio river remains open.

15 April 1998 ­ Louisville, USA

Following received from US Coast Guard, dated 8 April: On April 1, Marine Safety Office Louisville received notification that m tug James K.Ellis (374 gt, built 1972) was pushing 16 empty barges when she struck the left descending bank of the Ohio River at mile 638. The vessel, with 63,000 gallons of diesel on board, began taking on water and all crew abandoned ship. All 16 barges were recovered 25 miles down river. One crew member was injured and was taken to the hospital. The vessel was partially submerged and leaked an estimated 3,300 gallons of diesel fuel into the water, the majority of which either evaporated or was dispersed. The vessel was refloated April 3. A marine casualty investigation is ongoing.

17 April 1998 ­ Puget Sound, Washington, USA

USS aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, moored at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, spilled jet fuel into Puget Sound waters late Wednesday night (April 15). State and Navy officials were assessing the extent of the spill, but Ron Langley, a spokesman for the state Department of Ecology, estimated that between 400 and 450 gallons of fuel had been recovered by midday yesterday. The cause of the spill was still being determined.

22 April 1998 ­ Aqaba, Jordan

M livestock carrier, Bader 111, (26 409 gt, built 1978) has been involved in a pollution incident in Aqaba recently. Reported that the vessel was arrested for one day until settling a US$100 000 fine.

24 April 1998 ­ New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA

Coast Guard Marine Safety Office (MSO) Providence, R.I., personnel are responding today to a fuel spill at the State Pier in New Bedford, Mass. Approximately 700 gallons of number two diesel fuel leaked from the fishing vessel George's Bank. It has been determined that the spill was caused by a leaking cross-over valve. The spill was noticed at 0650, local time, by a Coast Guard watchstander on board the Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma, a 270-foot medium endurance cutter, home-ported in New Bedford and moored at an adjacent pier. The source of the spill has been secured and booms have been placed in the water to contain the fuel oil. A company has been contracted through Marine Safety Consultants to conduct the clean-up, which is being overseen by MSO Providence. "This is the largest spill we've had this year," said Lt. Wayne Claiborne, head of enforcement and analysis for MSO Providence.

27 April 1998 ­ Venezuela

Venezuelan lawyers representing the master of m tanker Nissos Amorgos say that the Maracaibo channel authorities have failed to comply with a disclosure order for documents relating to his trial on pollution charges. Constantinos Spiropulos was arrested last year following the grounding of the tanker in the Maracaibo channel on 28 February 1997 when 4,000 tonnes of oil were spilled. Lawyer Matheus & Ulloa is defending Capt Spiropulos against charges of neligence on the basis that the Maracaibo channel was in an unsafe condition and that the Nissos Amorgos struck an object which pierced her hull. All information relating to the condition of the channel, where several vessels grounded around the same time as the Nissos Amorgos, is held by the Instituto de Canalizaciones and Venezuela's transport ministry. The criminal court of Zulia state ruled in favour of disclosure of various documents in March. Judge Alide Caldera has now asked the institute to explain its failure to produce them. Capt Spiropulos' lawyers requested disclosure of nine different documents relating to the condition of the channel. They included copies of the magnetometry report made by the Omerca company for the institute after the grounding took place, with field measurements of the area around it. Copies of sounding diagrams, details of buoy positions and the institute reports on losses and recovery of objects in the channel as well as the ministry of transport and institute files on the grounding have also been requested. A report by the Venezuelan Navy's Hydrography and Navigation Department commissioned by the court following the grounding showed that there were "several magnetic anomalies of moderate intensity" between buoys 21-22 and 19-20 in the channel. It concluded that these were probably "large metallic objects." The Nissos Amorgos grounded near buoy 21. The survey also found a hard bank perpendicular to buoy 21 and 86 m towards the centre of the channel which brought its depth down to under 37 ft ­ below the recommended draught at the time of the accident. Another tanker, m tanker Olympic Sponsor went aground soon after the Nissos Amorgos and a metal object like a dredger arm was found in the hull when she was surveyed.

27 April 1998 ­ River Guadiamar, Spain

Spanish engineers battled today to reinforce makeshift dykes protecting one of Europe's most prized nature reserves after diverting a massive spillage of toxic waste away from the park. Environment Minister Isabel Tocino vowed to keep the Donana National Park safe from the flow of acid water and toxic mud unleashed by a ruptured mine reservoir, but he described the ecological damage to southern Spain as "catastrophic". Greenpeace and other environmental groups sharply criticised the government's response to the spillage and disputed Tocino's comments that the situation at the 75,000-hectare park was under control. The crisis began on Saturday (25 April) when a giant holding pool at the Aznalcollar mine, owned by Canada's Boliden Ltd, burst its banks. Five million cubic metres of toxic material tumbled into the nearby Guadiamar river, heading downstream toward Donana, a natural wonder designated by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site. The spillage cut a 30-km path of destruction along the river banks, damaging thousands of hectares of crops and killing birds, fish and crabs. Andalucia regional officials reported only a handful of minor injuries, mostly people burned by the acidic waters while trying to rescue pets and livestock. Engineers scrambled yesterday to build makeshift sand and earth dykes to protect Donana, a vast sanctuary of sensitive marshlands, dense forests and sand dunes. They diverted the tainted water, containing residues of zinc, lead cadmium and other metals, through channels to the larger Guadalquivir River and then out to the Gulf of Cadiz. One of the dykes broke during high tide but crews managed to repair it. Authorities battled to reinforce the structures over night, and said all remained intact this morning. The government said emergency measures prevented major damage to the park's ecosystem, but environmentalists warned the spillage had severely contaminated surrounding marshlands that serve as feeding areas for numerous rare bird species. "The park has been isolated", Tocino told state television today. "But it is clear that the ecological damage, the environmental damage and the agricultural damage of this catastrophe...has been enormous." Tocino said she had asked a provincial judge to investigate the mining company for possible violation of environmental law. Greenpeace accused the government of not doing enough and sent its m yacht Greenpeace to the area to investigate. A farmers' group estimated 10,000 hectares of crops were damaged, but the Seville provincial government put the losses at closer to half that. Large stretches of tomato and sunflower fields were stained black by overflowing waters. Olive groves, citrus orchards, cotton crops and rice paddies were also affected. State television said preliminary estimates put crop losses at two billion pesetas. The river banks were littered in some places with dead fish and crabs. The corpses of birds were also found. Boliden said an initial inspection showed that the ground beneath the reservoir had slipped without warning. Company spokesman Manuel Alcaraz Sanchez said production had been halted at the mine "until we solve some of our problems".

27 April 1998 - A Spanish farmers' group today put damage to crops resulting from a toxic waste spill in the southern region of Andalusia this weekend at a preliminary 1.5 billion pesetas ($10 million). But the ASAJA farm group said final losses were likely to be much higher. It will ask the government to declare the spill zone a disaster area and said in a statement it plans to take legal action in the matter. The cost of crops lost in a tide of metal residues could be calculated quickly but contamination of surrounding water supplies and longer-term effects of the spill could be enormous, the group said. Longer-term damage to water sources around the spill could affect irrigation of rice, cotton and some cereal crops. The toxic waste seeping into the soil could make the land unsuitable for cultivation for many years. Environmentalists warned that the "ecological disaster" caused by the spill was worsening by the hour as contaminated water and acid mud flowed toward the sea. Regional government officials said they were making no damage estimates until later this week. The area affected by the spill runs from Seville down to the coastal city of Cadiz.

28 April 1998 - Toronto based Boliden Ltd, the company that runs the mine in Spain where a massive toxic spill occurred at the weekend, said today the ruptured dyke has been closed and the toxic outflow into the Rio Agrio has been stopped. The company says the rupture caused nearly 176 million cubic feet of toxic waste to spill from a tailings pond, including sulphur, zinc, copper, iron and lead. Yesterday, Boliden President Anders Bulow said before leaving for Spain that a "seismic shift" below the dam probably caused the dyke to collapse. He says the dyke had been inspected less than two weeks earlier, and there were "no indications of any sort of problem at that time". Boliden has asked a group of independent consultants to investigate the cause of the disaster. The probe will run parallel with another being carried out by independent consultants appointed by the Spanish government. The company says about 95 per cent of the poisonous waste was deposited within 6.2 miles of the mine, and "work has started to remove or remediate these materials". In Spain earlier, the environmental group Greenpeace said the poisonous tide moving downstream from the mine has been killing everything in its path along man-made channels and the Guadiamar River, flowing toward the Atlantic.

29 April 1998 - Canadian-Swedish mining group Boliden Ltd did not yet know the cause of the spill at its mine, CEO Anders Bulow said, at a news conference in Seville today. He said liability for the spill would be set by the courts and would hinge on the cause of the spill. The Swedish conglomerate Trelleborg, which holds a 41.8 per cent stake in Canada-based Boliden, said it saw no sign of negligence on the part of the mining company. The farmers' association ASAJA has demanded that Boliden immediately remove tonnes of toxic mud that overflowed onto 6,000 hectares of cropland. It estimated full clean-up costs of nearly $120 million. The European Commission has asked Spanish authorities for an official report on emergency measures taken to protect the Donana National Park, which is covered under an EC directive on natural habitats. Miguel Ferrer, director of the Donana Biological Station, told the daily El Pais that one of main aquifers supplying water to the park "has been affected". He said the massive flow of waste had left behind contaminants that seeped into the ground water. Experts said poisons had drained into the underground water supply of the park. Volunteers, some wearing protective masks, fanned out to clear away hundreds of dead fish and birds that littered the 30 km (20 mile) path taken by the toxic flow on the Guadiamar River in the south of the country. Farmers' groups reported crop losses of at least $10 million. Large stretches of tomato fields, citrus orchards, olive groves and cotton plants were stained black.

30 April 1998 - Volunteers hauled away thousands of dead fish today from waters poisoned by an ecological disaster in southern Spain as experts urged the government to take control of the recovery effort. Flocks of heron and egrets feasting on the contaminated corpses of fish, frogs and eel have raised fears that the devastation caused by a major toxic spill last weekend has begun spreading through the region's food chain. "The problem now is that the birds are starting to eat the dead fish," said Greenpeace spokesman Ricardo Aguilar. "So we have to urgently help get rid of the animals which have been killed by the toxins so the birds don't die." Hundreds of workers some wearing special masks and protective clothing, have fanned out along the river banks and marshlands on the outskirts of Donana National Park to help in the massive clean-up effort. Ecologists estimate that thousands of kilos of dead fish have already been cleared away and thousands more remain.

3 May 1998 - Workers armed with shovels and bulldozers launched a massive clean-up today in the aftermath of a toxic waste spill that has created one of Spain's worst ecological disasters. Crews began hauling away the first truck-loads of 7 million tonnes of acidic mud left on the banks of the Guadiamar River after a mine reservoir ruptured on April 25, sending a torrent of toxic material flowing downstream. Environment Minister Isabel Tocino, who has called the spill "an ecological catastrophe of historic proportions", stood by as the recovery effort got under way near the riverside town of Sanlucar La Mayor, state radio said. The owner of the mine, Canadian-Swedish conglomerate Boliden Ltd, has agreed to pay for the clean-up and guarantee farmers reimbursement for millions of dollars worth of crops poisoned by the toxic flow. The company has provided 500 workers from its Los Frailes mine, idle since the toxic spill, to help remove the mud and deposit in an abandoned section of the open-pit mine site at Aznalcollar, west of Seville. But some environmentalists have called the recovery plan ill-conceived and question whether Boliden can manage such a complex operation. Experts say the longer the sludge remains in the rivers and marshes, the heavier the toll will be on wildlife in the area. Volunteers in protective clothing have already cleared away more than 12 tonnes of dead fish from contaminated waters near Donana National Park, Europe's biggest nature reserve. Birds have begun turning up dead along the river banks, and the rotting carcasses of a sheep and a deer, possibly poisoned from drinking the toxic waters, have been found in marsh lands on the outskirts of Donana. The people of one of Spain's poorest regions have also felt the brunt of the disaster. Some 46,000 residents have been affected, many of them small farmers who saw their crops destroyed and land contaminated by the toxic flow. Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, in his first public comments on the toxic spill, promised the disaster victims would not be forgotten. Recovery efforts will concentrate on a 40 km stretch of the Guadiamar, the path of destruction cut by the tide of toxic waste before it was diverted away from Donana by a series of makeshift dykes. Authorities said they would try to finish the job before the rainy season in October, when they fear rising waters could cause the contamination to spread further. But scientists say it could take decades for the ecosystem to recover from the toxic residue of lead, zinc and silver mining that poured from the Aznalcollar reservoir. "Our position is that we are accepting responsibility and we are going to do the clean-up," Boliden spokesman Jim Borland said from the company's headquarters in Toronto. He said Boliden had pledged to assume the full cost of the operation, including reimbursement of the regional government for any money it allocates to cover the losses of local farmers. Spanish officials say the company has also agreed to buy up the entire poisoned harvest and dispose of it. Spain's agriculture ministry has counted 3,600 hectares of crop-land destroyed, with losses totalling around $10 million. A farmers' association estimated total costs of nearly $120 million to decontaminate the poisoned land. Environmentalists accuse the government of mismanaging the crisis and fear Boliden will do not better.

6 May 1998 - Canadian-Swedish mining conglomerate Boliden Ltd today agreed to pay for thousands of hectares of crops poisoned by a toxic spill last month at its mine in southern Spain, company sources said. The agreement calling for Boliden to buy up the contaminated harvest was reached with local farmers groups 11 days after a mining reservoir west of Seville ruptured, causing one of Spain's worst ecological disasters. Agriculture officials hailed the deal as a crucial step to help as many as 2,000 farm families who lost their crops, property and livelihood when a torrent of toxic sludge flooded their land on the banks of the Guadiamar River. Hastily built dykes diverted the flow away from Donana National Park but it contaminated much of the surrounding area, killing fish, birds and other wildlife. Environmentalists said it could take up to 30 years for the ecosystem to recover. The toxic spill from Boliden's Los Frailes zinc mine also took a heavy toll on the population of one of Spain's poorest regions. Boliden sources said the Toronto-based company would compensate farmers for crops poisoned when five million cubic metres of sludge cut a 30-km path of destruction along the river bank. Jose Luis Gutierrez, secretary general of the Small Farmers Union of Andalusia, called the agreement "satisfactory". "The people that have affected crops will be paid for their 1998 crops at the time they would have been harvested," said Gutierrez, who attended the meeting with Boliden officials. Gutierrez said that between 4,000 and 4,500 hectares of farm land had been damaged by the spill, but Spain's agriculture ministry has put the figure at 3,600 hectares. Boliden officials gave no details on how much the company would pay to buy up and dispose of the crops, but farmer groups have estimated 1998 harvest losses of at least $10 million. Boliden had already pledged to pay the full cost of cleaning up the area and has agreed to reimburse the regional Andalusian government for any emergency relief payments to local farmers. Spain's largest farmers' union ASAJA has estimated it will cost up to $120 million to decontaminate the land. Hundreds of mine workers and volunteers last weekend (2-3 May) started to clear away the seven million tonnes of acidic mud unleashed in the spill. The mud is being temporarily deposited in an old mine at the Los Frailes site. Volunteers have hauled away up to 20 tonnes of dead fish. Birds have already started turning up dead along the river banks. Boliden has said Spanish courts will determine liability for the spill but maintains it has adequate insurance to guarantee its survival. A Boliden spokesman said the company hoped to reopen Los Frailes within six months, but gave no production loss estimates.

11 May 1998 - Embattled Canadian-Swedish conglomerate Boliden Ltd continued to deny liability and downplayed the long-term effects of a massive toxic spill at its Los Frailes zinc mine in southern Spain during the company's annual meeting today. Toronto-based Boliden has been the focus of close international scrutiny since a mining reservoir at its Los Frailes mine, 45 km west of Seville, ruptured on April 25, discharging a torrent of toxic sludge into the Guadiamar River and onto nearby lands. Spanish agriculture officials have said the spill contaminated thousands of hectares of farmland and destroyed the livelihood of 2,000 families in one of Spain's poorest regions. Boliden, however, has sharply contested local estimates of long-term damage to farmlands, some of which run as high as $120 million. "These estimates were huge in the early part of the process after the accident and they have since then come down quite dramatically," Boliden Chief Executive Anders Bulow said at a press conference after the annual meeting. Bulow, who recently visited Los Frailes to take stock of Boliden's cleanup operations, dismissed environmentalists' bleak outlook for the land surrounding Los Frailes. Environmentalists contend it could take decades for the local ecosystem to recover. Makeshift dykes succeeded in diverting the toxic flow away from Donana National Park, Europe's largest nature reserve, but surrounding marshlands have suffered severe damage. "Initial studies indicate that a large portion of the affected cropland will likely be suitable for planting as early as next year," said Bulow, adding that the natural acidity of rivers in the area might allow for an unexpectedly fast recovery. Workers at Los Frailes have spent much of the past three weeks clearing away tonnes of acidic mud which have caked the river banks and rich farmlands of the area. Boliden also has shut down its mine for six months and moved to temporarily lay off about 500 workers. Bulow, however, reiterated Boliden's position that the company was not yet accepting any liability for one of the worst ecological disasters in Spain's history. "At this time, it is difficult to assess what the total cost of the clean-up will be. We maintain our position that Boliden has not been negligent in any way," said Bulow, who added that the company would honour its responsibilities as owner of the mine. Boliden had previously agreed to pay for the full cost of cleaning up farmland contaminated by the spill and had pledged up to $6.5 million to farmers for ruined 1998 harvests. Boliden carries about $66 million in property and business interruption insurance and $13 million in third-party liability insurance. Company officials have expressed confidence the insurance would be enough to cover damages resulting from the spill.

30 April 1998 ­ Brisbane River, Australia

M tanker Barrington (21,718 gt, built 1989), voyage No 393, apparently approaching Ampols Produce Wharf, Brisbane, empty with the intention of loading premium and leaded aviation and diesel fuel, was in collision with m tug Austral Salvor (470 gt, built 1986) at 1645, April 27. Position of incident was ahead of Clara Rocks, Lytton Cutting, mouth of Brisbane River, near Ampol Products Wharf. Latest estimates are 16 tonnes of bunker fuel was spilled due to a rupture in the tanker's port side tank resulting from the collision. Barrington is presently undergoing permanent repairs at Keppel Cairncross Shipyard Berth, Brisbane River. A local Press report, dated April 29, states: M tanker Barrington and m tug Austral Salvor collided in the Brisbane River this week. About eight tonnes of heavy fuel oil was spilled at Whyte Island, near Fisherman Islands, after the collision on April 27. It was reported that oil spilled into the river for about 20 minutes. The flow was stemmed when the tanker's master pumped oil from a fractured tank and moved ballast water to list the vessel. The clean-up, which started the same day, was expected to continue late last night. Reported that two tonnes of oil has been retrieved by yesterday morning, preventing it from moving into mangrove areas. A Port of Brisbane spokeswoman said an investigation would start after the clean-up.

2 May 1998 ­ Baltic Sea

Estonian Coast Guards boarded two Russian tankers today and questioned the masters about a major oil spill in the Baltic. A Cyprus vessel discovered an oil slick, 12 miles long, this afternoon, near Hiiumaa Island, 80 miles west of Tallinn. Estonian Coast Guard spokesman Reet Naber told the Baltic News Service that the Russian m tanker Shuya (5,082 gt, built 1983) and vessel Lena were tied alongside each other in the area at the time of the spill. The masters denied the spill came from their vessels, Naber said, but samples of the oil, on board the tankers, were taken in order to compare them with the samples from the polluted area. Naber said the sea was calm and the slick was not spreading.

7 May 1998 ­ Kingston, Jamaica

A local Press report dated April 30, states: M bulk carrier Star II is being held by the Kingston Harbour-master due allegedly to dumping over 200 tonnes of sugar creating an environmental hazard which has caused the deaths of hundreds of fish and other marine life. The vessel, en route from Cuba to Russia, ran aground in Holland Bay off Moran Bay and was anchored in Kingston harbour on April 22. Minister with responsibility for the environment, Easton Douglas, told Parliament on Tuesday (April 28) that no request had been made for sugar to be dumped into the harbour.

7 May 1998 ­ Newfoundland, Canada

Citing "lingering doubt," a provincial court judge in St John's, NF, on 5 May acquitted M bulk carrier Elm and three senior officers of charges that the vessel dumped oil off the south coast of the province in November, 1996, leaving behind a 109-km slick. Defence lawyers insist the slick came from another, unknown vessel.

7 May 1998 ­ Queensland, Australia

Australia's Marine Investigation Unit and Queensland marine authorities are investigating a 4,700-gallon spill of intermediate fuel oil from m tanker Barrington into the mouth of the Brisbane River on 27 April, according to Australian officials. Oil poured from the tanker for 20 minutes, until her crew stemmed the leak by pumping down the ruptured tank and adding ballast to list the vessel, according to local news reports. Ampol and British Petroleum deployed response equipment, as did the government agencies and corporations Queensland Transport, the Port of Brisbane, and AMSA.

9 May 1998 ­ California, USA

A Press report, dated Long Beach, California, today, states: An underground pipeline carrying crude oil burst yesterday spilling 10,000 gallons of oil through a neighbourhood. The Atlantic Richfield Co said the; pipeline broke and spread oil throughout a five block area before the flow was cut off about an hour later. It was not known what caused the rupture of the 14-inch-wide pipeline, which lies three to six feet below the street. Arco spokesman Paul Langland said. "Residents claimed they heard an explosion, that was the asphalt being torn out of the ground when it initially burst," said Fire Department Battalion Chief Jack Bender. Crews used sand bags, absorbent cloth and vacuums to sop up the mess. Oil collected in big pools along a roadway and coated lawns fences and 15 cars near the eruption, Bende said. The clean-up was expected to continue throughout the day and possibly into the weekend, Bender said. The pipeline carries oil from the San Joaquin Valley to refineries in the harbour-area communities of Wilmington and Carson, Langland said.

13 May 1998 ­ Nha Trang, Vietnam

Oil dumped by cargo ships has badly polluted Nha Trang seaport in southern Vietnam, officials said. Several tonnes of oil have been dumped at sea around the port in Khanh Hoa province by cargo carriers coming in and out of the port, said an official from the Oceanography Institute of the city of Nha Trang, one of Vietnams most famous tourist spots. A thick layer of oil is floating on the surface of the sea around the Nha Trang port along one to two kilometres of coastline. The official could not provide an exact assessment of the level of pollution but said the institute could no longer take seawater samples for laboratory use. The oil coating has remained on the surface of the sea for five days, affecting both fishermen and swimmers in the area, she said.

18 May 1998 ­ Kuril Islands, off Japan

Following received from the BBC monitoring service: Russian fv Lazurnyy which ran aground off the Kuril Islands, near Japanese waters, on April 29, has started to break up and has spilled over 1,000 kg of oil, ITAR-TASS news agency reported on May 8. The agency said the hull of the vessel has been ruined, almost completely. Lazurnyy ran aground during a storm on a return voyage from Japan, 200 metres off Storozhevoy Island, an 11 metre rock belonging to the Kuril Islands, in the middle of the Sovetskiy Strait, separating Russian and Japanese territorial waters. Her 12 crew were evacuated safely. The Sakhalin Region civil defence centre said that Rakurs, the company which owns the vessel, had not been able to arrange for the fuel to be removed for ten days, because of lack of cash. The vessel is believed to be carrying between 4.5 and eight tonnes of fuel and lubricants.

21 May 1998 ­ Barskon River, Kyrgyzstan

Canada's Cameco Corp., the world's largest uranium producer, said today that a traffic accident near the company's Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia had resulted in a spill of cyanide into a nearby river. Cameco which is based in Saskainnn, Saskatchewan, said in a press release that the accident occurred after a truck containing 20 one-ton packages of granular sodium cyanide crashed into the Barskon River en route to the Kumtor mine. The truck and its cargo were removed from the river within six hours of the accident, but not before one of the packages ruptured, spilling some of its contents into the river. "The source of the spill has been contained and monitoring of the river continues in order to assess the environmental impact of the incident," Cameco said. "At this time, the impact is believed to be negligible," the company added. Water supply to Barskon, a nearby village, was shut off with the cooperation of the local authorities as a preventive measure, Cameco said.