Oil Spill in Louisiana

In oil is environmentally-friendly news, a chemical tanker crashed into a fuel barge, the fuel barge split in half, and 420,000 gallons of #6 fuel oil gushed into the Mississippi River. The crash occurred just upstream from New Orleans.

About 420,000 gallons of thick, slow-to-evaporate fuel spilled from the barge, but nothing leaked from the Tintomara, officials said.

A sheen at least 12 miles long spread down river, and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said efforts were being made to minimize the impact on air and water quality and wildlife.

I have not seen any reports yet on the wildlife situation. Given that this is the tail end of the breeding season, I would expect that there would be a lot of young birds on the river and in any surrounding wetlands.