The sunken tugboat in northern Alabama released thousands of gallons of diesel fuel into the Tennessee River over the weekend, prompting evacuations of beaches and warnings to stay out of the water.
The police department in Florence, Alabama, said in a warning Sunday that 3,000 to 5,000 gallons of diesel were released into the river and that fuel had begun to wash up on the beaches of McFarland Park.
Officers are currently at McFarland getting people out of the water that are swimming, the police department said Sunday. Stay out of the water and off the beaches until further notice. The tugboat sank Sunday, officials said.
It's not clear what caused the boat to sink, said George M. Grabryan, emergency management 911 director for the city of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama.
No one was on board the tug at the time, he said, and no injuries or deaths have been reported in connection with the incident.
But Grabryan said he expects that officials will learn Friday what happened to the boat and what caused it to sink. The tugboat company in Florence has also been in contact with officials.
The Alabama Department of Environmental Management, Florence Fire Department and Florence Police Department, and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Marine patrol are among the agencies involved in the ongoing cleanup process.
Boom, which he described as a long section of absorbent material, has been applied across the inference to the port and around the tugboat.
He said the boom will help contain the diesel on the surface of the water and keep everything in a pile, hoping to prevent it from spreading.
It's not clear when all the diesel will be cleaned up.
On Monday, officials will work with the Coast Guard to determine a plan to raise the sunken vessel.
There's a crane that ll be on site today, hopefully to actually assist in raising that vessel, Grabryan said.
We re fortunate that we don't have these things happen often, he said. So we feel we feel really good about that, he said.