Weekly News Summary For March 15-21, 2010:
After a full year in operation, the Coast Guard’s consolidated National Maritime Center has resolved a lot of the licensing problems that have plagued mariners for years—most notably, decreasing the time it takes to process a license application. But as the four-hour meeting of the Mid America Regional Examination Center (MAREC) workgroup on March 1 revealed, there are still some kinks to work out.
Topping the list of complaints now: the NMC’s medical evaluations.
NMC director, Capt. David Stalfort, said the NMC has beefed up its medical staff. When the center opened a year ago, there were six people involved in medical evaluations, only one of them a physician. NMC has now filled almost all of its 35 medical staff positions for the evaluations, he said. Four of the positions are medical doctors.
But the process has been a rocky one for some mariners.
Several licensees or company officials at the workgroup meeting reported that they had been cleared by their personal doctors in initial examinations, but then had to go back for further tests after the NMC evaluators found “red flags” in the examination reports.
In particular, the issue of body mass index (BMI) seemed to trigger rejections by NMC.
A high BMI number can be a risk factor for sleep disorders, particularly obstructive sleep apnea, which can cause fatigue during waking hours and lead to increased risk of accidents.
What would carp do? And what does their DNA do?
Those are questions that several upcoming studies are trying to answer, according to Col. Vincent Quarles, commander of the Chicago Engineer District. Col. Quarles spoke to members of the Illinois River Carriers Association at a March 9 meeting in St. Louis.
Carp dominated the IRCA meeting, with vice president Darren Melvin—manager of marine operations for Hanson Material Service—joking that the group is considering changing its name to the “Illinois River Carp Association.” The past two weeks have seen more netting and electro-fishing in warmer waters around discharge points in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, Melvin said. There have been two recent public meetings on the carp issue, at Chicago and Ypsilanti, Mich., both with heavy representation from members of the Passenger Vessel Association.
Possible scenarios for temporary lock closures range from several days a month to several days a week, but no final decisions have been made. Melvin urged IRCA members to continue to send in their comment e-mails detailing impacts to industry of lock closures….
Since the controversy over measures to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes became national news last year, there’s been no dearth of information, much of it recycled or repeated.
But industry representatives got a chance to hear the latest on the Draft Asian Carp Framework from Bill Bolen at the annual Inland Waterways Conference in St. Louis on March 3.
Bolen, a senior adviser at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes National Program Office, is the plan’s principal author. He got a good reception from the industry crowd when he said, “We cannot beat biology with engineering,” and reiterated his opposition to permanent closures of locks and waterways between the Chicago area and Lake Michigan. “Closing off the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal will not solve the carp problem,” Bolen said….
Two years after the release of a Texas Transportation Institute study showing the many environmental benefits of barge transportation, its message has been packaged in a video that will target influential staffers in the Washington, D.C., area.
For years, waterways leaders have been watching national TV ads prepared by railroad lobbying organizations that tout the efficiency and environmental friendliness of rail versus truck shipments. Cornel Martin, president and chief executive officer of Waterways Council Inc., told attendees at the annual Inland Waterways Conference in St. Louis on March 3 that the waterways industry couldn’t match the national budget of the railroad interests.
Instead, WCI prepared two versions of a video telling the story of how barge transportation is much more efficient and greener than rail, much less truck transport. A three-minute version called “Keep America Moving” is available on WCI’s site at www.waterwayscouncil.org. Designed to be played at conferences and meetings, it drew 1,363 views on YouTube from February 25 to March 5.
A 30-second version will be targeted for TV stations inside the Washington, D.C. beltway over the next four weeks, said Martin, to make the best use of the waterways industry’s more limited marketing budget.
Campbell Transportation Company (CTC) recently added 20 new barges built by Trinity Marine Products to its fleet. Campbell currently operates 500 open hopper barges along with 34 towboats, and has expanded its operations to the entire length of the Ohio River.
The new barges were built in December 2009 by Trinity at its Caruthersville, Mo., yard. Each barge is 195 by 35 by 13 feet with three-foot coamings. WW Patterson Company supplied the winches. Another notable feature of the barges is the striking black and gold paint finish, meant to give homage to the city of Pittsburgh.
The 5,000 hp. Oliver C. Shearer, also owned by Campbell, recently transported 15 of the 20 barges from Caruthersville, Mo., up the Ohio River to their customers in the Pittsburgh area. The captain for the inaugural trip for the barges was Larry Darnell and the relief captain was Willie Kort.
Natives of Pittsburgh are proud of their city and its sports teams. CTC employees and management are no exception.
And they have a lot to be proud of. The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Pittsburgh Penguins both were national champions in 2009. Both teams colors are black and gold. These 2009 series “black and gold” open hopper barges are a tribute to the great seasons of these two Pittsburgh sport teams.
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