Lower Mississippi Closure Due to Oil Leakage after the barge collision

Lower Mississippi Closure Due to Oil Leakage after the barge collision

USCG unified order is handling with a crude oil leakage from a damaged barge in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The barge had earlier been damaged through collision with a bridge support while in tow, and the Mississippi River is still closed to all marine traffic for a sixteen-mile distance among mile marker 425 and mile marker 441 near Vicksburg, Mississippi. There are now twenty-one northbound and thirty-four southbound ships that were affected due to the river closure.

A lightering and salvage schedule has been accepted by the unified command and multiple response crew team have been sent to start removing oil from the barge.

Response crew members have deployed 2800-feet of boom to comprise the source of the oil leakage. Skimming ships have recovered nearly 2,300 gallons of oil-water mixture since the accident happened. The tank levels are being monitored. The spilling tank contained nearly 80,000 gallons of light crude oil. An estimated 7000 gallons of oil is unaccounted for with an unknown quantity potentially contained in the void spaces of the damaged barge.

Staff from USCG Sector Lower Mississippi River, Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment Vicksburg and the Coast Guard Gulf Strike Team from Mobile, Ala., are on the place of the accident as part of a unified command effort to oversee cleanup and salvage actions. The unified command consists of representatives from the USCG, State on-scene coordinators from Lower Mississippi and Louisiana and the owner of the towing ship, Nature’s Way Marine LLC.

Source: http://www.vesselfinder.com/