Fuel Oil Spill Closes 80 Miles of Mississippi River

A tugboat piloted by an improperly licensed apprentice mate sliced an oil tanker in half near New Orleans, spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of heavy fuel oil into the Mississippi River. The spill occurred not far upstream from New Orleans and the smell of the oil hung over the city’s famed French Quarter. The U.S. Coast Guard said that the oil had flowed well south of city, and state environmental officials were launching a massive effort to contain and clean up the tar-like #6 fuel oil. Officials feared that the oil could flow through breaks in the levees and contaminate wetlands between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico, an area badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Communities south of the city pull their drinking water from the river; officials closed those water intakes and urged residents to conserve.