Delaware Oil Spill Much Bigger Than Initially Thought - LA Times

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NEWARK, Del. — Like a mutant blob in a bad horror movie, an oil slick first thought to be relatively small has grown bigger and more menacing over the past week, oozing its way down both banks of the Delaware River.

When the Greek tanker Athos I began leaking heavy Venezuelan crude into the river the night of Nov. 26, it appeared to be a manageable spill confined to a riverside terminal — just 30,000 gallons, according to estimates.

But authorities now warn that it could be as much as 473,500 gallons, a gooey mess that has spread to 70 miles of shoreline across three states.

Investigators are trying to determine whether a gash and a puncture in the ship's hull were caused by an 11-ton, 13-foot-wide propeller that fell off a dredge owned by the Army Corps of Engineers in April and was left on the river bottom. The muck has killed birds, fish and turtles. It has shut down a nuclear plant and threatened a dozen freshwater streams and tributaries. It has slid past a pristine nature reserve and spread to within three miles of drinking water intakes for Philadelphia and southern New Jersey."

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http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-spill4dec04,1,57792.story?coll=la-news-environment

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1. Philadelphia Inquirer today: Oil spill's threats could endure

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/10339814.htm

By Tom Avril and Sandy Bauers
Inquirer Staff Writers

The heavy crude oil spilled by the Athos I will remain lodged in the muck and marshes of the Delaware estuary for decades, reemerging in "spasms" during heavy storms and harming birds, fish, and smaller bottom-dwellers for years, biologists and oil-spill experts say.

The black, tarlike substance spells trouble for wildlife both because it clogs gills and because it is toxic in its own right, threatening clams, croakers, blue crabs, flounder, and a small fish called the mummichog, among many others.

Even if wildlife populations recover temporarily, experts predict that storms and other disruptions will periodically rerelease oil deposits from the muddy banks and river bottom.

"The effects of this could be catastrophic," said Joanna Burger, a Rutgers University biology professor.

Some wildlife is already on the edge. James R. Spotila, professor of environmental science at Drexel University, said the oil will likely ravage the Delaware Bay's population of horseshoe crabs - the world's largest - which wildlife officials have been lobbying feverishly to protect.

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