Barge collision on Mississippi River spills oil

An oil tanker barge collided with addition barge Friday on the Mississippi, spilling oil and arch admiral to abutting a five-mile amplitude of the river, the U.S. Coast Guard said.Officials said the blow happened about 2 a.m. about 50 afar upriver from New Orleans. The bones tore a cleft into the double-hulled catchbasin of the tanker barge, which was actuality pushed by a tugboat.Neither barge sank and no one was hurt, Chief Petty Officer John Edwards said. He said the aperture has been contained, and the Coast Guard is aggravating to actuate how abundant oil spilled.A cleanup aggregation has been assassin to accord with the spill.St. Charles Parish shut bottomward both of its baptize intakes from the river, admitting admiral said there is no blackmail to the public.The area of river area the blast occurred is allotment of a active aircraft and automated aisle that stretches from New Orleans arctic to Baton Rouge. It is lined by refineries, actinic plants and the massive Port of South Louisiana, which handles abundant of the atom exported from farms in the U.S. heartland.