An unknown amount of oil flowed into the Mobile River, according to Coast Guard officials, who closed the river to all traffic between the Cochrane Africatown USA Bridge and the south end of McDuffie Island. Officials said a large portion of the spill remained on land.
Oil could be seen floating across a broad area of the river's surface by 10 a.m. Containment boom could be seen floating on the river, though oil appeared to be moving past it.
Ditches along the Cochrane Causeway, the stretch of road between the bridge and the Causeway, were coated in a thick layer of oil. The oil flowed past absorbent boom spread across the drainage ditches. The ditches drain into Polecat Bay on the edge of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. Mosquito fish and tadpoles schooled beneath patches of oil as it drifted downstream on the current.
Oil could be seen pooled on the company's property as oil recovery workers in large suction trucks moved in and out of an access gate.
The Coast Guard reported that four companies had been hired to help clean up the spill. Officials with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management were on the scene.
The asphalt company has a series of containment dikes on its property. Each storage tank is supposed to be surrounded by a dike large enough to capture all of the contents of the tank in the event of a spill.
During a previous spill event at nearby Hunt Crude Oil Supply Co., oil escaped into roadside ditches because a valve on one of the containment dikes had been left open. That spill involved 12,000 gallons.
The spill occurred at 12:30 a.m. Thursday morning, officials said.
Two vessels coming into the port — the Carnival Elation and another vessel — were docked safely. The Elation was docked at the Alabama Cruise Terminal.
Update: An Alabama State Port Authority spokeswoman said there are two ships docked on Mobile River than cannot leave the port because of the spill.
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