Barge firm to pay $6.6M for Louisiana spill

Settlement includes $2.1M for damages, $3.3M to purchase wildlife habitat

Workboats skim the river in an effort to clean up oil leaking from a damaged barge beneath the Mississippi River Bridge at the Port of New Orleans in this Aug. 1, 2008, file photo. (AP/Bill Haber)
Workboats skim the river in an effort to clean up oil leaking from a damaged barge beneath the Mississippi River Bridge at the Port of New Orleans in this Aug. 1, 2008, file photo. (AP/Bill Haber)

NEW ORLEANS -- A barge company responsible for a Mississippi River oil spill that significantly damage shoreline habitat in south Louisiana in 2008 has agreed to pay $2.1 million in damages and buy and preserve a wildlife habitat just a few miles from downtown New Orleans.

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday announced the settlement, which seeks to bring about an end to a lawsuit over a 2008 collision caused by a tugboat pulling a barge loaded with fuel oil, news outlets reported.

The American Commercial Barge Line tug Mel Oliver veered directly in front of the MV Tintomara, an ocean-going tanker ship sailing downriver, the Justice Department reported. The ship collided with the barges and more than 282,800 gallons of oil were spilled into the Mississippi River upriver of New Orleans. The spill spread more than 100 miles downriver and covered over 5,000 acres of shoreline habitat.

The agreement still requires the approval of a federal judge. If approved, it would be part of a federal consent decree that would settle civil lawsuits brought by the Justice Department and the state of Louisiana over the spill, which caused a six-day closure to river traffic in late July 2008. At the time, it was estimated that the river shutdown led to a loss of $1 billion in commerce.

The tugboat was managed by an unlicensed crew and owned by American Commercial Barge Line, which is headquartered in Jeffersonville, Ind. American Commercial was ultimately found responsible for the spill after years of litigation.

The agreement between the company, the Justice Department and the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office means American Commercial will pay more than $6.6 million under the Oil Pollution Act and the Louisiana Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act. That includes $2.1 million cash for damages, $1.4 million for environmental damage assessment and restoration planning and an estimated $3.3 million to buy almost 650 acres of woodland habitat in Plaquemines Parish.

The $2.1 million in damages will go toward building a marsh in the Pass-a-Loutre State Wildlife Management Area and restoring habitat in the company's newly purchased woodlands parcel.

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