Mississippi River fuel oil spill is cleaned up, Coast Guard reports

The Coast Guard says it has completed the cleanup of a fuel oil discharge into the Mississippi River near mile marker 84, about 10 miles south of New Orleans, The Times-Picayune reports. Coast Guard Sector New Orleans officials were notified Monday night that the Overseas Beryl, an 803-foot tanker, was discharging No. 6 heavy fuel oil into the river, following refueling operations at Nine Mile Anchorage. A Coast Guard pollution response team found fuel oil discharging from a ballast water overboard discharge pipe on the ship. The pipe was plugged at 4 a.m. Tuesday, stopping the flow of oil. Coast Guard officials estimate 2,400 gallons of fuel entered the river, flowing at a rate of three gallons a minute, with the river running at about 4.5 million gallons per minute. The combination of slow discharge and fast river current helped speed the cleanup, officials say. No injuries or impacts to wildlife were reported, the Coast Guard says, and an investigation of the cause of the spill is under way.