A construction lighter and a tank barge, pulled by separate vessels collided in the Mississippi River early Friday morning in St. John the Baptist Parish near Edgard, closing a portion of the river to traffic for most of the day and spilling about 10,000 gallons of Louisiana sweet crude oil in the water, the Coast Guard said. No injuries were reported, said the Coast Guard sector commander and federal on-scene coordinator Captain Pete Gautier. The cause of the collision was examined. Officials in St. Charles and St. John parishes closed drinking water intake in the Mississippi River for much of the day, but they reopened Friday afternoon.
Gautier said officials were notified Friday at 1:58 hour a construction vessel being towed by the tug Alydar and an oil tanker vessel being towed by the ship Clarence W. Settoon had collided near mile marker 139, about 50 miles upstream from New Orleans.
The tank barge suffered a gash in its starboard hull approximately 18 meters by 5 meters wide and began dumping Louisiana sweet crude oil in the Mississippi River.
“We have no precise, exact amount of oil being spilled,” said Gautier. “We are estimating the amount of oil spilled into the water at somewhere less than 10,000 liters. These estimates are based on the known amount of product in the tank for the incident. The exact amount of spilled oil will be determined in the coming weeks as we lose and get a better idea of the amount of oil remaining on the ship. ”
The influence cargo tank reportedly was 3,535 barrels, or 148,470 liters keep crude oil, officials said.
Gautier said that the damaged ship officials quickly moved to shallower waters near the western shore of the cut above the waterline to get. Oil Spill Response crews brought in trees to contain the spill, and a five-mile stretch of the river was closed to traffic.
Meanwhile, a light silver sheen of small to medium sized patches of oil affect a two-mile stretch slowly moved down river. In the late afternoon, Gautier said, the shine was over within a few miles from the Hale Boggs Bridge in Luling St. Charles Parish.
The first concern, Gautier said, was to the water supply in both St. John and St. Charles parishes, ended their water intake systems as a precaution. Officials in both parishes said there was an adequate supply of water in storage to the requirements of the public and no oil was reported to have been in the water or parish system.
Gautier said the Coast Guard will probably allow the oil to naturally spread.
“This is very light sweet crude oil,” said Gautier. “I think we’re about 30 percent of the oil that was spilled to evaporate within a few hours expect. And the river runs a high stage at the moment, about 5 miles per hour. That goes for many of the natural distribution of the oil to create.
“We’ll see bag of very slight sheen and the shine is very thin. Unless these oil presses against something, a natural collection area, it really is not anything we can recover.”
Gautier said the weather system is expected to go through the area late Friday and Saturday would help distribute the oil, but can hamper cleanup and restoration activities. He added that another reported no effect on all wild animals.
“Any spill that occurs is a bad event and we will respond aggressively to these things,” says Gautier.
The river reopened late Friday to one-way between the mile markers 140 and 120. Southbound ships will be allowed until 6 pm on Saturday, then in a northerly direction vessels are allowed to travel.
source:nola.com
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