A judge is denying an attempt to make the federal government pay for more of the cleanup of a 2013 oil spill on the Mississippi River.
The tugboat owner, Nature's Way Marine, had claimed a government oil spill cleanup fund should pay the Alabama company $2.1 million of the $3 million it spent on the cleanup.
That claim was made as part of lawsuit where the government in turn says Nature's Way, its insurer and a barge owner should repay $800,000 that state and local governments spent removing oil.
A tugboat pushed a barge into a railroad bridge at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in January 2013, spilling 7,100 gallons of crude oil.
Nature's Way claimed its liability was limited to $850,000, but U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves denied that claim.