Exercise 2. Match the words in column A with their synonyms in column B.

Exercise 3. Combine the words into sentences:

1) day, roaming, every, Many, the, tankers, seas, are

2) accident, be, The, could, aftermath, of, devastating, this

3) of, factors, Three, shipping, risk, disasters, main, affect, the

4) have, shipping, of, vulnerable, Union, regulations, The, must, areas, in, European

Text 14. Brazil fights to contain oil spill in Iguacu River

Parana state officials said that the leakage of crude oil at a refinery operated by state-owned oil giant Petrobras, which happened on July 20, constituted the worst river contamination ever in Brazil. By midday, the black stain had moved about 25 miles (40 kilometres) downstream from the Getulio Vargas oil refinery in Araucaria, where a burst pipe spewed more than 1 million gallons (4 million litters) of crude oil into a tributary of the Iguacu River.

Parana's environmental agency said the situation was much worse than Petrobras' oil spill six months earlier in Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay. In January, an underwater oil pipe at the company's Reduc refinery near Rio De Janeiro broke, spewing at least 340,000 gallons (1.3 million litters) of crude into protected mangrove swamps in Guanabara Bay, and blackened beaches and decimated marine life. There it was much easier to control the situation because in the river you have a current. Ecologists said the area would take at least a decade to recover.

Two days later workers raced to contain Brazil's biggest oil spill in 25 years (since 1975) as it flowed down the southern Iguacu River, endangering drinking water, farm land and animal life along a 140-mile (230 km) stretch. Workers dug runoff channels and strung barriers across the river. Petrobras brought in 400 people to place floating barriers and dig ditches off the river banks to divert oil and hired US cleanup specialists Clean Caribbean Cooperation. The company expected to finish the operation in 10 days.

So far, Petrobras said it had collected 66,000 gallons (250,000 litters) of oil – less than a tenth of the total. The spill occurred 13 miles (20 km) downstream from the state capital of Curitiba, sparing the prosperous city's 1.5 million inhabitants of any immediate danger. The spill had already affected more than 10,000 riverside residents, who were instructed to stop irrigating crops and cooking with river water. Dead fish, birds and mammals coated in oil were washed up on the Iguacu's banks.

Curitiba is located 240 miles (390 km) south of Sao Paulo. But the slick was expected to advance in three days to Uniao da Vitoriain, a town of 75,000 people located 140 miles (233 km) west of Curitiba that depends on the Iguacu for drinking water and has an important hydroelectric dam. Environmentalists said their goal was to keep the spill from reaching Uniao da Vitoria.

Three barriers were set up across the 150-foot (50-meter) wide river above Uniao da Vitoria. Meanwhile, bulldozers and backhoes dug runoff channels to collect the contaminated water, and workers with hoses sucked oil off the surface.

The Parana State Environmental Protection Agency announced it would assess a fine of 50 million reals, or about $28 million, against government-owned oil giant Petrobras, which owns the refinery.

Petrobras President said the company accepted full responsibility for the accident and that "unlimited" resources would be used to fix the environmental damage.

Authorities said the oil "could contaminate not only other states but also other countries." The Iguacu runs west nearly 400 miles (635 km) to the world-famous Iguacu Falls on the border with Argentina and Paraguay. It flows into the Parana River, which turns into the River Plate before discharging into the Atlantic Ocean after Buenos Aires. Environmental activists who have flocked to Curitiba accused Petrobras of gross negligence in its second big accident in six months. The company - Brazil's biggest - lacked the software and emergency controls to stop the spill, which lasted two hours on Sunday afternoon. The team that was working that day was not trained to avoid this type of accident nor did they have the necessary equipment. The Parana state government and environmental organisations were unsure how many animals, including birds and fish, would be affected by the spill. The government and Petrobras mobilised teams to collect animals on the river bank.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 2210