Aécio Amado
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Rio - The Federal Police began an investigation of a spill involving over two thousand liters of oil in Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay. The oil leaked from a Bahamanian-flag ship, the Saga Mascote. The vessel collided with a dike Saturday night (3) during docking maneuvers at the pier of the Enavi-Renave shipyard. The spill polluted various beaches.

Federal Police commissioner, Alessandro Vieira Neto, has already started taking testimony from members of the crew of the Saga Mascote and Enavi-Renave shipyard employees. According to the mayor of Niterói, a city which neighbors Rio, of all the environmental accidents in Guanabara Bay, this was the worst for the municipality of Niterói, because the oil reached important areas along the city's shoreline.

Technicians from the State Environmental Engineering Foundation and the Guanabara Bay Emergency Plan continue the operation of removing the scattered oil. A report on the accident will be submitted to the State Environmental Control Commission (Ceca) for examination. It is the Ceca that will determine the value of the fine applied to those responsible for the environmental accident.

Translation: David Silberstein