Ice Hampers Oil Spill Cleanup

PITTSBURGH — Zero-degree cold iced an 80-mile fuel slick on the Ohio and Monongahela rivers today, hampering cleanup efforts and heightening the threat of water shortages for a million people downstream.

Dozens of schools and businesses shut down in western Pennsylvania, where about 23,000 people were without water for the third day, while Ohio’s governor warned those who live along the river from the Pennsylvania border to Kentucky to conserve water. The slick was caused on Saturday when a 40-year-old diesel oil tank collapsed at a riverside Ashland Oil Co. facility south of Pittsburgh.