The Coast Guard responded to a discharge of fuel oil from a barge in
Kill Van Kull at Mariners Harbor, Staten Island, on Saturday. The barge’s tank
holds approximately 147,000 gallons of fuel oil.
Oil from a barge spilled into the waters off
Staten Island, spreading to a bird sanctuary on an island in Newark Bay, the
Coast Guard said on Saturday.
The spill was detected shortly after 11 p.m.
Friday at May Ship Repair, said Petty Officer Erik Swanson, a Coast Guard
spokesman. Petty Officer Swanson said that fuel oil was being transferred from
a barge called Boston 30 to another barge, DBL 25, when workers noticed that it
was also darkening the water between the vessels.
Workers placed a boom on the surface of the
water to contain the oil, added absorbent materials and notified the
authorities, Petty Officer Swanson said.
The oil was coming from one of the Boston 30’s
tanks, which was carrying 112,000 gallons. The barge is owned by Boston Marine
Transport of Massachusetts.
The Coast Guard has not yet determined how much
oil had leaked from the tank or what caused the leak. Petty Officer Swanson
added that Coast Guard helicopters surveyed the area and saw that an oily sheen
had spread to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, about six miles to the east.
Petty Officer Swanson said that the oil had also
reached the Shooters Island Bird Sanctuary and the Richmond Terrace wetlands,
both of which are controlled by the New York City Department of Parks and
Recreation and are within several hundred yards of where the leak took place.
No comments:
Post a Comment