Weekly News Summary For March 23-29, 2009:
If you are a tank vessel operator, it’s time to start thinking about filing your amended vessel response plan (VRP) with the Coast Guard.
On January 30, a long awaited set of new Coast Guard regulations of maritime companies’ salvage and firefighting VRPs took effect, having been officially published in the Federal Register on New Year’s Eve.
Vessel operators will have 18 months to file their updated plans. But those plans will require a lot more due diligence than in the past. “Eighteen months may sound like a lot of time, but it really isn’t,” said Mike Popa of T&T Bisso.
The regulations were initially called for in the 1990 Oil Pollution Act, passed in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaskan waters. They were originally set to take effect in the late 90s, but were pushed back because the Coast Guard determined that the resources to implement them didn’t yet exist among marine responders.
The new regulations apply to tank vessels that carry Group I- IV oils and are required to have a VRP. They do not (yet) apply to tank vessels carrying non-petroleum oils (like animal fats or vegetable oils), nor to non-tank vessels carrying bunker fuel….
Applying risk management to lessons learned from the hurricanes of 2008, the Coast Guard has decided to close the entire Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC), also known as the Industrial Canal, and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway from about 1,000 feet east of the Surge Barrier construction site to the IHNC as a hurricane approaches.
Located just inside the eastern boundary, but off limits this year, is the Michoud Canal and Slip, where 16 loaded barges tied up during Hurricane Gustav last year without incident.
Lt. Cmdr. George Petras of the Coast Guard explained that the Coast Guard reviewed the lessons learned from the 2008 hurricane season and found that vessels broke loose from doubled-up moorings, particularly during Gustav, and threatened flood walls.
Risk management looks at vulnerability, Petras said at the Maritime Hurricane Contingency Port Plan Work Group meeting held March 18 at the Integrated Support Command New Orleans office in New Orleans East. After last year’s hurricane season, Petras said the Coast Guard met with representatives of the levee boards to discuss lessons learned. Together, they looked at the vulnerability of flood walls, which have been described as “fragile” at some hurricane planning meetings….
The Corps of Engineers was to conduct a “spring pulse” on the Missouri River beginning last weekend to benefit the endangered pallid sturgeon.
The pulse was scheduled to coincide with the annual increase in releases from Gavins Point Dam near Yankton, S.D., to provide flows for commercial navigation and other downstream uses.
Releases were to be increased by an additional 4,500 cubic feet per second for two days beginning March 21, and then gradually decreased to return to minimum navigation flows by late this week.
Even with the pulse, the releases will still be less than the normal full-service navigation flows, the Corps noted. River levels were expected to rise 1.5 feet at Sioux City, Iowa, and Omaha, Neb., and less than half a foot at Hermann, Mo….
Tows traveling between Houston and Baton Rouge can save 100 miles by using the Port Allen Route and do not have to fight the strong currents in the Mississippi River when northbound. The route runs from Morgan City on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to Port Allen, La.,just below Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River.
Although the maximum tow size allowed is 1,180 feet long and 70 feet wide, the lock at Bayou Sorrel is a limiting factor, with a lock chamber of 800 feet by 56 feet.
Ever since Bayou Sorrel Lock was built in 1950 to limit flooding in the town of Plaquemine, La., south of Baton Rouge, Businelle Towing has been providing tripping service through the lock. Staffed by crews that live in the area, the company employs 18 crewmen for its two boats.
Tows originally entered the waterway through the Plaquemine Lock. In 1962, the Port Allen Lock was opened just south of Baton Rouge and the Plaquemine Lock was closed.
Businelle Towing recently honored Capt. Ralph Smith Jr. for 30 years of service with the company. He received a captain’s ring….
A proposed $1 billion iron ore smelter and barge terminal in Crystal City, Mo., is closer to realization after Crystal City Council members voted March 12 to pass a conditional use permit for the project. The City Council was evenly divided on the project, 4 to 4. Crystal City’s mayor had to cast the tie-breaking vote, as he has done several times before during the project’s contentious history. The vote clears the way for development, but it could be up to four years before the plant is running.
The project site previously held a glass-making factory, the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, that shut down in 1991. Crystal City was founded as a glass-making town, and PPG, whose vacant property would be the site of the new smelter, once employed most town residents. The site, which lies about 70 miles southwest of St. Louis, has been cleared of structures and cleaned up.
The project’s developer is a company called Wings Enterprises Inc., controlled by Jim Kennedy. In December 2008, Crystal City bought the project site for $2.2 million and leased it to Wings Enterprises for 100 years.
Since 2001, Kennedy has owned the Pea Ridge deposits of magnetite—highly magnetized iron ore—in nearby Sullivan, Mo., about 45 miles west of the proposed smelter site. The Sullivan mine was run by Meramec Mining Company, a joint venture of Bethlehem Steel and St. Joseph Lead Company, from 1957 to 2001. As iron ore prices dropped, it shifted from iron ore pellets to specialty products in 1990. In 2001, it declared bankruptcy….
The Waterways Journal encourages letters to the editor.
Have something on your mind?
Send letters to: jshoulberg@waterwaysjournal.net.
(Please indicate whether or not your letter is intended for publication.)
