Texas Oil Leak Called ‘Major Spill’

GALVESTON, Tex. —  The Coast Guard estimated Monday that 500,000 gallons of oil leaked into Galveston Bay from two barges, 10 times its original estimate of the weekend spill that has killed fish and stalled marine traffic.

“We have upgraded the spill to a major spill,” said Coast Guard Capt. Thomas Greene.

A patchy sheen of oil was heading through the Bolivar Pass from the bay into the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to make the cleanup more difficult, Coast Guard Petty Officer Gene Maestas said Monday night.

A skimmer ship was dispatched to try to keep the oil from the gulf.

Thick, black patches of goop and a brown sheen have spread through much of the bay, Greene said.

He said suspicious oil was reported on at least two beaches south of where the barges and a tanker collided Saturday.

The largest slick, estimated at eight miles long, remained northeast of the collision site late Monday near Redfish Island in the Houston Ship Channel, which “took a pretty bad hit,” Maestas said.

The revised estimate came after crews finished removing oil from a listing barge Monday, and determined how much oil was left in a second barge partly submerged in the channel, officials said.