The following is the text of a news release from the U.S. Coast Guard:
(NEW ORLEANS) — The Coast Guard and local agencies are responding to an oil discharge at mile marker 57 on the Lower Mississippi River near Belle Chasse, La. on Monday.
Coast Guard Sector New Orleans received a report at 7:30 a.m. of a discharge of approximately 20 gallons of oil when the towboat Haley Brooke began taking on water. Haley Brooke has approximately 6,000 gallons of diesel on board.
Sector New Orleans incident management division deployed Coast Guard pollution responders.
The vessel’s oil spill removal organization, OMI, deployed approximately 500 feet of containment boom around the vessel and applied sorbent pads to clean up the oil.
There is no reported shoreline impact.
The cause of the spill is under investigation.
