
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 31, 1990                   TAG: 9007310423
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GALVESTON, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Medium

500,000 GALLONS OF OIL IN GALVESTON BAY SPILL

The Coast Guard said 500,000 gallons of oil leaked into Galveston Bay from two barges, 10 times its original estimate, and a slick up to 15 miles long appeared to be heading today toward marshes and beaches.

A skimmer ship was dispatched to keep the oil from spreading into the Gulf of Mexico, which officials said would make the cleanup more difficult. Four other oil skimmers were to resume work at daybreak.

The barges, carrying a total of 1.68 million gallons of heavy refinery oil, collided Saturday with the Liberian-registered tanker Shinoussa. The tanker, while damaged, did not leak any of its 24,900 metric tons of jet fuel.

Thick, black patches of goop and a brown sheen spread through much of the bay. Oil suspected of having come from the spill was reported Monday on at least two beaches south of the collision site along the Houston Ship Channel.

"Any way that spill heads, it is going toward wetlands and estuaries, with unique species of herons, egrets, wading birds and nesting birds," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Todd Nelson. "And it is very probable that we are going to have impact on them soon."

The revised estimate of the size of the spill came after crews Monday finished removing oil from a listing barge, pushed it aground and determined how much oil was left in a second barge that remains partly submerged in the channel.

The second barge stopped leaking Monday evening, about 50 hours after the collision, they said. Officials estimated 48,000 gallons of oil leaked from the listing barge, meaning most of the oil came from the nearly sunken vessel. Thousands of feet of collection booms surrounded that barge.

Any spill over 100,000 gallons is considered major, said the Coast Guard, which originally estimated 50,000 gallons had spilled.

The spill forced the closing of the busy channel and idled nearly 60 ships in the gulf and at Houston's docks.

"It is holding up traffic and will continue to do that. It is unlikely that channel traffic will be opened up" today, Nelson said.

Nelson said the oil was not as toxic to wildlife as that spilled in the Gulf by the Norwegian tanker Mega Borg earlier this summer.

But it is thicker and more "environmentally persistent" in its ability to stick to shorelines, he said. The Mega Borg spilled 3.9 million gallons.

by CNB