Crews Work to Collect Fuel Spilled Into River; Burning Oil Aids Effort

Gooey crude oil and gasoline, some of it burning, stretched 20 miles down the flood-swollen San Jacinto River, keeping cleanup crews busy Saturday but hopeful of avoiding serious environmental damage.

“It’s a lot of nasty stuff,” said Coast Guard Capt. Richard Ford, coordinator of the cleanup. “I am really hopeful that we will collect a lot of oil there today and we will see a substantial improvement in the next 24 hours.

“This black oil, while it looks bad, has a very, very high evaporation rate. A lot of it has evaporated.”

He estimated the cleanup would take at least a week if conditions remain favorable. The oil is easier to clean up when it clumps in long streams.

The continued burning of oil and other fuel leaking into the river from punctured pipelines also aided cleanup because less had to be contained with booms and vacuumed with skimmers.

Federal officials said they believe debris on the river, overflowing after torrential rains earlier in the week, punctured the pipelines, spewing gasoline, diesel fuel and crude oil into the waterway.

On Saturday, the National Transportation Safety Board reported a fifth broken pipeline. Officials initially believed it was leaking jet fuel but later said they were not sure.

The leaks first exploded into flames on the river on Thursday, sending 120 people to hospitals and adding to the flood woes of southeast Texas, where 18 lives have been lost.

The fires burned for 36 hours, went out briefly early Saturday, then reignited. Pools of gasoline and some oil were ablaze.

The source of the crude oil was a 20-inch-diameter line belonging to Texaco Inc. The company said the line had been idle for weeks but contained 2.1 million gallons of crude in a 24-mile stretch between valve stations. It was unlikely the entire amount would spill, officials said.

Two Colonial Pipeline Co. fuel lines also ruptured, one spilling about 840,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline into the river and another spilling about 420,000 gallons of diesel fuel, said an NTSB investigator.

Three Exxon lines also appear to be damaged. Inspectors hadn’t determined if they were leaking.