BARGE SPILLS HEATING OIL IN LONG ISLAND, N.Y. SOUND

BARGE SPILLS HEATING OIL IN LONG ISLAND, N.Y. SOUND    A barge carrying two million gallons of home heating fuel ran aground Feb. 14 in Long Island Sound two miles south of Norwalk, Conn., releasing 15,000 gallons of No. 2 light-grade oil.
   The grounding at 2 a.m. holed one-third of the barge’s 12 compartments. The resulting spill was 50 yards wide and 2,000 yards long. “We consider it a relatively minor spill,” said Lt. Commander Dan Allman of the U.S. Coast Guard.
   The barge, owned by Hornbeck Offshore Transportation, of Mandeville, La., had taken on 52,000 barrels of the oil in New Jersey and was traveling on a familiar route to Port Jefferson, N.Y., on the north shore of Long Island. A tugboat called North Service was pulling the barge at the time it grounded.
   Local environmental officials and the Coast Guard responded before dawn on Feb. 14. The oil remaining in the damaged craft was transferred to another barge.