Spain to send sub down to check for leaks from oil tanker

Friday, November 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A CORUNA, Spain (AP) _ The government plans to send a small submarine to examine the sunken tanker Prestige and check whether millions of gallons of fuel oil in its hold have turned solid and pose only a limited environmental threat as experts believe, officials said Friday.

France's Environment Ministry has agreed to lend Spain the Nautile, a deep-water submarine that can carry a crew of up to three people.

The submarine will check whether the estimated 17 million gallons of fuel oil have solidified inside the Prestige, which sank Tuesday and rests two miles below the surface of the Atlantic off Spain's northwest coast, Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's office said.

At that depth, where the pressure is 350 times that of the earth's atmosphere and the temperature is just above freezing, some experts say the fuel may no longer threaten Spanish and Portuguese coasts and fishing grounds, the government says.

The submarine is currently being used in the Mediterranean and would not be able to begin the work in Spain for a few days, officials said.

Meanwhile, Portugal said patrol planes detected three oil slicks Thursday near the spot where the Prestige sank after it was damaged in a storm and split in two. They spotted a smaller one Friday.

Spain's Galician regional government denied any more oil spilled from the tanker since it sank about 150 miles offshore.

Oil slicks also reached a sensitive marshland and other areas of Spain's coast as the government pledged financial aid for fishermen and others affected by the disaster.

Oil from the Prestige has soiled 240 miles of coast in the northwest Galicia region, Rajoy said at a news conference in Madrid.

He said the government estimates the aging, single-hulled Bahamas-flagged Prestige spilled up to 2.9 million gallons of its cargo of 20 million gallons.

The environmental group Greenpeace asserted Friday that the amount spilled was twice as high as the government figure.

Rajoy also announced cash payments of $10 a day to fishermen, canners and others affected by the disaster. Fishing and seafood harvest have been banned over a 180-mile stretch.

The aid is in addition to $30-a-day provided by the regional government.

Rajoy also announced tax breaks and a $200 million credit line for people to repair ships and other equipment damaged by the spills.

A small patch of oil turned up Friday at the Xuno laguna, located about midway along Galicia's 1,000 miles of craggy coast. The area is a protected marshland and home to cormorants, gannets and ducks, the regional environmental department said.

In A Coruna, a major port city in the north of Galicia, traces of oil were also found at an aquarium connected to the sea by sluice gates. It is home to 35,000 fish and waterfowl and has Europe's largest fish tank. A large slick was reported floating close to the coast.

Keepers found a seal named Gregor with oil on its whiskers and another, named Bine, with stains on its belly, said Ramon Nunez, director of Aquarium Finisterrea.

He said the aquarium can only go three more days without opening its gates to get fresh sea water. But waves crashing over a seawall are stained with brown foam from the oil.

``If the slick approaches, I don't know how we are going to survive,'' Nunez said.

French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder agreed Friday at a meeting in Prague to push at next month's EU summit in Copenhagen for Europe to more quickly adopt a ban on single-hulled tankers. The ban is now targeted for 2015.