THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 11, 1996 TAG: 9610110539
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER AND CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 60 lines
A tank barge carrying 62,000 gallons of diesel oil was grounded in the shallows of the Elizabeth River on Thursday after developing a hole and taking on water, the Coast Guard said.
No oil escaped during the incident, which rallied Coast Guard personnel, response boats and emergency contractors to the scene off the Lamberts Point coal terminal just after 12:30 p.m.
By 5 p.m., a temporary patch was holding across a 2-foot-long hole, and the barge was being towed to Colonna's Shipyard Inc. in Norfolk, where it will be repaired and its liquid cargo removed, said Russell Thorne, executive vice president of Norfolk Dredging Co., which owns the damaged vessel.
``Somehow or another a hole had been punched into a void space on the barge,'' Thorne said. ``It looked like something had just hit it.''
The 87-foot, 110-ton barge had been dry-docked, painted and inspected, all according to Coast Guard regulations, at the end of April, Thorne said.
Lt. Cmdr. Eric Washburn, of the Coast Guard's Marine Safety Office, said investigators would try to determine what went wrong. They were interviewing the crew and company representatives Thursday.
``It could have been a real bad mess,'' Thorne said.
The barge was transporting diesel oil from Mobil's terminal on the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River to a dredge working in the river's main channel near Norfolk Naval Base, Thorne said.
Suddenly, it began taking on water through an undetected hole in a section of the vessel that does not hold cargo. A tug pushing the barge quickly directed it out of the main channel and into about 3 feet of water near Lamberts Point, to keep it from sinking, Thorne said.
Floating rubber fencing, called boom, was stretched around the barge as a precaution against any leaking fuel, Washburn said. In addition, Industrial Marine Service Inc., a local spill-response company, was standing by.
``We did everything we could to keep it from becoming a bad situation,'' Thorne said.
A rash of recent marine accidents involving tugs and barges has brought the marine industry increased scrutiny.
The issue of tug and towing safety came into national prominence in 1993, after 46 people died when an Amtrak passenger train derailed into an Alabama bayou off a bridge damaged by a wayward tug and its barges.
During an 18-month period starting in 1994, there were 112 incidents involving tugs and barges in Hampton Roads, according to the Coast Guard. Most were minor, but there also were 11 groundings, nine collisions, three breakaways, three fires, three floodings, two capsizes and two sinkings.
While there are numerous federal regulations governing tugs and barges, the Coast Guard isn't required to inspect tugboats. In Hampton Roads, private tug operators and the Coast Guard have developed a voluntary inspection program, in hope of mitigating calls for increased regulation.
There are about 150 tugs belonging to about 20 companies homeported in Hampton Roads, and many more pass through every week. ILLUSTRATION: MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot
The barge lies grounded Thursday near Lamberts Point, where it was
pushed after it began taking on water in the main channel of the
Elizabeth River. It was patched and towed to a shipyard.
KEYWORDS: OIL SPILL ELIZABETH RIVER by CNB