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Melanie Thortis / Vicksburg Evening Post via AP
Barges wait for traffic to re-open along the Mississippi River near Vicksburg, Miss. on Monday.
VICKSBURG, Miss. -- With more than 50 vessels idled on the water for a fourth day Wednesday, authorities said they still did not know when they would be able to reopen a 16-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that was closed due to an oil spill.
A plan to pump oil from a leaking barge onto another barge — a process known as lightering — had been approved, but it was unclear how long that would take, Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally said Tuesday. He said the other barge was en route.
Severe weather that was expected to sweep through the area could shut down cleanup operations for a time, prolonging the process further, authorities said.
Crews have been working around the clock to contain and remove oil since the barge, owned by Corpus Christi, Texas-based Third Coast Towing LLC, struck a railroad bridge and began leaking early Sunday. The company has refused to comment on the incident.
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Lally also noted that about 7,000 gallons of crude oil were unaccounted for aboard the barge. He said it was not clear whether all of it spilled into the river or some seeped into empty spaces inside the barge.
At least 54 vessels, including towboats and barges, were idled on the river, one of the nation's vital commerce routes.
More than 168 million tons of cargo a year moves along the Mississippi between Baton Rouge, La., and the mouth of the Ohio River, carried by nearly 22,300 cargo ships and 162,700 barges, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. About 3.6 million tons of cargo is handled annually by the port of Vicksburg.
When low water threatened to close the river earlier in January, the tow industry trade group American Waterways Operators estimated that 7.2 million tons of commodities worth $2.8 billion might be sidelined over the last three weeks of the month.
Salt destined for Northern roads moves upriver in January, said spokeswoman Ann McCulloch. "We're still moving corn, soybeans and grain, but also coal and petroleum ... stone, sand and gravel," she said Tuesday.
Barges carry 20 percent of the nation's coal and more than 60 percent of its grain exports, according to the group.
Ron Zornes, director of corporate operations for Canal Barge Co. of New Orleans, said each idled towboat could cost a company anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 a day. The low end would be for a single boat with a couple of barges and the high end for one in "a system of towboats that acts sort of like a bus system."
"So if one bus is stopped it gums up the whole system," he said.
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...it will be interesting to see the tugboat captain's explanation of HOW he managed to strike the railroad bridge and cause the leak. I'm also awaiting the damage assessment to the bridge and whether the owner of the boat will be responsible for any repairs to it. Most people don't realize just how much commerce is done on the Ohio/Mississippi River channel.
Growing up in West Virginia and living along the Ohio River I can say that there were always barges going up and down the river. We use to go to the Dam Locks and watch then go up and down the river and there as also some good fishing along the dam. While the Mississippi is much larger then the Ohio 2320 mile compared to 981 the Ohio is the largest tributary to the Mississippi and in reality hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system,
No disrespect towards the young Coast Guardsman, but if the Associated Press can't get their information from anyone higher up in the chain-of-command than a 3rd Class Petty officer (E-4), on a major story as this, there's a real problem.
It seems that the oil industry gets to play on a different field. One or two oil spills every once in a while can be chalked up to stuff that just happens. But, oil spills have become a steady stream due to lack of responsibilitiy. It gets down to the reality that moving and extracting oil is not done with safety in mind and it's time to really hurt them back. There is still plenty of oil doing damage in Alaska from the Valdez spill and also in the gulf areas and yet due to BP's lack of safety measures, we let them pretend that there is no problem. Kind of reminds me of our banking system. They keep screwing up and we keep letting them, then we give them money so they won't be losers.
Personally, I'm sick and tired of being a constant loser to make up for A Holes that get away with doing bad things to us.
Drill baby Drill. Yep, just more oil spills waiting to happen. And the GOP wants to do away with the EPA. Lying Ryan mentioned that in one of his speeches.
Hopefully lying Ryan and his ilk never get their way on that.
killling the world one oil spill at a time.drill baby drill.
Is this why crude oil is skyrocketing to $114 / bbl by Friday?
It all flushes into the gulf. Enjoy that hint of petroleum in your seafood yet?
The Mississippi River will get worse since Congress is slashing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' budget. That and the majority of the communities, towns and cities in the Mississippi River Basin have absolutely no water management plan.
Profits first.