....from the Port Aransas South Jetty
"Damaged barge has leaked
Exactly how much oil escaped is unknown
Dan Parker
News editor
Oil has spilled from a gash in a barge where an explosion and fire occurred early today off Port Aransas, according to emergency response officials, but they said they hadn't determined just how much has escaped.
The barge contains about 133,000 barrels of crude oil, according to a Coast Guard news release.
As of early afternoon, oil covered an area about two miles by a quarter of a mile in size, but some of the area was occupied only by a sheen, said Lt. Jennae Steinmiller, a Coast Guard spokesman. She said she didn't know how much has spilled.
The Coast Guard news release described various aspects of the incident but didn't address how much oil has escaped.
Along with the Coast Guard, the Texas General Land Office is one of the lead agencies involved in the response, but a GLO spokesman said she didn't know how much oil had escaped. The spokesman, Brittany Eck, said the GLO hasn't been able to get close enough to make a determination because they hadn't been given an all-clear signal that it's safe to approach and that another explosion won't happen.
The explosion and fire occurred before dawn in the Gulf of Mexico a few miles off the jetties in Port Aransas. The cause of the ignition hasn't been determined.
The Coast Guard received a mayday call from the captain of a tugboat called Buster Bouchard, a Coast Guard news release said. He reported that a barge identified as "B255," attached to his tug, was on fire and two crewmembers were unaccounted for, the release said.
Port Aransas City Manager Dave Parsons reported that one of the crew members died. Another remains missing.
Scot Mogilewski, a Coast Guard command duty officer in Corpus Christi, said the dead crewman was a man but wouldn't identify him further.
The Coast Guard searched throughout the day for the other man and will resume the search at first light in the morning, Mogilewski said.
Eck said responders have deployed a 2,000-foot-long oil containment boom around the barge. They also have 6,000 more feet of booms that can be used, she said.
At least one "skimmer" vessel that can vacuum oil is on the scene, said Rick Adams, the emergency management coordinator with the City of Port Aransas.
He said the oil is leaking in "small amounts" from a gash that is high up the barge wall.
Despite Eck saying the oil covered an area two miles long, Adams said a worst-case scenario would put only "a small amount of oil" on San Jose Island if no containment was conducted.
"Factoring in the containment and cleanup resources that already are underway, the likelihood is very, very small," Adams said."
