MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Coast Guard continues clean up of oil spill near New Orleans

News Release

U.S. Coast Guard 8th District Heartland Contact: 8th District Public Affairs Office: (504) 671-2020 After Hours: (618) 225-9008 Eighth District online newsroom April 12, 2018

MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Coast Guard, local agencies continue clean up of oil spill near New Orleans

 

WHO: Cdr. Zac Ford, commander, Coast Guard Sector New Orleans

WHEN: 5 p.m.

WHERE: Julia Street Terminal, New Orleans, behind Riverwalk mall

NEW ORLEANS: The Coast Guard, LOSCO and local agencies continue to clean up an oil spill on the lower Mississippi River near New Orleans, Thursday.

The Singapore-flagged vessel, Pac Antares, hit a pier on Thursday morning causing an estimated 4,200 gallons of oil fuel to discharge.

Response personnel are conducting an assessment of the impacted area and have established an Incident Command Post to coordinate response efforts.

OMI Environmental Solutions continue to deploy containment boom, sorbent boom and pads around the spill to contain and collect oil. They have deployed one skimmer at the site to skim the oil off the surface of the river and have four more are en route.

The Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality are maintaining stations in the vicinity of Riverwalk mall.

“First responders continue to work to minimize the environmental impacts and protect the public so the river can be opened to commercial traffic as soon as possible,” said Capt. Wayne Arguin, commander, Sector New Orleans.

The Mississippi River remains closed from mile marker 91 to mile marker 101.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.

 

-USCG-