Press Staff Report
Officials from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Texas General Land Office (GLO) have responded to an oil spill in Port Isabel Wednesday.
According to a statement released by the Coast Guard, watchstanders received a report that a towing vessel had hit a dock at the Subsea 7 facility in Port Isabel. Initial reports indicated at 20,000 gallons of “low sulfur diesel fuel” spilled into the Intracoastal Waterway just before 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, however, in an updated statement released by the Coast Guard, that figure was re-estimated to be approximately 5,000 gallons. “Of the amount that did leave the damaged tank, as much as 2,000 gallons were trapped in voids in the barge and did not enter the water,” the statement reads.
“A Unified Command consisting of the Coast Guard, Texas General Land Office and Kirby Inland Marine has been established in response to the allision and diesel spill,” the statement reads.
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