Word: monongahela
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Nine sailors were injured when fire broke out in the boiler room of the U.S.S. Monongahela as it cruised near Spain...
While Pittsburgh draws its potable water from the unaffected Allegheny River, some nearby cities and towns on the Monongahela were forced to shut off their river intakes completely. The authorities tried to cope by tapping into the fire hydrants of unpolluted water systems and reopening old wells. Governor Robert Casey ordered out the National Guard to help, and decreed mandatory water conservation with a $200 fine for violators. Most people took the inconvenience good-naturedly. In North Fayette, 17 miles south of Pittsburgh, residents switched to paper plates, postponed the laundry and washed at the homes of friends whose water...
...been easier on a lake or in the ocean. In that event, the diesel fuel would have stayed on the surface, where it could have been trapped with floating rubber booms and sucked up with vacuum hoses. But in this case, by the time emergency cleanup crews arrived, the Monongahela's turbulent waters had begun to break up the oil slick and disperse it through the river's depth. The water and oil were further mixed as they tumbled over + locks and dams on the Monongahela and Ohio...
Five booms were deployed to trap what oil remained on the surface, but the fast-moving river current simply forced the oil under and past them. In addition, the Monongahela's steep banks made much of the river inaccessible. The result: cleanup crews have recovered only 100,000 gal. of fuel -- and that is all they are likely to get. Communities downstream still face 760,000 gal. snaking their way along. By the end of next week the contamination should reach Cincinnati. But as it moves, the oil also becomes diluted; when it hits the Mississippi, perhaps by early March...
...dramatic oil spill in Pennsylvania' s Monongahela River cuts off drinking water supplies and threatens communities along the Ohio...