On August 25, hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the mouth of the Pascagoula River after a ship at Ingalls Shipbuilding suffered from a mechanical error.
What happened?
The vessel ‘Paul Ignatius DDG 117’ suffered from a mechanical failure which caused around 500 gallons of fuel to be spilled into the Pascagoula River. The vessel was taking on fuel from a fueling barge when a fuel level sensor failed. The sensor failure caused the fuel tank to overfill, spilling fuel out of the ship’s fuel vent, onto the deck, and into the river.
Clean up initiated
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality initiated a cleaning operation and precautionary equipments to contain the oil spill in place.
A polypropylene boom has been setup to repel water and to soak up the oil, gas, and diesel before it spreads to high waters. The chemical-resistant poly skin is filled with highly-absorbent polypropylene and will not shed or sink, even when saturated with oil.
Nick Hatten with MDEQ said, “The ship being worked on had a 24-inch polypropylene boom that was already in the water. So it was very easy to deploy around the ship to contain the fuel and time was spent skimming the fuel, vacuuming it, and physically removing it.”
Investigation launched
The spilled fuel is not believed to be a cause for concern for fishermen or residents in the area.
Mr.Hatten said, “Ingalls did a very good job containing the fuel and physically removing it. As of now, there is no danger to the public.”
Currently, no fines have been issued against Ingalls for the fuel spill and an investigation has been initiated to determine the sequence of events.
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Source: WLOX
