TIMELINE: Oil Spills in Rhode Island
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Rhode Island has had two major oil spills in the past 20 years, according to records from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
“By and large, we’ve had a pretty good record in Rhode Island about oil spills,” said Jonathan Stone, executive director of Save the Bay. “But the other side of the equation is that the cost of an oil spill—the potential damage—is huge.”
June 23, 1989 The M/V World Prodigy oil tanker runs aground on Brenton Reef, off Newport, pouring 290,000 gallons of home heating oil into the bay that encompasses a 123-square mile area of Narragansett Bay.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTJanuary 19, 1996 The North Cape barge runs aground on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown. The accident spews 828,000 gallons of home heating oil into Block Island Sound, forcing the closure of a 250-square mile area for fishing. Hundreds of birds and numerous lobsters and shellfish are killed.
A far smaller spill occurred in July 5, 2000 when a tug boat collided with the Penn 460 barge south of Prudence Island, spilling just 4,000 gallons of heating oil, according to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. In response, DEM closed about 4,000 acres of Narragansett Bay to fishing.