Attention shoppers: Gulf spill could affect you

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Attention shoppers: Gulf spill could affect you

By VICKI SMITH
The Associated Press
<script type="text/javascript">/* <![CDATA[ */jQuery('.authorContact').click(function() {var emailLink = jQuery(this).attr('href');popupWin(emailLink, '', '', 'false', 'false', 'false', 'false', 'false', 'true');});/* ]]> */</script>Updated: 9:36 p.m. Monday, May 3, 2010
Posted: 3:26 a.m. Monday, May 3, 2010
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NEW ORLEANS — The calamitous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico isn't just a mess for the people who live or work on the coast. If you drink coffee, eat shrimp, like bananas or plan to buy a new set of tires, you could end up paying more because of the disaster.

The slick has forced the shutdown of the gulf's rich fishing grounds and could also spread to the busy shipping lanes at the mouth of the Mississippi River, tying up the cargo vessels that move millions of tons of fruit, rubber, grain, steel and other commodities and raw materials in and out of the nation's interior.

Though a total shutdown of the shipping lanes is unlikely, there could be long delays if vessels are forced to wait to have their oil-coated hulls power-washed to avoid contaminating the Mississippi.


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Re: Attention shoppers: Gulf spill could affect you

<CITE class=vcard>At mouth of Mississippi, pilots vow to keep shipping lanes open</CITE>
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<CITE class=vcard>by Mira Oberman Mira Oberman </CITE>? <ABBR class=recenttimedate title=2010-05-04T09:06:23-0700>14 mins ago</ABBR>
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SOUTHWEST PASS, Louisiana (AFP) ? Captain Jacques Michell, who has been guiding ships through the ever-shifting mouth of the Mississippi River for 36 years, is determined not to let a massive oil spill shut down traffic in one of the world's busiest shipping channels.

He has piloted ships through fog, and rough seas, and in 1974, riverbed problems so severe that 10 dredgers worked non-stop to keep a 30-kilometer (20-mile) stretch open.

He has even piloted them after smaller spills oiled the waters.

When that happens, boats with high-powered hoses are brought in to wash the sticky tar and oil off the hulls as ships move slowly down the river.

There's a good reason.

"The ports on the Mississippi transport more tonnage in and out of the Mississippi River system than any other place in the world," Michell says as he takes a break at a pilot station at the southernmost part of Louisiana.

"If Southwest Pass shuts down for any extended period of time it's going to have a ripple effect both on international markets and domestic markets up and down the (Mississippi River) valley."

The Mississippi River transports more than half of US grain exports, along with oil, chemicals, coal, timber reaching a total of 500 million tons of cargo each year.

There were still no signs of oil here on Monday, 11 days after an estimated 210,000 gallons (795,000 litres) a day of crude began streaming from the wellhead below an offshore rig which sank after a massive explosion that killed 11 workers.

Ships have also managed so far to skirt the worst of the ever-growing slick as they make their way out of the Gulf of Mexico.

But the mood is tense at the ship pilot station, where men whose families have made their livelihoods on the river for generations are on alert for the first signs of what is expected to be an ecological and economic disaster.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100504/lf_afp/usblastoilenergypollutionshipping