(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

U. S. Coast Guard Patrol boat tugs hold the two pieces of an oil barge involved in a collision in the Mississippi River.

NEW ORLEANS -- After an improperly licensed river towboat pilot was involved in one of the nation's worst oil spills, a river towing industry official assured officials at a Coast Guard hearing Friday that safety standards would improve.

The towboat and barge industry has come under fire because the towing company involved in the summer crash had a spotty track record -- but had not been sanctioned by the industry's main regulatory group, the American Waterways Operators.

The Coast Guard is now holding a hearing in New Orleans to investigate the oil spill and heard testimony Friday from Robert Clinton, the vice president of safety for the AWO, which has 244 towing companies as members.

Clinton said the AWO board would adopt new regulations as early as next week to bolster its voluntary safety certification system.

"It will no longer be good to try to get certification, you will need to do it," Clinton told the hearing.

The July 23 collision between the towboat pushing a fuel barge and a tanker carrying styrene and biodiesel has renewed calls for the Coast Guard to carry out more inspections of towboats. The barge spilled 283,000 gallons of oil into the Mississippi River in New Orleans, closing the busy waterway for six days.

The nation's towing fleet is largely unregulated, and the Coast Guard does not inspect the boats. The Coast Guard has yet to develop a policy for inspecting the towing fleet, even though Congress asked officials to do so in 2004.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the Maryland chairman of a transportation subcommittee overseeing the Coast Guard, blasted the agency at a September congressional hearing for taking so long. Coast Guard officials have said they plan to finish a proposed rule next year.

The AWO began drafting safety standards after a horrific accident in 1993 when a towboat struck a railroad bridge in Mobile, Ala., and caused Amtrak's Sunset Limited to plunge into Big Bayou Canot, killing 47 people.

No one was injured in the New Orleans collision, but it awakened concerns about the potential for tragedy and served as an example for critics who say the industry is plagued by inexperienced crews, wayward captains, profit-driven companies and lax regulations.

"You've got a lot of older captains out here who don't want to see the changes. They want to stay like it was when we were outlaws," said Gary Hensley, an Alabama towboat captain affiliated with the National Mariners Association, a Louisiana-based seamen's group fighting for more government oversight.

"What Congress needs to do is implement these vessel inspections and make companies comply with them," Hensley said.

The company operating the towboat, Harvey-based DRD Towing Co., failed an AWO audit shortly before the accident. Just two weeks before the tanker accident, another of its boats crashed and sank while an improperly licensed pilot was at the helm, according to the Coast Guard. Also, a deckhand aboard the boat in the July collision tested positive for marijuana, the Coast Guard said.

At the hearing Friday, Lt. Cmdr. Melissa Harper, the presiding Coast Guard officer, pressed Clinton on DRD's safety record.

She was disturbed that DRD could have been allowed back into AWO's certification program after failing the audit by simply reapplying for membership to the group.

Clinton acknowledged flaws and said that loophole, among others, would be closed. But he noted that AWO asked Congress and the Coast Guard to inspect towing vessels five years ago.

"We are not cops," he said. "(There have been) five years to develop this program, and it still ain't there."

The hearing, which serves as a fact-gathering tool, will continue for several more days. The crew of the towboat is expected to testify.

At the end, Harper will issue recommendations to improve safety and she could also recommend whether civil and criminal penalties should be pursued.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)