Delaware River Spill Update

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientific support team has projected that tar balls and scattered patches of oil could be washing ashore at anytime along the northern Atlantic shoreline of Delaware and the southern Atlantic shoreline of New Jersey.

Patches of oil have been seen from the Tacony Palymyra Bridge to south of Smyrna River on the Delaware River. Tar balls were also found yesterday in the C&D Canal in Maryland. Residents of these areas can expect to see tar balls, but not in high numbers.

The ATHOS I has been temporarily moved to the Marcus Hook Anchorage. It's next destination will be a graving dock at the Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia to repair the holes in the hull. More information regarding "the pipe" will not be available until investigators have completed their analysis. The unified command continues oil clean-up and recovery efforts. The incident is still under investigation. Final results of the investigation could take several months.

Latest oil spill information:

-- More than 1,600 responders are working in the command center and along the Delaware River.

-- 156 vessels are employed in the response effort.

-- 11,454 gallons of an oil/water mixture has been recovered.

-- 1,827,380 pounds of oily solids (cleanup materials and oil ) have been collected.

-- Experts report 190 birds have been captured, 126 of which have been cleaned thus far. A separate count of 106 has been reported deceased.

-- Oil has impacted approximately 119 miles of shoreline comprised of patches of oil ranging from a very light sheen to tarballs. Currently, 63 miles of the affected shoreline is patches of very light sheen. Refer to the Shoreline Cleanup Assesment Chart for detailed information.

-- More than 124,000 feet of containment boom is in place with absorbent boom being used as well