14 News, The Tri-State's News and Weather Leader-Tugboat leaks 400-500 gallons of diesel fuel in the Ohio River

Tugboat leaks 400-500 gallons of diesel fuel in the Ohio River

By Nathan Ryder - bio | email | Twitter
Posted by Noah Stubbs - email

POSEY CO., IN (WFIE) - The IN Department of Natural Resources said they have a fuel spill contained after a tugboat leaked hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel into the Ohio River on Friday afternoon.

Posey County Dispatch confirmed the diesel spill near the Canal St. boat ramp, and said the a boat leaked 400 to 500 gallons.

Maintenance workers getting ready to do some work on the tug boat, Marty B, got more then they bargained for on Friday afternoon.  

Shortly after 2:00 in the afternoon, officers with the Department of Natural Resources say maintenance crews began pumping out a bilge tank on the Marty B and placed the drainage hoses on the ground and not in a collection tank.

"They were pumping what they thought was just water and soap," DNR Conservation Officer Paul Axton said. "They were power washing the bilge out but it also contained some of the diesel fuel that was in there too."

The DNR along with Mt. Vernon and Black Township Fire Departments and the Regional Spill Containment Team headed up by Countrymark were called to the private boat dock on Canal St. almost immediately.

"We put our eyes on it, decided what was going on and then called in some other people," Countrymark spokesperson Brent Moye said.

The spill was not only an environmental problem, but also a major health concern.

"Right down stream we have the Mt. Vernon Utilities who pump their water for all the water users here in Mt. Vernon," Axton said.

The water utility sucks river water off the bottom, clear of surface contaminants like oil.  

Just in case, they immediately started treating the water with a chemical slurry to remove any oil.  

The spill response team also quickly put into action fresh off an eerily similar regional exercise earlier this month.

"We had done the same deployment two weeks ago," Moye said. "The 1,000 feet of containment boom, the skimmers the whole works and now we're at the same location doing the same cleanup."

Crews deployed 500 feet of containment boom and used water canons, leaf blowers and shovels to help wrangle the spill.

"We're trying to move that product across the top of the water so it can be collected in the skimmer or collected with absorbent pads and then those pads are disposed of properly," Moye said.

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