Posted on 07/24/2008 8:48:29 AM PDT by SeafoodGumbo
Eliot Kamenitz / The Times-PicayuneWorkers along the Mississippi River try to contain the hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel oil from a barge and ship collision on Wednesday. The river is now closed to the Gulf of Mexico.
The massive oil spill that remains a major threat to the area's fragile delta ecosystem now stretches from New Orleans to the mouth of the Mississippi River -- a distance of 100 miles, Coast Guard officials said early Thursday.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
For your ping list...
Maybe they’ll fine those at fault like they did for the Valdez spill. /s
I swear the way events are conspiring to bring Obama to the White House, it reminds me of the fortune teller and the Reich Chancellor. God moves in mysterious ways...
Just another example of oil trying to find it’s way back home.
I thought New Orleans was at the point the Mississippi river emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. I don’t understand the reference to 100 miles here.
The double-hulled tanker Tintomara was shipping about 4.2 million gallons (15.9 million liters) of bio-diesel to Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and 1.3 million gallons (4.9 million liters) of styrene to Hamburg, Germany.
Note: not the leaking vessel. The tanker hit the barge. The crash was very powerful causing the barge to split in half, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Jaclyn Young. The barge was loaded with fuel oil and more than 419,000 gallons (1.5 million liters) of the substance spilled, said Lt. Cdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau, a Coast Guard spokeswoman
Looks like the tug was being operated by someone with an apprentice license, not a captain’s license. No captain aboard, and from what I’ve read, it’s mandatory one is there.
It is also the second crash this month by this tow company.
ExxonMobil paid over $3.4 billion as a result of the accident, including compensatory payments, cleanup payments, settlements and fines in addition to the Supreme Courts ruling of $507.5 million punitive damages award, a maximum amount equal to the total relevant compensatory damages
“The massive oil spill that remains a major threat to the area’s fragile delta ecosystem now stretches from New Orleans to the mouth of the Mississippi River — a distance of 100 miles, Coast Guard officials said early Thursday.”
The today’s modern technology for abating oil spills, the vast majority of the damage will be cleaned up before the first “claimant” files a lawsuit, and the “eco-system” will be in major recovery mode by the time that suit goes to trial
The environmental myth is that the “damages” are permanent - they’re not. With our help and some time, mother nature fully recovers.
Venice is the last “town” on the Mississippi, but many more miles after that to the Gulf.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=new+orleans&ie=UTF8&ll=29.51372,-89.590759&spn=1.175954,1.691895&z=9
Gotta love how they use gallons and liters to make the numbers look bigger...4.2 million gallons is about 55,000 barrels. Granted, the spill is tragic but considering the average VLCC (oil tanker) carries around 2 million barrels this is small potatoes.
Just light the damn stuff on fire already.
No, evidently never been to venus, the end of the world.
No. 6 fuel oil won’t light with a match. It needs to be heated or compressed first.
Thank you. That makes sense. I appreciate the provision of the map.
That's a lot farther away.

< grin >
No I haven’t. I should try to get there some day to have a look for myself.
What thackney said!!
New Orleans is 100 miles upstream from the mouth of the Mississippi at the Gulf. Mile marker 97 on the Mississippi is in New Orleans. New Orleans does sit near a bay from the Gulf that is between New Orleans and Sliddel but the Mississippi River goes south 100 miles from New Orleans and empties into the Gulf.
Plus, at $126 a barrel, there is a tremendous economic incentive to get all that oil collected and sold.
I predict, sometime in the next 72 hours....someone will say, in an "official" capacity...
It's Bush's fault, had he not signed the document lifting the drill ban, this spill would not have happened.
Shocked it hasn't happened yet....
Thanks. I hadn’t realized that before. Another poster linked me to a map and it became clear right away. I appreciate the mention.
Venice isn’t quite the end of the world, but on a clear day you can see it from there!
The river extends out into the Gulf of Mexico.
The ocean spreads inland along the river.
Depends on whether your boat is in the Gulf, or on the river.
Thanks. Thackney linked me to a map up thread. It became quite clear when I saw that.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2050582/posts?page=13#13
I appreciate the mention.
I guess this explains McCain cancelling the NO trip and the oil rig deal. Man, if it werent for bad luck, he’ld have no luck at all.
We are assuming this was an accident not some enviro-whacko terrorist plan. I have no proof of this. Just the timing seems odd.
“of bio-diesel to Rotterdam”
Bio diesel is soybean oil, should be harmless
I swear the way events are conspiring to bring Obama to the White House, it reminds me of the fortune teller and the Reich Chancellor. God moves in mysterious ways...
I am thinking the same thing. The water in Metairie, a suberb of New Orleans is fine so far. We also have the technology to clean up a spill in a fair amount of time. But, this is just fodder for the greenies/leftists. Couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Biodiesel wasn’t spilled. As I posted, that wasn’t the spill. The tanker carrying biodiesel had little damage. But it split in half a barge carrying No 6 fuel oil, heavy petroleum.
“Looks like the tug was being operated by someone with an apprentice license, not a captains license. No captain aboard, and from what Ive read, its mandatory one is there.”
A couple years ago I read the message boards on nola.com pretty regularly. This was such a problem they had an entire board dedicated to tug boat operators.
Pelican State ping
Has a liberal (or for that matter, a journalist) ever found an ecosystems that isn't "fragile"?
Heck, they would call the ecosystem in the worst part of my town fragile.
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