Oil spill doesn'��t affect local waters

By Matthew Penix
St. Tammany News
Published on Monday, July 28, 2008 9:48 AM CDT

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Northshore area waterways are not threatened by a 400,000-gallon oil spill on the Mississippi River Wednesday afternoon, a U.S. Wildlife and Fisheries official said.

“I can’t see how it would happen” because water flows south, said Heather Finley, habitat program manager for marine fisheries division with the USFW office in Baton Rouge. “We’re focused on downstream efforts.”

The U.S. Coast Guard closed 29 miles of the Mississippi River from New Orleans southward after a tanker and a barge collided, spilling the fuel oil into the river.

The accident occurred near bridges spanning the West Bank to downtown New Orleans.

Although the spill is much smaller than 7 million gallons dumped into the river during Hurricane Katrina accidents, cleanup efforts could still last for days, closing the major shipping route between the Midwest and Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard said.

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