The Nation - News from Jan. 1, 1989

Oil from a ruptured Shell Oil Co. pipeline floated down the Mississippi River and forced cleanup crews to work round the clock to try to limit effects of the spill, a Shell spokesman in St. Louis said. Missouri Department of Natural Resources officials said the spill--the worst in the state’s history--began Dec. 24 when a pipeline at Vienna, Mo., ruptured, allowing at least 336,000 gallons of dichlorobenzene, a petroleum product, to flow into the Gasconade River. The spill has not caused problems with water supplies, but state officials said they could not measure the long-term effects on fish and wildlife in the Gasconade, Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Shell spokesman Tony Canino said that the cold weather prevented the oil from clinging to the river banks.