Workers Race to Contain Oil Spill in Iguacu River of Southern Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO —  Hundreds of workers dug runoff channels and strung barriers across a river in southern Brazil on Tuesday in a race to contain the country’s worst oil spill in 25 years.

By afternoon, an oily black stain had moved about 25 miles downstream from the Getulio Vargas oil refinery in Araucaria, where a burst pipe spewed more than 1 million gallons of crude oil into a tributary of the Iguacu River on Sunday.

Dead fish, birds and mammals coated in oil were washing up on the Iguacu’s banks, environmental officials said. Egrets and capybaras--the world’s largest rodent--were hit particularly hard.

Environmentalists said their goal was to keep the spill from reaching Uniao da Vitoria, a city of 70,000 people about 125 miles below the slow-moving slick. The city depends on the Iguacu for drinking water.

The chance was remote that the oil could reach Iguacu Falls, 400 miles away, environmentalists said.

“I am very optimistic about our ability to stop the oil before it reaches the falls,” said Jose Antonio Andreguetto, president of Parana state’s Environmental Protection Agency. “But the possibility cannot be discarded.”