Collision Closes 5 Miles of Mississippi River

The U.S. Coast Guard has closed a five-mile stretch of the Mississippi River about 50 miles upriver from New Orleans Friday, after an oil tanker barge collided with another barge, spilling an undetermined amount of crude oil.

A construction barge, towed by the tug Alydar, collided with a tank barge, towed by the motor vessel Clarence W. Settoon at 1:58 a.m. near mile marker 139, the Coast Guard reported. The tank barge, which was loaded with 3,535 barrels, or about 148,470 gallons, of Louisiana sweet crude oil, suffered a 10-foot by five-foot gash above the waterline. The amount released into the lower Mississippi River was undetermined, but a Coast Guard release said the amount is “estimated to be substantially less than the total of the tank’s contents.

Coast Guard Captain of the Port New Orleans Capt. Pete Gautier has closed a section of the lower Mississippi River to all traffic from mile marker 135 to mile marker 140 near LaPlace. No injuries were reported.

The agency said the Clarence W. Settoon’s crew immediately laid 100 feet of containment boom following the collision. Coast Guard Sector New Orleans dispatched a pollution investigation team to assess the size of the spill. The source has been secured and soundings will be conducted to determine the actual amount of product released during the incident. The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund has been opened and Houma, La.-based ES&H has been contracted as the oil spill response organization.

"We are aggressively responding to this incident and have deployed pollution investigators from Sector New Orleans and an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter and crew from Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans to assess the situation," Gautier said. "We are working quickly and efficiently with our local and state partners to clean up product in the water and protect the maritime ecosystem and natural resources that are important to our national economy and essential to the livelihood and way of life for coastal communities."

The Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the incident.