Mop-Up of Oily Beaches Begins in Puerto Rico

Cleanup crews began mopping up a three-mile stretch of prime tourist beach fouled with oil from a leaking barge, while officials launched a delicate salvage operation to pump the remaining oil from the vessel, which was lodged precariously on an offshore reef Saturday.

“This is a dangerous operation,” said U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Robert Ross of the salvage attempt taking place just 300 yards from two of this island’s major tourist hotels. “We want to make sure we don’t hurt or kill anybody.”

Ross said divers had inspected the barge’s hull but could not determine the extent of damage or how fast the oil was still leaking.

Although the leak continued, it was slower than in the early stage of the wreck Friday morning, when the barge hemorrhaged about 750,000 gallons of heating oil--half its cargo of fuel. The barge was being towed to the Caribbean island of Antigua when a tow line snapped and it ran aground near a public beach called Escambron.

Although a rapid response to the spill and favorable winds appear to have contained the spread of the oil, the threat remains that 750,000 more gallons may be released from the barge’s damaged tanks, officials said.

Hundreds of technicians and engineers, along with dozens of specially trained Coast Guard personnel, have been flown to the island, a U.S. commonwealth 1,000 miles southeast of Miami.

By late Saturday, a second barge was tied to the wrecked one and tons of salvage equipment continued to arrive on the island: hydraulic hoses, skimmers, vacuum pumps and collapsible fuel drums to contain the oil.

Rear Adm. William Leahy, commander of the 7th Coast Guard District that includes Puerto Rico, said pumping out all the oil would take about 36 hours.

Ross said a full cleanup of the oil and the removal of the barge from the reef could take weeks. “This is a low-tech operation, and it will take time.”

Puerto Rican officials announced the filing of a lawsuit charging the owners of both the barge and the towboat with negligence and operating unseaworthy vessels.

There was conflicting information about who owned the barge, called the Morris J. Berman.

Ross said the barge was owned by New England Marine Services Inc., based in New York, and operated by the Bunker Group of Puerto Rico. But Bill Preusch, a manager at Standard Tank of Bayonne, N.J., said the barge belonged to his firm but had been chartered to another company, which he refused to identify.

Gov. Pedro Rossello described the oil spill as a “catastrophe,” and his chief of staff, Alvaro Cifuentes, expressed concern Saturday that the salvage operation--being paid for and directed by the barge’s owners--was insufficient.

He said the governor could decide to ask the federal government to take over the operation.

“My main concern is that there are oil slicks going out to sea,” Cifuentes said.

By Saturday afternoon, the spill stretched over 20 square miles of ocean as well as the beach.

The Coast Guard, the FBI, the Environmental Protection Agency and Puerto Rican government officials have all announced investigations into the cause of the mishap. The crew has given blood and urine samples, which will be tested for alcohol and drugs.

Luis Fortuna, director of tourism for Puerto Rico, said the extent of the damage to the island’s tourism industry would depend on the speed of the cleanup “and, frankly, how this is played outside of Puerto Rico.”

Along with minimizing damage to the island’s image at the peak of the winter tourist season, commonwealth officials said they also hope to avoid a large-scale environmental disaster.

The closest ecologically sensitive areas are still miles away from the reach of the spilled oil, Ross said.

But there were immediate affects on tourists. As the oil washed ashore to cover the rocky seafront along the Atlantic coast, some visitors reported feeling nauseated by petroleum fumes.

Several hotels, including the Caribe Hilton, the Radisson Normandie, the Condado Plaza and the Regency, were forced to close their swimming pools, open-air bars and restaurants because of the fumes.

But some people were unfazed by the odor and seemed fascinated by the high-seas drama unfolding so close by.

“I heard about this yesterday when I was working, but I couldn’t get out of the office,” said insurance company employee Mayra Rivera, who sat atop a bluff and watched the surf pound the barge. “This is the best show in town.”