98 Miles of Mississippi River Shut Down

Jul 24th, 2008
CNN


NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Some New Orleans parishes were expected to truck in drinking water Thursday as an expanded cleanup of an oil spill that closed the Mississippi River got under way.

Coast Guard Capt. Lincoln Stroh, the port captain in New Orleans, said the river could be closed for several days and cleaning up almost 420,000 gallons of industrial oil could take weeks.

The Coast Guard closed 98 miles of the Mississippi on Wednesday, from south of New Orleans to the mouth of the river in the Gulf of Mexico, stalling dozens of ships along one of the nation's busiest waterways. Commuterr ferries also stopped service.

The spill happened early Wednesday when a fuel barge collided with a tanker just north of the massive bridges connecting downtown New Orleans to communities across the river.

The 590-foot Liberian-flagged tanker Tintomara was not damaged in the collision, but the crash split the barge nearly in half. A swifter-than-normal current quickly drew the slick downstream.

No injuries were reported. The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators to find out how the accident happened.

Government officials anticipated they will have to truck drinking water downriver after cities and parishes that draw from the river shut their intakes and started using their reserves, according to The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.

Stroh said the oil, widely used as marine fuel, is heavier than diesel but lighter than crude, and it is likely to stick to rocks, trees and wildlife.

The Coast Guard reported Wednesday evening that the tug hired to push the barges upriver had no properly licensed crew on board at the time of the accident.

The Times-Picayune quoted Coast Guard spokesman Stephen Lehmann saying the tugboat pilot had only an apprentice mate's license, when the operator should have had a master's license.

The spill is much smaller than the ones that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Coast Guard estimated that more than 7 million gallons of oil were dumped into the Mississippi and nearby waterways then.

But Wilma Subra, a chemist who advises the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, said the oil could endanger wildlife and eventually harm those residents who fish for a living.

The Mississippi is the major shipping route from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, and New Orleans is among the largest U.S. ports. More than 30 ships were queued up along the river Wednesday afternoon, waiting to pass through the closed zone, Coast Guard spokeswoman Jaclyn Young said.