Fuel Transfer Sees 300 Gallons of Diesel Spilled at Harbour in Mississippi

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Thursday June 16, 2016

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) says a fuel transfer operation has been linked to 300 gallons of diesel spilled into Mississippi's Gulfport Harbor on Wednesday.

"The spill occurred during the transfer of fuel from a barge to an offshore supply vessel," said Lieutenant Elizabeth Tatum of Coast Guard Sector Mobile’s Incident Management Division in a statement to local media, adding that the incident is not considered to be a major spill.

USCG is said to have been alerted to the situation when the Coast Guard Sector Mobile received a report from watchstanders at around 5 a.m. on Wednesday that a possible 250 gallons of diesel had entered Gulfport Harbor.

USCG said they were working alongside the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Oil Response Company to contain the spill.

In an effort to reduce the impact on the harbour, the Oil Response Company is said to have deployed 1,000 feet of containment boom around the vessel linked to the spill.

The cleanup process is reported to have taken over eight hours, although the DEQ and USCG were expected to return to the spill site Thursday confirm cleanup had been completed.

In March, USCG said that a bunker spill that occurred in the Port of Los Angeles (Port of L.A.), which was linked to Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) vessel Istra Ace, may have been caused by faulty piping on board the ship.