Delaware River

Police searched Sunday evening for a woman who fell off a tube in the Delaware River near the West Deptford municipal boat ramp. The woman, in her 40s, was drifting on the tube with two other people around 5:40 p.m. when she fell off and did not resurface. The other riders made it to shore, State Police Sgt. Stephen Jones said. Two Coast Guard boats, three state police boats with sonar equipment, and a helicopter were being used to search for the woman. The search was expected to resume Monday.

Eight people, including five children, were rescued from a recreational boat that got stranded on rocks Monday afternoon in the Delaware River, authorities said. The 27-foot Sea Ray boat hit a rock jetty near Chester Island just north of the Commodore Barry Bridge around 3:30 p.m., authorities said. The boat had launched from National Park in Gloucester County. Logan Township Fire Department rescue boats retrieved the individuals and took them to the Raccoon Creek Boat Club, said Tim Corcoran, the club's commodore.

Police marine units are searching the Delaware River near Rhawn Street and State Road in Northeast Philadelphia for a teenage boy who fell into the water, police said. About 6:15, the teen had been standing with two friends near the river in Pennypack Park, behind the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, when he fell into the water, police said. His friends unsuccessfully tried to rescue him, police said. A Coast Guard helicopter is assisting in the search.

Authorities were investigating the death of a woman whose body was found Thursday morning floating in the Delaware River off Penn's Landing. A marine unit pulled the body from the water just before noon near the Independence Seaport Museum, officials said. The woman appeared to be Asian and in her late teens, police said. She had no identification and there were no signs of visible trauma. The body was taken to the Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy. - Inquirer staff

A tanker unloading at the Sun Refining & Marketing Co. terminal in Marcus Hook yesterday spilled about 150 gallons of light, Nigerian crude oil into the Delaware River. The spill occurred about 6 a.m. as the 865-foot ship, the Nike, began to unload, according to the Coast Guard. Sun Oil Co. employees immediately placed booms around the ship, holding the spill within 10 yards of the vessel, according to Sun spokesman Jeff Peters. "We were lucky," Peters said, "the tide was coming in and the wind was blowing toward shore.

DuPont Co. agreed Thursday to pay $500,000 to settle state and federal accusations the company polluted the Delaware River with toxic industrial chemicals "numerous" times in the last six years. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Delaware's environmental agency, and state and federal prosecutors joined in a consent decree to curb illegal chemical discharges at DuPont's Edge Moor works next to Fox Point State Park just north of Wilmington, which processes titanium dioxide, used in auto paints, printing, and other industries.

Five years in the making, a new development plan for a six-mile stretch of the central Delaware River was unanimously approved Tuesday by the eight directors of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Despite objections from a group representing private property owners, the commission adopted the plan for the waterfront from Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia to Allegheny Avenue in Port Richmond. "This area has languished for too long," said commissioner Joseph Syrnick.

The body of a Bellmawr man missing since Nov. 3 was recovered Monday afternoon from the Delaware River in Gloucester City after a security guard spotted the victim in the river. Camden County Prosecutor Edward F. Borden Jr. said a security guard at the GAF factory, at Water and Charles Streets, saw the body of John McCarthy, 62, floating in the water near the plant about 1:40 p.m. and called police. Investigators said McCarthy was identified after his wallet was found in his pocket.

After the nation's worst oil spill on March 24 fouled Prince William Sound, Alaska, Cynthia Poten began to worry even more about the safety of her great passion - the Delaware River. At first, Poten, river keeper of the 330-mile-long waterway, was reassured when she checked into the Delaware River and Bay Cooperative, an emergency system designed to enable riverside industries and the Coast Guard to contain swiftly any spill in the Delaware. That reassurance evaporated June 24 when the Uruguayan tanker Presidente Rivera ran aground off Claymont, Del., dumping 307,000 gallons of No. 6 heating oil into the river in an area blessed with bird and wildlife refuges and fish hatcheries.