Ecuador oil spill pollutes Amazon tributary

[Zorro]

Ecuador's state oil company resumed pumping through the country's main pipeline on Tuesday, four days after it was damaged by a landslide. But crude spilled by the accident reached tributaries of the Amazon River and polluted drinking water for a regional capital far downstream.

Petroecuador issued a statement saying pumping resumed at 9:15 a.m. (1415 GMT) through the Trans-Ecuador pipeline and it said the flow should be back to normal within hours. Closure of the line had forced Petroecuador to accelerate three 360,000-barrel shipments of oil for China to free storage space.

A rain-caused landslide on Friday ripped up a 100-meter (100-yard) long stretch of the line near the Reventador volcano.

The company said it did not know how much of the 420,000 gallons (1.6 million liters) of crude oil that spilled had reached the Quijos river, a waterway popular with whitewater rafting enthusiasts.

http://news.yahoo.com/ecuador-oil-spill-pollutes-amazon-191121372.html

[Socialistlemur]

1. Whoops

Maybe they need to look at pipeline integrity? That's one hellacious oil spill.

[Bacchus4.0]

2. very bad. I wonder if Ecuador gov will sue themselves for the damage n/t

s