Leaking Oil Barge Is Sunk in Deep Waters
The U.S. Coast Guard towed a still-leaking oil barge from the Puerto Rican coast and sunk it Saturday night in a deep canyon under the high seas of the Atlantic Ocean, officials said.
The damaged Morris J. Berman barge went down in 6,000 feet of water in the Puerto Rican Trench, one of the deepest spots in the Atlantic, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
Cleanup specialists said the cooler waters of the trench will help congeal any remaining oil and minimize pollution from the barge, which has spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of thick, black oil since it crashed into a reef off San Juan on Jan. 7.
A cleanup vessel was skimming oil from the scene of the sinking, 16 miles northeast of San Juan. The vessel was scheduled to remain overnight and keep cleaning those waters today, officials said.
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