Dutch company's oil spillage will not harm environment

The cleanup of a Dutch company's spill of about 500 gallons (1,900 liters) of heavy oil in the Cuyahoga River was expected to be completed without threat to animals or the environment, a state EPA official said. A faulty pump at a steel plant spilled the oil into the river just south of downtown on Sunday.

Mittal Steel Co. workers discovered the leak in a pump that delivers oil from a tank to a blast furnace, company spokesman Dave Allen said. The pump was turned off, but not before oil spilled into the plant and river.

The spill was contained by a series of floating booms that shepherded the oil into two areas, each about the size of a football field, said Kurt Kollar of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

"There shouldn't be any lasting impact to the waterway or the environment," Kollar said.

Mittal Steel Co., is the world's largest steel producer. The Rotterdam, Netherlands-based company took over the No. 1 spot after acquiring Cleveland-based International Steel Group in April, the AP says.

Mittal Steel employs 15,000 people at plants in several states, including flat-rolled steel mills in Cleveland and a coke plant in Warren.

The Cuyahoga may be best known as the river that caught fire when an oil slick burned in 1969. Cleanup efforts have been under way since then.

T.E.