Feds assess risk from sunken Lake Champlain tug

ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN (AP) -- Federal officials are trying to determine if any fuel remains in a tugboat that sank in Lake Champlain almost 50 years ago.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard sent a remote operated vehicle down 160 feet in Lake Champlain to the wreckage of the William H. McAllister. It was the first step of a possible effort to pump up to 14,000 gallons of diesel fuel out of the boat.

The McAllister sank in November 1963 after running aground in New York waters on a reef near Port Kent, N.Y. and Burlington, Vt.

Experts say that if a large amount of fuel were to escape into Lake Champlain it would cause an environmental disaster.

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