RESERVE — St. John the Baptist Parish workers are monitoring water intake at two parish water facilities today following a spill of approximately 500 gallons of diesel fuel into the Mississippi River near Reserve, officials said.

As of noon Tuesday, parish officials had not detected anything in St. John’s water system.

The U.S. Coast Guard reports the 500 gallons were spilled at 5 p.m. Monday near mile marker 137, the result of a diesel fuel transfer mishap with an unknown cause.

According to the Coast Guard, a Custom Fuel Services’ tank discharged 500 gallons of diesel into the Mississippi River before securing the spill.

The diesel has been contained with boom equipment, and the vessel applied absorbents to begin clean up Monday evening.

Travis Magee, U.S. Coast Guard petty officer third class, told L’OBSERVATEUR Tuesday that Coast Guard personnel were working to assess the spill’s status and cause but those elements were still being investigated as of noon Tuesday.

St. John Public Safety Director Jobe’ Boucvalt said the Parish is monitoring water intake at the Reserve and Edgard water plants.

“If they see signs of any problems or anything that could be of concern to the residents’ drinking water, they shut down intakes,” he said, adding federal response teams did a solid job of securing Monday’s spill.

“They had it all boomed off,” he said. “Until they finish, our water plants monitor those intakes to make sure (there is no concern).”

Boucvalt said St. John officials are waiting to receive an all-clear report from the Coast Guard indicating the clean up is complete.

St. John officials stressed the Mississippi River is federally regulated by the U.S. Coast Guard out of New Orleans.

Port of South Louisiana Executive Director Paul Aucoin said local port officials were not notified of Monday’s spill, adding he could not shed much light on response.

“Normally, we’re the first person the Coast Guard would call, and they would ask us to go asses the situation,” Aucoin said. “The normal procedure would be we would go assess the situation and inform them of what we thought would be necessary to get the spill under control.”

A Coast Guard spokesman told L’OBSERVATEUR Tuesday he was unaware of where the communication breakdown with the Port occurred.