Booms Protect Marshes in Path of Spilled Oil

Booms were set out Monday to protect sensitive coastal marshlands that lay in the path of oil from the fire-scarred tanker Mega Borg, and volunteers worked to clear trash from a 40-mile stretch of beach that could be fouled.

Tar balls that washed ashore near Sabine Pass at the Texas-Louisiana border were being analyzed but Coast Guard Petty Officer Mark Sedwick said that they were not believed to have come from the tanker spill.

The Mega Borg lost at least 3.9 million gallons of light crude into the Gulf of Mexico after several explosions rocked the ship and set it on fire June 8. Two men aboard were killed and two others were missing and presumed dead.

Most of the spilled oil was consumed by the fire, which burned for a week.

The flow of oil from the crippled ship was stemmed Sunday, and winds were keeping a 30-mile-long slick about 8 miles off the Texas coast, Sedwick said.

“It’s pretty much stalled because the last couple of days, the wind had been pushing it eastward,” he said. “Now it’s pushing it westward.”

Sedwick said the Coast Guard was trying to protect the marshlands, because “they’re much more sensitive than if (oil) would come up on a sandy beach area, which is easier to clean.”