MAJOR OIL SPILL FEARED ON MISSISSIPPI

By
document.write
Miguel Lanos


Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 11:27 a.m. ET Sept. 3, 2005
Fearing a major oil spill southeast of New Orleans, officials on Saturday monitored what they described as an “oil-like slick” on the Mississippi River and near two petroleum storage tanks.
“We are mobilizing now,” Jean Kelly, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality told MSNBC.com. Teams “will be going out to the field today.”
In a statement late Friday, the department said that “the slick is visible and is leaking into the river from an area near two storage tanks. Because the area is not accessible at the moment, there is no way to verify that the tanks are the cause of the leak. Also, there is no confirmation on how much of the product, which appears to petroleum based, has leaked.”