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Oil barge is freed from sandbar
By SUZETTE PORTER
Article published on Friday, April 4, 2008 |
ST. PETERSBURG – A barge that had been stuck on a sandbar near Egmont Key is free.
According to Mike Hanson, spokesman for K-Sea Operating Partnership LP, offloading of 20,000 barrels of oil Friday afternoon lightened the barge enough that tugs were able to move it away from the sandbar into deeper water.
The 138-foot tug Yankee was transporting a 441-foot barge, both owned by K-Sea, from Houston to Tampa when it ran aground on a sand bar about 5:45 p.m. on April 2. The double-hulled barge was carrying 119,000 barrels fuel oil.
A Coast Guard investigation is continuing to determine why the tug navigated outside the shipping channel.
Multiple attempts to free the barge from the sandbar were unsuccessful, and officials decided to enlist the help of Bouchard Transportation Company of New York who brought in a tug and barge to assist in the fuel oil transfer Friday afternoon.
Hanson reported just after 6 p.m. that the plan to remove about one-sixth of the oil to allowing the grounded barge to float higher in the water had worked.
The barge and tug will be moved to an anchorage area where they can be inspected by divers.
“Divers will thoroughly inspect the hull to make sure it’s fully intact,” U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Robert Simpson said.
Simpson said thus far no signs of leaking had been detected. He also said that the sand bar where the barge went aground was not in a protected area, so there had been no environmental impact.
When the inspection is complete, if no problems are found, the barge and tug will be allowed to continue to the power plant which was its original destination.
Hanson said K-Sea had been operating in the area for at least 10 years and transports barges through the local shipping channels about two times a week.
Egmont Key is located at the mouth of Tampa Bay, southwest of Fort DeSoto Beach.
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Article published on Friday, April 4, 2008
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