GIGLIO ISLAND – Salvage workers in Italy on Sunday cleaned up a small oil spill from the wreck of the Costa Concordia as the cruise ship was refloated further before it is towed away.
“A small amount of hydrocarbons was spotted” late on Saturday, the removal operation team said in a statement.
Maria Sargentini, head of the government’s environmental supervisory committee for the project, told reporters on the island that there was “nothing to worry about”.
Greenpeace has warned of the possibility of toxic waste spilling out of the ship as it is floated and towed.
The Costa Concordia is due to be dragged away on Tuesday from Giglio Island, where it crashed on the night of January 13, 2012 in a disaster that killed 32 people.
The ship’s final journey for scrapping in the port of Genoa in northwest Italy is set to take four days.
Salvage workers began refloating the ship on July 14 and the name of the ship on its side is now visible above the waterline, as well as part of the bow.
Objects that had been inside the wreck for two and a half years including suitcases, clothes and furniture, have begun to spill out into the sea and washing up ashore.