Gasoline Spill in Monongahela Expected to Do Little Damage

PITTSBURGH, Pa. —  Officials predicted there would be little environmental damage from 10,000 gallons of gasoline that leaked into the Monongahela River from a runaway barge, and a second loose barge carrying fuel was recovered Tuesday with its cargo intact.

They were two of at least 55 barges that were ripped from their moorings along a 58-mile stretch of the Monongahela on Monday as chunks of ice rushed down the rain-swollen river. Some were empty and others were loaded with coal; 30 of the runaways sank.

“We were very fortunate” that more of the loose barges were not loaded with fuel, said Ronald Bogdan of the Coast Guard’s marine safety office in Pittsburgh.

“We believe there will be minimal environmental damage,” said Chuck Duritsa, regional director of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources.

The gasoline that leaked Monday was lighter and more volatile, and thus able to evaporate more easily, than the 750,000 gallons of diesel fuel that gushed into the Monongahela from a ruptured Ashland Oil Inc. storage tank two years ago, Duritsa said.

The diesel spill on Jan. 2, 1988, fouled drinking water supplies in three states and killed about 11,000 fish and 2,000 waterfowl. The spill on Monday did not affect drinking water, said Betsy Mallison, a spokeswoman for the environmental resources agency.

The leak was contained Monday morning, and cleanup crews pumped the 326,000 gallons of gasoline still on the barge into an Ashland Oil barge early Tuesday.