Coast Guard inspects hull of ôAthos Iö at Alabama shipyard
The U.S. Coast Guard said the tanker 'Athos I,' which caused an oil spill Nov. 26 that affected 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware River, has gone into dry-dock at the Atlantic Marine Shipyard in Mobile, Ala.
The damaged area of the vessel's hull has been removed and is being returned to Philadelphia for further examination and forensic tests.
'Now that the ship is out of the water and the tanks are clean, we have an accurate estimate of approximately 265,000 gallons of oil spilled into the Delaware River,' said Capt. Jonathan Sarubbi, Coast Guard captain for the port of Philadelphia.
Once the tanker was dry-docked, the amount of remaining oil removed from all of the tanks on the ship was measured, including oil in the damaged ballast and cargo tanks. From that measurement, calculations were made for the amount of oil that leaked from a ballast tank that ruptured when the vessel allegedly struck a twisted metal pipe lying in the riverbed.
'An independent marine surveyor completed the calculations and provided the estimate of spilled oil, so we are confident in the final number,' Sarubbi said.
More than 1,300 responders are working along the Delaware River, using 105 vessels deployed in cleanup operations that are expected to continue into next summer. Last weekend, recreational boaters were allowed to resume transiting the river if they showed no wake.
