NYACK – One tugboat crew member is dead and State Police divers
are coordinating with the US Coast Guard and local law enforcement to
locate two others who are unaccounted for, Governor Cuomo said at an afternoon
briefing on Saturday.
Shortly after 5 a.m., three tugboats were transporting a barge with construction
equipment southbound on the Hudson River.
The governor said the barge and accompanying tugs did not come down the
middle of a 600-foot wide Coast Guard designated channel, instead approaching
too close to a construction barge next to pier 31, where work on the Tappan
Zee Bridge replacement is taking place. One of those tugs, the Specialists,
struck the bridge barge and sank.
Tappan Zee Constructors, the builders of the new bridge, had a crew of
21 workers on their barge at the time; none were injured when the tugboat
struck.
After striking the barge, the governor said the tugboat began leaking
up to 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel, creating a fuel slick some 100 yards
wide and five miles long.
Local law enforcement deployed a fuel-containing apparatus to the water
due to a visible sheen. Westchester has initiated a cleanup agreement
with a private company, Miller Environmental Group, to manage the diesel
spill with a state Department of Environmental Conservation oil spill
team on the scene to monitor and support the cleanup.
Cuomo said the state will conduct “a full investigation to understand
exactly what led to today’s events and provide more information
s it becomes available.”
