Weekly News Summary For August 21-27, 2006:
Low-Water Conditions Prevail On Upper Miss
Water continues to be in high demand on the Upper Mississippi River. On August 17, the St. Louis river gauge was at -.91 feet, with no immediate relief in the forecast.
St. Louis Engineer District spokesman said some rainfall was expected in the basin north of the St. Louis area, but the water would provide a minimal impact to the low-water situation.
On August 16, the gauge was at -1.3 feet, and the Corps said that weather predictors for the next week forecast the river to be between -1 and -1.5. Dooley said there is rain forecasted in the Kansas City area, but it not likely the rain would substantially change current conditions.
“The long term trends don’t look optimistic,” he said. “I would say things are not comfortable.”
St. Louis Engineer District spokeswoman Nicole Dalrymple said the district received permission to hold a half-foot deviation in pool 26 to help prevent a sharp decrease in the St. Louis gauge. Dalrymple said the district has used the .5-foot of water twice this month to assist in maintaining a more even water level. Both times, the district was able to recover the .5-foot of water following its use.
“For instance, a few years ago, the river gauge would have been -3, but since we were able to use that extra water in the pool, it was kept around -2 or so,” she said.
Workers with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Tennessee Valley Authority removed the damaged gate from Wilson Lock on August 16 with the help of the heavy-lift derrick crane Henry Shreve.
The 210- ton upstream lock gate was damaged August 3 when a barge inside the main lock chamber damaged the gate. The barge was part of the mv. Potomac tow. The front of the barge became entangled in the upstream gate on the lock when the lock chamber filled with water, forcing the gate upward and off its tracks. The barge was also damaged but did not lose any of its cargo of xylene. The damaged gate forced the closing of the lock.
On August 5, the damaged barge was successfully removed from the lock. The auxiliary lock was put in use once it was determined that the damaged barge had not leaked any material and had been removed from the area. Since the auxiliary lock can only lock through one barge at a time, a large queue formed.
Corps officials are developing plans to begin locking commercial barge traffic through the reopened lock chamber with a temporary removable caisson. It is expected that this operation will run during daylight hours only. This operation will help lockmasters to clear out the backlogged barges waiting on the Tennessee River above and below Wilson Dam. The auxiliary lock will be run around the clock….
Scheduled repairs on the 600-foot auxiliary lock chamber at Lock 52 on the Ohio River has led to a sizeable queue waiting to transit the area. Lockmasters indicated that the queue was 42 vessels on August 16 and 36 vessels on August 17.
The auxiliary chamber is scheduled to be down for repairs until October 19. The scheduled repairs are required to get the auxiliary chamber ready for the main chamber outage, which is scheduled for October 19 through November 11.
For the main chamber repairs, there are nine cells that require extensive repairs. The Corps is planning to make repairs to three cells at a time, which will require five to 10 days. Work on the auxiliary chamber includes routine maintenance and repairs identified from a prior inspection….
Custom Fuel Services Inc. added a third midstream fueling unit to the Baton Rouge–New Orleans corridor of the Lower Mississippi River with the July 20 christening of the Sandy B and the CF21 Fuel Flat at its Triangle Fleet facility in Reserve, La.
Brian Rafferty, the Nashville-based vice president of Custom Fuel, served as master of ceremonies. Until Hurricane Katrina rearranged things, Rafferty had been based in Reserve, where he served as a member of the (Louisiana) Governor’s Maritime Advisory Task Force.
Sandy Boucvalt, a 21-year employee of Custom Fuel, broke the bottle of champagne over the bull rail to christen the boat that will carry her name. A former operations coordinator, she now serves as accounting supervisor at Custom Fuel.
The CF21, a state-of-the-art double-skin fuel flat, was christened by Victoria Aubert, an employee of 28 years. National Maintenance & Repair Inc. of Hartford, Ill., delivered the 135- by 35- by 10-foot barge to Custom Fuel in May.
The largest project ever constructed at Indiana’s ports will be built at the Port of Indiana-Mount Vernon in the form of a $400 million, 220-million-gallon ethanol plant.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels unveiled the state’s new strategic energy plan and announced plans for the 116-acre port project August 11.
The plant will be developed as a partnership between Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings Inc. and Consolidated Grain and Barge Company.
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