An official said 4,000 to 9,000 gallons had been spilled.
The Ecuadorean environment minister, Rodolfo Rendon, said 60,000 gallons had been recovered from the tanker, but not before more than 160,000 gallons had seeped out.
ONE of the oil industry's favorite tools in fighting oil spills is chemical dispersants — indeed, over 300,000 gallons have been used so far in the Gulf.
He explained that, as the oil mixes with chemical dispersants — two million gallons have been dumped into the water — it gets heavier.
NASA scientists said last week that about about 25 gallons had been detected, immediately and dramatically changing the viability of a self-sustaining lunar base.
But the officials said a major environmental disaster was averted by the quick response: around 100,000 gallons have been recovered and an unknown amount of the fuel has dissipated in both the Arthur Kill and Raritan Bay, the governor's office said.
Although Israel promised to deliver 580,000 gallons of industrial diesel fuel this week for Gaza's sole power plant, which supplies much of Gaza City, only 333,000 gallons had been delivered by Thursday.
Drivers in New Jersey faced 1970s-style gasoline rationing imposed by Gov. Chris Christie, while in New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said 8 million gallons had been unloaded from commercial tankers and another 28 million gallons would go into distribution terminals over the weekend.
Three new water tanks each with the capacity of storing 100,000 gallons of water and another two tanks with the storage capacity of 50,000 gallons have been constructed.
The current federal gasoline tax, 18.4 cents a gallon, has been essentially stable since 1993; in inflation-adjusted terms, it's fallen by 40 percent since then.
