New Orleans port official urges faster oil spill clean up

The U.S. Coast Guard on Friday opened up the Lower Mississippi River to limited use after an oil spill two days earlier forced authorities to halt all ship traffic on the key commercial artery.

But the Port of New Orleans is upset about the slow pace of the clean up so far.  

About 420,000 gallons of industrial fuel oil spilled into the river when the chemical tank ship Tintomara collided with an American Commercial Lines barge, which was being pushed by a tug boat operated by another company. An oil slick stretches almost 100 miles from New Orleans to the river mouth in the Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S. Coast Guard and other local, state and federal agencies are working to contain and clean up the spill, one of the worst commercial accidents ever on the Mississippi. They have deployed more than 70,000 feet of oil containment booms and are working with industry specialists on a salvage plan to raise the barge. Officials say the clean up will take weeks. 

New Orleans and other towns have shut off water intake valves for drinking water.

At one point there were more than 150 vessels in the river or in the Gulf waiting to transit the river, according to the Coast Guard. Other vessels are diverting to other Gulf ports. That figure doesn't include hundreds of stranded barges.  

The huge consequence of that is the detrimental effect to the U.S. economy is $275 million a day, as long as the Lower Mississippi River and the Port of New Orleans is not open. Somebody has got to move a little quicker, said Gary LaGrange, the port's president, on CNN Saturday.

The Mississippi River is a major commercial artery for U.S. agricultural exports, as well as imports of coffee, metal, rubber and other bulk commodities.

Four vessels were allowed to move on the river Friday based on the importance of their cargo. At least two vessels were going to and from the Exxon oil refinery in Chalmette, the Coast Guard said at a news conference covered by CNN. Industry representatives are helping the agency prioritize vessel traffic. Fifty vessels moved on the river Saturday, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

The Coast Guard is reluctant to allow many ships to move because their wakes spread the oil away from where crews are working to contain and mop up the oil, and drag the oil further upstream to previously uncontaminated areas.

The sea service said it has established two decontamination sites to clean vessels affected by the oil spill. Ships that transit the spill zone must have their hulls pressure washed to prevent contaminating clean areas farther away. A containment boom is placed downstream of the vessel and absorbent materials are placed inside the boom to collect any materials washed off the hull. The process can take several hours.

Five vessels were inspected at the Boothville, La., decontamination site on Saturday and were cleared to transit to the Gulf after no oil pollution was found. The other site is located above the spill site in New Orleans. By Sunday morning, 18 vessels had been cleaned and allowed to travel to their destinations, and the Coast Guard allowed 10 more ships to enter the river from the Gulf and five ships north of the spill to head to the Gulf, the Associated Press reported.

The tug Mel Oliver towing the barge was operated by DRD Towing Co. LLC of Harvey, La., but the Times-Picayune said American Commercial Lines owned the tug. Coast Guard officials have said no properly licensed crewmembers were on the tug at the time of the accident. The pilot only had an apprentice-mates license, according to CNN.

ACL is currently picking up most of the tab for the cleanup, but has not assumed liability for the accident.