Salvage crews finish transferring fuel from stricken tugboat in Alaska’s Prince William Sound

Crews finish fuel transfer from stricken tugboat

VALDEZ, Alaska — Salvage crews in Alaska have completed transferring thousands of gallons of diesel fuel from a stricken tugboat and a tow plan is in place.

Jim Butler, a spokesman for the boat’s owner, Crowley Maritime Services, says crews finished transferring about 49,000 gallons of fuel and water mixed from the two damaged tanks late Friday. Crowley, the U.S. Coast Guard and the state of Alaska then agreed on a plan to tow the tug back into the Port of Valdez.

Butler says that process could begin later Saturday.

The tugboat crashed Wednesday against the same Alaskan reef that damaged the Exxon Valdez 20 years ago. Efforts to remove the fuel were slowed Friday when a mile-long diesel sheen spread across Prince William Sound.