Bouchard No. 120
Encyclopedia
On Sunday April 27, 2003, the Tank Barge Bouchard No. 120 struck rocks south of Westport, MA. This resulted in a puncture of the barge's hull about twelve feet in length. As a result, the cargo of the barge, number 6 fuel oil, spilled into the waters of Buzzards Bay, MA. While the spill was much smaller than many of the Large Oil Spills, the environmental impacts were felt for years. Estimates of the total amount spilled range from 22,000 to 98,000 gallons of oil according to a publication by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This spill was quite different than some of the more widely known spills like Deepwater Horizon
Deepwater Horizon
Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore oil drilling rig owned by Transocean. Built in 2001 in South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries, the rig was commissioned by R&B Falcon, which later became part of Transocean, registered in Majuro, Marshall...

, not just because of its smaller scale, but due to the type of spill that it was. Deepwater, being a spill of oil directly from the ground was pure oil. Bouchard No. 120 contained number 6 Fuel Oil
Fuel oil
Fuel oil is a fraction obtained from petroleum distillation, either as a distillate or a residue. Broadly speaking, fuel oil is any liquid petroleum product that is burned in a furnace or boiler for the generation of heat or used in an engine for the generation of power, except oils having a flash...

. A local scientist from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of all aspects of marine science and engineering and to the education of marine researchers. Established in 1930, it is the largest independent oceanographic research...

 explains that the processing of oil yields various components of varying danger to the environment.

NOAA is heavily involved in environmental cleanups of oil spills as well as other damage to wildlife and coastal environments in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 largely through their Damage Assessment Remediation and Recovery Program DARRP. efforts lasted in earnest for several years and continued to some degree until 2007 according to a report by the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program.
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