Mining company spills 10,000 gallons of oil into Chile's Patagonia

[Judi Lynn]

July 29, 2019 2:51 PM CDT BY OLIVIA ROSANE



Chilean navy works to contain damage from the oil spill, on Guarello Island in Chile on July 27. | Chilean Navy / Twitter


Forty-thousand liters (approximately 10,600 gallons) of diesel oil have spilled into the waters of Chile’s Patagonia, a biodiversity hotspot at the tip of South America.

The Chilean navy confirmed the oil spill Saturday after receiving a call from CAP, a mining company, informing it of a spill from its terminal on Guarello Island, The Guardian reported.

The oil spilled from the island, where CAP mines limestone, and out into the South Pacific Ocean, Reuters reported. Oceana Chile tweeted a map showing the affected area, along with the hope that the spill would not be of unspeakable proportions.

Greenpeace Chile also expressed concern over the potential damage, warning it could be “devastating.”

“It’s an extremely grave situation considering the pristine nature of the waters in which this environmental emergency has occurred,” Greenpeace Chile Director Matías Asun said in a statement reported by CNN. “It must be considered that the zone is extremely difficult to access and that it is an area of great richness of marine mammals, like whales and dolphins, which could see themselves seriously affected in their habitat given that when coming to the surface to breathe they could meet this layer of oil.”

More:
https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/mining-company-spills-10000-gallons-of-oil-into-chiles-patagonia/