Disaster Declared at Texas Oil Spill Site

Gov. Bill Clements declared Galveston Bay a disaster area Wednesday as crews worked to clean up the 500,000 gallons of spilled heavy oil that threatened commercial fishing grounds and sensitive marshlands.

The No. 2 fuel oil spilled Saturday from one of three barges that collided with a Greek tanker, and by Wednesday the slick covered a 17-mile-wide area and was washing up on shore.

The governor’s action allows money to be freed for coping with the spill and means the state can more quickly activate necessary resources to protect the bay.

The Coast Guard downplayed the environmental significance of the spill, saying as much as 50,000 gallons of oil was scooped up by skimming ships and an undetermined amount had dissipated.

But environmentalists fear that much of the oil sank, setting up a possible long-term disaster for saltwater marshes that serve as feeding and breeding grounds for birds, fish, shellfish and oysters.

The Coast Guard said it was continuing to set out booms to stop the oil from reaching more marshlands, but heavy concentrations of oil lingered around Redfish Island, near the site of the collision.

Federal officials agreed Wednesday to allow the state to apply oil-eating microbes to the spill. The microbes were successfully used on a small portion of the 3.9 million gallons of light crude that spilled from the tanker Mega Borg in the Gulf of Mexico last month.