Operator in N.O. barge spill apprentice

• Advocate staff report
• Published: Jul 24, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — A tugboat without a properly licensed pilot was pushing the barge that collided with the tanker Tintomara early Wednesday, resulting in an oil spill from the barge that closed a stretch of the Mississippi River at New Orleans, the Coast Guard said.

The person operating the boat had an apprentice mate’s license, and there was no one else on the vessel properly licensed to guide it, said Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau of the Coast Guard in New Orleans. The operator’s name wasn’t immediately released.

Officials said it could take several days before a stretch of the Mississippi could be reopened after the collision that broke the barge in half.

No one was injured, but heavy fuel oil spilled from the barge, forming a slick 12 miles long, Ben-Iesau said. About 47 miles of the river was closed.

The barge held more than 419,000 gallons of No. 6 fuel oil in three tanks. Investigators don’t know whether all three tanks broke but “are assuming the worst-case discharge of all 9,980 barrels,” said Capt. Lincoln Stroh, Coast Guard captain of the port of New Orleans.

The double-hulled Tintomara was loaded with about 4.2 million gallons of biodiesel and nearly 1.3 million gallons of styrene, but did not leak, said Michael Wilson, president of ship management company Laurin Maritime (America) Inc. in Houston.

It probably will be several days before the river can reopen so the water can be cleaned, Stroh said. Late Wednesday morning, 25 ships were backed up, 10 heading upriver and 15 downriver, he said. Ships that are due in New Orleans are being stopped at Southwest Pass to avoid a further logjam upstream, he said.

The crews of both vessels reported the collision immediately about 1:40 a.m. CDT, just upriver from the twin bridges between New Orleans’ east and west banks, said Lt. Anastacia Visneski, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.

American Commercial Lines Inc. of Jeffersonville, Ind., which owns the barge, brought in four oil spill cleanup companies with about 250 people and 11,500 feet of boom to keep oil away from water intakes and environmentally fragile areas, said Paul Book, vice president of operations facilities.

Stroh said the state Department of Environmental Quality is monitoring the situation and officials are urging residents of Algiers and Gretna and in St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes to conserve water because their water system intakes have been shut down.

A smell that many people thought was diesel was noticeable in the French Quarter and parts of New Orleans’ central business district.

Tugs held the two halves of the barge against the river’s swift current; only a corner of each half was visible.

It had just been filled at Stone Oil Co. in Gretna, across the river from the collision site, and was on its way to Memphis, said W. Norbert Whitlock, executive vice president of American Commercial Lines.