Slow oil-spill response cited

PHILADELPHIA – After the tanker Athos I was found to be leaking thousands of gallons of oil into the Delaware River, it took more than five hours for contractors to start closing off the mouths of 12 tributaries, officials said Monday.

As a result, an unknown portion of the 30,000 gallons of heavy Venezuelan crude made its way into tributaries, considered more ecologically sensitive than the main stem of the river.

New Jersey and Coast Guard officials said after the spill was first noticed Friday at 9:30 p.m., contractors and government personnel responded as quickly as possible — as dictated by spill-response rules set up after the far larger Exxon Valdez spill in 1989.

But it wasn’t quickly enough, said environmental advocate Maya K. van Rossum, who is head of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. She said she tramped along the Woodbury and Mantua creeks Sunday in New Jersey and found thick patches of oil.

Petty officer Jaime Bigelow, a Coast Guard spokesman, said contractors began closing off tributaries at 3 a.m. Saturday with floating plastic booms. More than half of the creeks were finished by 8 a.m., though some were not finished until the end of the day, he said.

Oil was spotted over a 29-mile stretch, from the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge to the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

The effort has involved 557 government and private-sector employees, 66 boats, skimmers, rakes, shovels and 37,000 feet of booms. The booms included 33,000 feet of yellow booms used to block oil, and 4,000 feet of white, polypropylene material that is designed to absorb the viscous, black liquid.

Between 500 and 1,000 birds are believed to have been “oiled,” a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection official said.