Oil spill reaches Italy's Po river

Municipal workers place a boom over the oil-polluted River Lambro late Tuesday with a powder substance, following a huge oil spill that is believed to be the act of saboteurs

Tonnes of oil reached the Po river yesterday after a sabotage at a former refinery triggered a large spill into a tributary of Italy's longest river, officials in Rome said.
"The prefect called on local municipalities not to use the water," the head of the prefecture's cabinet Roberta De Francesco told AFP, adding that local authorities were readying barriers to place in the river in order to block and absorb the spill, which is of about 600,000 litres (158,503 gallons).
The spill moved along the Lambro river early yesterday to reach the Po river, whose basin covers about a fourth of Italy's territory. Hundreds of birds have already died because of the spill.
The spill began at around 4:00 am (0300 GMT) Tuesday after someone broke into the depot of the former Lombardi Petroli refinery in Villasanta, near Monza, and opened the valves, according to the ANSA news agency.
The spill moved along the Lambro river early yesterday to reach the Po river, whose basin covers about a fourth of Italy's territory. Hundreds of birds have already died because of the spill.
"The oil spill came from Monza, passed Milan and is currently in the area of Lodi," Monia Maccarini, a spokeswoman for Lombardy's region environmental protection agency told AFP earlier.
Several attempts to stop the oil moving downstream failed.
Maccarini said the handling of spill was entrusted to Italy's civil protection agency, while Milan's prefecture set up a crisis unit.
Legambiente, Italy's largest environmental organisation, called the spill "an ecological disaster without precedent for the Lambro ecosystem".
Running for 652 kilometres (405 miles), the Po flows west to east across the width of northern Italy, wetting the Po Valley, Italy's largest and most fertile plain, before it reaches the Adriatic Sea.