Posted on August 24, 2020
It’s been more than two weeks since a cargo ship in New Orleans spilled millions – possibly billions – of tiny plastic pellets into the Mississippi River, but state and federal agencies have issued no penalties and are not yet sure who’s responsible for the mess or which agency, if any, should clean it up.
Meanwhile, the white pellets, commonly called “nurdles,” a raw material for producing plastic products, continue to wash up on both banks of the river and will eventually flow out to sea, where they’ll likely be eaten by fish and other marine life, said Mark Benfield, an oceanographer and plastic pollution expert at LSU.
“By the time the agencies get around to determining who’s responsible, it’ll be too late,” he said. “It’ll all be in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Large quantities of nurdles have washed up in Gretna, Algiers Point, Crescent Park in Bywater and the Chalmette Battlefield in St. Bernard Parish. In a one-square-foot quadrant of Crescent Park, Benfield estimated as many as 49,500 nurdles.
On Aug. 2, the cargo ship CMA CGM Bianca broke free from its moorings at the Napoleon Avenue Wharf during a thunderstorm and dropped a large container of nurdles into the river, according to the Port of New Orleans. The nurdles broke out of sacks and dispersed into the water. Port officials determined the nurdles were “irretrievable.”
The 1,100-foot-long ship, which flies under the flag of Malta, had traveled from China and South Korea to deliver goods at Houston and Mobile before arriving in New Orleans. It left a few hours after the spill and is currently bound for Egypt.
France-based CMA CGM Group, the ship’s operator, did not reply to requests for comment.
The Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the incident. Coast Guard officials determined that they have no jurisdiction over the nurdles and are not responsible for cleanup. That’s because the nurdles are not considered a “hazardous material,” like oil or chemical waste, under the Clean Water Act.
Source: Coastal News Today
