NATCHEZ — The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has been on the ground monitoring the site where a damaged barge may have leaked oil slurry last month.

The leak happened after a barge carrying oil slurry struck one of the Mississippi River bridge’s support piers Jan. 21, resulting in a rupture of the barge’s hull.

The barge ended up at a site south of the port near St. Catherine Creek, and the U.S. Coast Guard crews who responded to the site were able to remove more than 700,000 gallons of oil from the damaged barge into two Magnolia Marine transport barges.

But the Coast Guard estimated approximately 24,600 gallons of oil were missing, and side-scanning sonar searches by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could not locate the missing oil.

Monitoring the potential environmental damage was partially impeded by the then-high river level at the time of the incident.

But the MDEQ was in Adams County Wednesday and Friday to assess the situation, Adams County Emergency Management Director Robert Bradford said.

“They are still in the process of monitoring it, and they had a crew on the ground here,” he said. “After the water goes down, we will get full disclosure next week — we do know some oil did spill out of the barge, but we are waiting to see if it stuck to any land or vegetation in the Adams County.”

If any oil made an environmental impact in the county, it will have to be removed by a team using hazardous materials containment units, Bradford said.

After the barge struck the bridge, the Mississippi Department of Transportation had the bridge inspected, and a spokesman said while the collision left a visible scratch on the bridge, it did not damage the structure.

Once the oil slurry was removed, the damaged barge was towed to Vicksburg for repairs.