Vessel taking on water causes oil spill in Mississippi

The US Coast Guard announced that, along with local agencies, responded to an oil discharge at mile marker 57, on the Lower Mississippi River near Belle Chasse, Louisiana, on June 19th.

Coast Guard Sector New Orleans received a report at 7:30 a.m. of a discharge of approximately 20 gallons of oil, when the tug boat HALEY BROOKE began taking on water. The HALEY BROOKE had approximately 6,000 gallons of diesel onboard.

Sector New Orleans incident management division deployed Coast Guard pollution responders.

The vessel’s oil spill removal organization, OMI, deployed approximately 500 feet of containment boom around the vessel and applied sorbent pads to clean up the oil.

There is no reported shoreline impact. The cause of the spill is under investigation.