Tugboat operators involved in collision not properly licensed

Three tugs hold in place another tug following a collision between a tugboat and an oil tanker on the Mississippi River which spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel oil in the river Wednesday, July 23,2008.

A sheen of oil can be see on the river surface near Stone Oil in Gretna following a collision between a tugboat and an oil tanker on the Mississippi River which spilled 9000 barrels of diesel in the river Wednesday, July 23,2008.

The Coast Guard says no one was properly licensed aboard a tugboat that hit a tanker early Wednesday, causing hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel oil to spill into the Mississippi River.
Coast Guard spokesman Stephen Lehmann in New Orleans says the tugboat operator had an apprentice mate's license, and no one else on the vessel had any license to drive the boat on the river. To pilot a tugboat, the operator should have had a master's license, Lehmann said.
The Coast Guard says the revelation is part of an in-depth investigation into Wednesday's collision. The name of the tugboat operator has not been released. Meanwhile, Admiral Joel Whitehead, who commands the 8th Coast Guard District, covering much of the southern United States, has initiated a personal investigation of the collision.
A 58-mile stretch of the Mississippi River could remain closed for days because of the collision, after a tanker collided with a barge being pulled by a tugboat, slicing the barge in half and causing hundreds of thousands of gallons of heavy fuel oil to spill into the waterway.
No injuries were reported in the collision, but the heavy smell of fuel has continued to plague the French Quarter and other parts of the city.
The Coast Guard said that it had extended the closure area to 58 miles to as far south as Port Sulphur in Plaquemines Parish. Ships are being told not to enter the mouth of the river at Southwest Pass unless they have business south of river closure area, the Coast Guard said. Oil has been spotted to mile 60 around Point a la Hache area.
The Coast Guard is still investigating the cause of the incident. Captains of the tugboat and the tanker have been tested for drug and alcohol use, but the Coast Guard is not releasing any specifics until its investigation is complete.
In the meantime, state environmental officials are coordinating a massive effort to consolidate the oil and prevent it from drifting farther south, where there are more levee breaks that would allow it to leach into the wetlands.

To read the full article by Ramon Antonio Vargas and Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune
Wednesday July 23, 2008, 5:30 PM
Link: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/ap_collision_closes_mississipp.html