Mississippi River Oil Spill - est. 2 mil barrels or gals?

[wwicko]

Major oil spill spotted on Mississippi River
9/2/2005, 12:14 p. m. CT
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — State officials said Friday they have spotted a huge oil spill near two storage tanks at the town of Venice, on the
Mississippi River downstream from New Orleans.

A flyover by the Department of Environmental Quality revealed what was described as a major oil spill.

"Two tanks with the capacity of holding 2 million barrels appear to be leaking," the statement said.

No further details were given.

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana ... =louisiana

***

Venice oil spill under investigation by DEQ
Capitol news bureau

The state Department of Environmental Quality is investigating a major oil spill near Venice this morning.

DEQ officials believe that up to 2 million gallons of oil escaped from the storage facility but they’re not sure, said DEQ spokesman Darrin Mann on Friday.

The spill has been seen from the air but environmental officials have not been able yet to investigate, Mann said.

“They’re going in on boat,” he said.

http://2theadvocate.com/livepages4/860.shtml

***

Texas Oil Spill Teams Head To New Orleans

A team of Texas oil spill experts from the Texas General Land Office is headed to Louisiana to help in the massive recovery effort in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/1715791.html

***

[soonertwister]

Is it two million barrels, or two million gallons? I suspect the smaller number, as a million barrel oil tank ashore would be a very unusual size (42 million gallons).

[wwicko]

I didn't catch the discrepancy. I'll change the title.

[GalvestonDuck]

And (thankfully?) they have the "capacity" to hold that much. The spill is not that big...yet.

[Talon402]

MSNBC says the units are BARRELS.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9175553/#typoedthefirstone