Mexicans Race to Clean Up Spreading Spill

MEXICO CITY —  About 1,500 workers in the state of Veracruz struggled to clean up oil and oil-soaked sand and vegetation on Friday after 5,000 barrels of crude leaked into a river leading to the Gulf of Mexico, coating local beaches, federal officials said.

Workers scooped up tons of blackened sand as the oil slick reached the waters of the Gulf, after a contention boom was erected on the Coatzacoalcos River, where the spill originated.

In a statement, Mexico’s state-owned oil monopoly, Pemex, said workers had recovered about half the spilled oil by Friday.

Still, the slick spread over 3 miles of Gulf coast beaches, down from 5 miles on Thursday, said Manuel Molina Martinez, the Veracruz representative for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Molina Martinez told the government news agency Notimex that it could take five or six days more to complete the cleanup. He said rough seas were helping break up the slick and bring it to shore.

The environmental agency could file a criminal complaint against Pemex and fine it as much as $200,000.

The spill occurred after an early Wednesday explosion at a pumping station near Santiago Tuxtla, about 250 miles east-southeast of Mexico City. Five people were injured, including one seriously.