Coast Guard boat tour provides close-up view of oil spill

The Coast Guard provided KFDM News with the first opportunity for a close-up view of the oil spill that has shut down a large portion of the Sabine Neches Ship Channel.

The Coast Guard took a KFDM crew on a boat tour to see crews cleaning up the spill. We saw oil pooling on the banks of the waterway and watched Coast Guard personnel board the Eagle Otome tanker to help determine the cause of the collision with a barge. Authorities say the oil is impacting about 9 miles of shoreline.

The Eagle Otome and a barge collided Saturday near the Port of Port Arthur. Oil poured from a large gas in one compartment of the crude oil tanker. More than 460,000 gallons of oil spilled, into the water, according to the Coast Guard, although local officials say the amount might be far less than that.

Today the Texas General Lland Office ramped up the number of contractors sopping up the spill.

550 people and 27 skimming crews are working around the clock to get the oil out of the water.

State law charges the Land Office with leading the clean up of oil spills along the coast.

Crews on land and in the water have the same goal. They want to get rid of the oil, and there's more than one way to skim a spill.

Contractors are using five ways.

"We've got oil that needs moving," said J.T. Ewing with the Texas General Land Office.

And in the middle of this is a group of Coast Guard investigators, they're riding to the accident site to question the crew and find out details of what happened.

"Main mission is the cleanup first," said Lt. JG Chris Martin. "The investigation has been in the background a bit."

More than five hundred people have joined the cleanup effort. Machines pick up a lot, but it will get down to doing it by hand.

They spray the oil, soak it up, scoop it out and bag it away.

We now know how they're cleaning the waterway, but what caused it to happen is the question these investigators hope to answer.

"Find out what happened," said Tom Atkeson with the U.S. Coast Guard. "Most important thing is to make sure it doesn't happen again."

The Texas General Land Office is planning to move the wrecked vessels Wednesday.

It expects to have the spill cleaned up by Thursday.