Mississippi River open as spill spreads

Mississippi River open as spill spreads    The U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday there are no plans to restrict traffic from main shipping lanes into or out of the Mississippi River because of the massive oil spill following the explosion and collapse of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on April 22.
   The Coast Guard is also not anticipating placing restrictions on traffic coming into or out of the Mississippi River through Southwest Pass, due to the spill 130 miles southeast of New Orleans.
   The Captain of the Port, New Orleans, under authority of the Port and Waterways Safety Act, has established safety zones that the Coast Guard said are necessary to protect persons and vessels from the hazards associated with the installation and maintenance of oil containment booms to protect environmentally sensitive areas. The safety zones include South Pass and Southeast Pass, in the vicinity of the mouth of those passes and at Pass a Loutre, in the vicinity of the north fork where booming operations are being conducted, or booms have been deployed.
   The Coast Guard said vessels should transit the area slowly to assist in maintaining a no-wake zone.
   But the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday a new leak has been found at the site of the explosion, which may mean that 5,000 barrels of oil per day — up from the previous estimate of 1,000 barrels per day — is leaking into the ocean.
   Wednesday, BP, operating with the Coast Guard and other agencies, conducted a controlled burn on parts of an offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as it continued to escalate its response plan, which now involves 69 response vessels including skimmers, tugs, barges and recovery vessels.
   They have deployed 100,000 feet of boom, recovered 16,311 barrels of an oil-water mix, and sprayed 76,104 gallons of dispersant on the oil slick, which the Coast Guard says may reach the coast of Louisiana on Friday. ' Chris Dupin