Mississippi River in Columbus, Ky.
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A collision between two towboats on the Mississippi River in Kentucky has released an unknown amount of oil into the waterway, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday.
It is leaking an unknown amount into the water.
The barge has the capacity to carry just over 1 million gallons of the clarified slurry, according to the Coast Guard said, which says it is working to determine how much of the oil had been discharged.
The river is closed from mile markers 938 to 922, Petty Officer Lora Ratliff said.
A boat collision in the Mississippi River on Wednesday evening resulted in a massive oil spill, causing parts of the river to be closed until the oil has been removed.
“How this type of product typically would react is that when it reaches the water that is of a lower temperature, it would solidify and sink”, she said Thursday. Tippets said a team from SWS Environmental Services, an oil spill response organization, was on the scene. An investigation into the tow boat collision is ongoing.
Keleia McCloud, assistant director of the Hickman port, says both the port and ferry service were operating normally. Hickman is about 17 miles south of the site of the crash that occurred near Columbus, Kentucky. Tippets said a group had also been hired to do “air monitoring” in the area. Operations Manager Jeff Smith said the business has some fishermen who fish in the area of the river where the oil spilled.
“I don’t know what it’s going to do to the river, all the fish”, Harper says.
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A spokesperson for Ingram Barge Company said the river’s closing had not made a major impact on business.
