400,000+ gal tar-like fuel oil spill in Mississippi River (New Orleans). Damn it all

uppityperson

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Wed Jul-23-08 01:33 PM
Original message

400,000+ gal tar-like fuel oil spill in Mississippi River (New Orleans). Damn it all

Sounds like a real mess, smelly, nasty, worries about drinking water, etc.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/ap_collision_closes_mississipp.html

A 29-mile stretch of the Mississippi River could remain closed for days after a tanker collided with a barge being pulled by a tugboat, slicing the barge in half and causing hundreds of thousands of gallons of heavy fuel oil to spill into the waterway. No injuries were reported in the collision, but the heavy smell of fuel has continued to plague the French Quarter and other parts of the city. The Coast Guard has closed the river between mile markers 70 and 99, from the vicinity of the Harvey Locks to near the mouth of the river.
(clip)
In the meantime, state environmental officials are coordinating a massive effort to consolidate the oil and prevent it from drifting farther south, where there are more levee breaks that would allow it to leach into the wetlands. As of late morning, the state oil spill coordinator said the fuel had drifted a mile south of Belle Chasse.

State Department of Environmental Quality officials warned the unrefined, tar-like # 6 fuel oil is so thick that it could sink, complicating the cleanup efforts. Therefore, the fuel oil won't simply evaporate off the surface, which means workers will try to remove it before it starts to sink. "This is not our first rodeo; we've seen spills before," said Roland Guidry of the Oil Spill Coordinator's Office.
(clip)
Residents in Algiers, Gretna, St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines Parish are also being asked to conserve water, as water intakes for those communities are closed to prevent contamination of the drinking water supply. Water flowing through the tap is from reserve supplies, which could run out in many areas by afternoon or early evening, officials said....(more@link)

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Collision_between_tug_tanker_closes_Mississippi_0723.html

The Coast Guard closed 29 miles (47 kilometers) of the Mississippi River at New Orleans after a 600-foot (183-meter) tanker and a barge loaded with fuel oil collided, breaking the barge in half. Nobody was injured, but more than 419,000 gallons (1.5 million liters) of heavy fuel oil spilled from the barge, said Lt. Cdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau, a Coast Guard spokeswoman

The double-hulled tanker Tintomara was loaded with about 4.2 million gallons (15.9 million liters) of biodiesel bound for Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and nearly 1.3 million gallons (4.9 million liters) of styrene bound for Hamburg, Germany, but was not leaking, said Michael Wilson, president of ship management company Laurin Maritime (America) Inc. in Houston.

The company is a subsidiary of Goteborg, Sweden-based Laurin Maritime AB. The Liberian-flagged tanker is owned by Whitefin Shipping Co. Ltd. of Gibraltar. The tanker had only minor damage, the management company said....(bit more)