Slurry oil. It is very-very difficult to clean.Update on Coast Guard collision response near Paducah, Ky.
Sep 4th, 2015
PADUCAH, Ky. – The unified command in Paducah continues to respond to an oil spill in the Mississippi River at mile marker 937 Friday morning. U.S. Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley watchstanders received a call about a collision between two towboats at mile marker 937 at 8:22 p.m. Wednesday.
The collision caused damage to one barge containing clarified slurry oil, rupturing a cargo tank and discharging approximately 120,588 gallons of oil into the Mississippi River.
A safety zone is in place on the Mississippi River, and is currently closed to all traffic except response vessels between mile markers 939-922.
The vessel queue as of 10:50 a.m. is 23 vessels awaiting transit down and 10 vessels awaiting transit up.
As active commercial traffic is critical to the lifeblood of the region, opening river traffic is a priority while continuing to minimize environmental impact as a result of this spill.
Responders are conducting assessments at this time on the river and in the water column to determine locations of oil and best tactics for cleaning it up.
What Is Slurry Oil?
Slurry oil is a residual product from the refining process. When spilled, it tends to clump together and sink or become suspended in the water column.
How Is an Oil Spill in a River Different Than One in the Ocean?
Rivers present a different environmental challenge than an oil spill in the ocean. Read more about those challenges here. <http://ift.tt/1UxeyAE>.
More Information About Oil Spills
Find basic information related to oil spills <http://ift.tt/1JTPqlS>, cleanup, impacts, and restoration as well as NOAA’s role during and after oil spills.
The U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board are currently investigating the incident.
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Coast Guard response continues to tug collision near Paducah
September 3rd, 2015
PADUCAH, Ky. – On-scene assessment teams have reported the maximum estimated potential clarified slurry oil released from the tug collision is now 250,000 gallons, Thursday.
The maximum potential spill has been reduced because the two remaining partitions aboard the affected barge were reportedly secured.
A Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry fixed wing aircraft conducted an over flight earlier today, which revealed a five-mile discoloration beginning at the impact site.
A safety zone is in place on the Mississippi River, and currently closed to all traffic except response vessels between mile markers 939-922. A queue is in place, six up bound and nine down bound.
Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley watchstanders received a call about a collision between two towboats at mile marker 937 at 8:22 p.m. Wednesday.
The Coast Guard is working with the barge owner and SWS, an oil spill response organization, to determine the amount of slurry oil that has been discharged.
The cause of the collision is currently under investigation.
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SEPTEMBER 3rd, 2015
PADUCAH, KYAn Incident Command Post has been established in response to a tow boat collision on the Mississippi River near Paducah Thursday.
Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley watchstanders received a call about a collision between two towboats at mile marker 937 at 8:22 p.m. Wednesday.
The collision caused damage to at least one barge containing clarified slurry oil, rupturing the cargo tank and discharging an unknown amount of oil into the Mississippi River.
The barge reportedly has a maximum potential of 1.05 million gallons of clarified slurry oil. The Coast Guard is working with the barge owner and SWS, an oil spill response organization, to determine the amount of slurry oil that has been discharged.
The Mississippi River has been closed to all traffic from Mile Marker 938 to 922, with the exception of authorized vessels working the incident.
The cause of the collision is currently under investigation.
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Posted: September 3, 2015PADUCAH, KY (KFVS) -
The Coast Guard is investigating a towboat collision on the Mississippi River near Columbus, KY.
According to the Coast Guard, watchstanders received a call about the collision between two towboats at mile marker 937 at 8:22 p.m. on Wednesday.
The Coast Guard reports the collision caused damage to a barge containing clarified slurry oil.
It is leaking an unknown amount into the water.
The Coast Guard reports the barge reportedly can carry up to 1.05 million gallons of the the oil.
Along with the barge owner and an oil response organization, the Coast Guard is working to determine how much of the slurry oil has been discharged.
The incident is under investigation.
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Slurry oil. It is very viscous. Good luck with the cleanup!Slurry oil is a heavy aromatic by-product of a refinery's fluid catalytic cracking unit that forms a small part of global fuel oil supply. Generally, it is mixed into heavy fuel oil as a viscosity cutter. Slurry oil's low API gravity, however, limits how much can be blended.
The US has never been a heavy user of fuel oil and, in fact, produces more slurry oil than it can absorb. US Gulf Coast refiners and traders, in particular, must find outlets for excess slurry oil.
The US carbon black industry has always used slurry oil as feedstock (CBFS), but Asian carbon black companies have now become major customers for US slurry CBFS. Because not all slurry oils meet CBFS specifications, however, traders lately have found it profitable to ship slurry oil to Singapore where it is blended with high API gravity, low-sulfur oil components to meet the high fuel oil demand in Asia.
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Thousands of Gallons of Viscous Oil Spilled in Mississippi River
COLUMBUS, Ky. — Sep 3, 2015, 9:22 PM ET
By BRUCE SCHREINER and ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press
Part of the Mississippi River was closed as crews investigated an oil spill caused by the collision of two tow boats, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday.
The collision Wednesday evening near Columbus, Kentucky, damaged at least one barge carrying clarified slurry oil. The cargo tank was ruptured, causing thousands of gallons of oil to spill into the river, the Coast Guard said.
No injuries were reported.
The river is closed from mile markers 938 to 922, Petty Officer Lora Ratliff said.
The barge was carrying approximately 1 million gallons, but the breach was only in one area, affecting just one of its six tanks, Ratliff said. That tank holds 250,000 gallons, and Lt. Takila Powell said a little more than 120,000 gallons spilled into the river.
The Coast Guard said it was working with the barge owner, Inland Marine Services, and an oil spill response organization. Inland Marine Services referred calls to its public relations person, Patrick Crowley, who did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
Both tow boat operators had been interviewed by Coast Guard investigators and underwent drug and alcohol testing, but results aren't back yet, Powell said.
It wasn't known how long the river would be closed.
"We are working diligently to try to restore our marine transportation system," Powell said. "We understand that it is vital."
The Coast Guard determined five barges were damaged in the collision, but nothing other than the oil leaked into the river, Powell said.
The tow boats were moored on opposite sides of the river and a long gash was apparent in the smaller vessel. River traffic was backed up on both sides, though it wasn't yet known how many vessels were backed up. By Thursday evening, there was no sign of a large cleanup operation.
Powell said cleanup efforts had started with the barge and that crews put a boom around the ruptured cargo tank to prevent any residual oil from leaking into the river. Cleanup crews Friday will go into the river to try to determine where the oil is, with a goal of trying to recover as much of the oil as possible from the river.
Some oil was recovered from the surface during cleanup operations Thursday, Powell said, but she didn't know how much.
Powell said the oil is thick and has to be heated to be transferred or moved.
"How this type of product typically would react is that when it reaches the water that is of a lower temperature, it would solidify and sink," she said Thursday. "But one of the things that we will be doing tomorrow is trying to determine where that oil has migrated to, to try to determine whether or not it has moved down the river or if it's still in the vicinity of where the collision occurred."
The collision happened in the middle of the river channel near Columbus, Kentucky, late Wednesday, the Coast Guard said. The cause was under investigation. The closure stretched 17 miles south to the city of Hickman.
Powell said it was hard to say how much of the oil was released mid-channel because the barge was eventually pushed up to the bank.
Keleia McCloud, assistant director of the Hickman port, says both the port and ferry service were operating normally.
Hickman County official Kenny Wilson said local communities experienced no disruptions from the spill and the water supply in Columbus was not affected because it comes from wells. He said Columbus-Belmont State Park remained open.
Powell said there had been no reports of fish kills.
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Clean up crews plan to go into Mississippi River after collision causes oil spill in Kentucky
Damage on a barge is seen as it is moored along the Kentucky shore of the Mississippi River at Columbus-Belmont State Park in Columbus, Ky., Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015. A tow, seen in the background, traveling north on the river struck the barge as it was traveling south across the river. The Mississippi River has been closed to barge traffic because the damaged barge leaked clarified slurry oil. (AP Photo/Stephen Lance Dennee)
Associated Press Sept. 4, 2015 | 7:11 a.m. EDT
By BRUCE SCHREINER and ADRIAN SAINZ, Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ky. (AP) — Clean up crews planned to go into the Mississippi River on Friday in Kentucky after a collision between two tow boats caused an oil spill that prompted the closure of that part of the river.
The collision Wednesday evening near Columbus, Kentucky, damaged at least one barge carrying clarified slurry oil. The cargo tank ruptured, causing thousands of gallons of oil to spill into the river, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
No injuries were reported.
The river was closed Thursday from mile markers 938 to 922, Petty Officer Lora Ratliff said.
The barge was carrying approximately 1 million gallons, but the breach was only in one area, affecting just one of its six tanks, Ratliff said. That tank holds 250,000 gallons, and Lt. Takila Powell said a little more than 120,000 gallons spilled into the river.
The Coast Guard said it was working with the barge owner, Inland Marine Services, and an oil spill response organization. Inland Marine Services referred calls to its public relations person, Patrick Crowley, who did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
Both tow boat operators had been interviewed by Coast Guard investigators and underwent drug and alcohol testing, but results weren't back yet, Powell said.
"We are working diligently to try to restore our marine transportation system," Powell said. "We understand that it is vital."
The Coast Guard determined five barges were damaged in the collision, but nothing other than the oil leaked into the river, Powell said.
The tow boats were moored on opposite sides of the river and a long gash was apparent in the smaller vessel. River traffic was backed up on both sides, though it wasn't yet known how many vessels were backed up. By Thursday evening, there was no sign of a large cleanup operation.
Powell said cleanup efforts had started with the barge and that crews put a boom around the ruptured cargo tank to prevent any residual oil from leaking into the river. Cleanup crews Friday will go into the river to try to determine where the oil is, with a goal of trying to recover as much of the oil as possible from the river.
Some oil was recovered from the surface during cleanup operations Thursday, Powell said, but she didn't know how much.
Powell said the oil is thick and has to be heated to be transferred or moved.
"How this type of product typically would react is that when it reaches the water that is of a lower temperature, it would solidify and sink," she said Thursday. "But one of the things that we will be doing (Friday) is trying to determine where that oil has migrated to, to try to determine whether or not it has moved down the river or if it's still in the vicinity of where the collision occurred."
The collision happened in the middle of the river channel near Columbus, Kentucky, late Wednesday, the Coast Guard said. The cause was under investigation. The closure stretched 17 miles south to the city of Hickman.
Powell said it was hard to say how much of the oil was released mid-channel because the barge was eventually pushed up to the bank.
Powell said there had been no reports of fish kills.
A May 19 oil pipeline rupture in California caused a spill of what has been estimated to be up to 143,000 gallons of crude, according to documents from Texas-based Plains All American Pipeline. That spill forced a popular state park to shut down for two months, and goo from the spill washed up on beaches as far as 100 miles away. A July 2008 spill caused by a collision between a tugboat and a barge carrying oil on the Mississippi River in New Orleans sent 282,000 gallons into the water and caused the closure of the river.
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How Is an Oil Spill in a River Different Than One in the Ocean?
The often complex, vegetated banks of rivers can complicate cleaning up oil spills. (NOAA)
Flooding on the Kalamazoo River in Michigan during the Enbridge pipeline oil spill left a ring of oil around trees and other vegetation after the river returned to its normal level. (NOAA)
JULY 31, 2015 -- Liquid asphalt in the Ohio River. Slurry oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Diesel in an Alaskan stream.
Each of these oil spills was very different from each other, partly because they involved very different types of oils.
But even if the same type of oil were spilled in each case, the results would be just as distinct because of where they occurred—one in a large inland river, one in the open ocean, and one in a small coastal creek.
In many cases, oil tends to float. But just because an oil floats in the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean doesn't mean it will float in the constantly moving freshwater of the Mississippi River.
But why does that happen? And what else can we expect to be different when oil spills into a river and not the ocean?
Don't Be Dense ... Blame Density
To answer the first question: When oil floats, it is generally because the oil is less dense than the water it was spilled into. The more salt is dissolved in water, the greater the water's density. This means that saltwater is denser than freshwater. Very light oils, such as diesel, have low densities and would float in both the salty ocean and freshwater rivers.
However, very heavy oils may sink in a river (but perhaps not on the ocean), which is what happened when an Enbridge pipeline carrying a diluted form of oil from oil sands (tar sands) leaked into Michigan’s flooded Kalamazoo River in 2010. The lighter components of the oil quickly evaporated into the air, leaving the heavier components to drift in the water column and sink to the river bottom. That created a whole slew of new challenges as responders tried new methods of first finding and then cleaning up the difficult-to-access oil.
Going with the Flow
In rivers, going with the flow usually means going downstream. Except when it doesn't. When might a river's currents carry spilled oil upstream?
At the mouth of a river, where it meets the ocean, a large incoming tide can enter the river and overwhelm the normal downstream currents. That could potentially carry oil floating on the surface back upstream.
In open areas, such as on the ocean surface, both winds and currents have the potential to direct where spilled oil goes. And along most coasts, wind is what brings spilled oil onto shore.
In rivers, however, the downstream currents usually dominate the overall movement of oil while wind direction often determines which side of the river oil ends up on.
Locks and Other Blocks
Left, an aerial view of oil sheen emitting from contaminated vegetation at the Ceresco Dam area on the Kalamazoo River, Michigan, after the Enbridge pipeline spill. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) Right, after the M/V Westchester leaked oil on the Mississippi River in 2000, some of the oil was constrained by the riverbanks, making cleanup slightly easier. (NOAA)
Unlike the ocean, rivers sometimes feature structures such as dams, locks, and other barriers that block or slow down the free flow of water. During an oil spill on a river, these structures can also slow down the movement of oil.
That's a helpful feature for responders who are trying to catch up to and clean up that oil. Frequently, dams and locks cause oil to pool up on the surface next to them. Some of the tools responders use to collect oil from these areas include skimmers, which are devices that remove thin layers of oil from the surface, and sorbent pads and booms, which are large squares and long tubes of special material that absorb oil but not water.
In fact, the banks of the river can constrain spilled oil as well. Because the oil can’t spread as far or thin as in open water, oil slicks can be thicker on rivers, and recovery efforts can be more effective.
One exception is the case of flow-over dams, known as weirs. The water passing over weirs can be very turbulent, causing oil to disperse into the water column. If it is very light oil and there’s not very much, that oil tends not to resurface and form another slick. But sheens may resurface with heavier oils that might be broken up going over a weir but later resurface as the water it is traveling in becomes calmer downstream.
Vegging Out
Often, plants grow in rivers and line their banks, whereas many parts of the coast are open sandy or rocky beaches, which tend to be easier to clean oil off of than vegetation. (Salt marshes and mangroves being notable oceanic exceptions.) If oil gets past booms, the long floating barriers responders use to prevent the spread of oil, and leaves a coating on plants, then plant cleanup options generally include cutting, burning, treating with chemical shoreline cleaners, or flushing vegetation with low-pressure water.
Plant life actually became an issue during the oil sands spill in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. Because this river was flooded at the time of the spill and later returned to its normal level, oil on the river surface actually became stranded in tree branches along the riverbanks.
Muddying the Waters
Another issue for oil spills in rivers is sediment. Rivers often carry a lot of sediment in their currents. (How do you think the Mississippi got its nickname "Big Muddy"?) That means when oil droplets drift into the water column of a river, the sediment has the potential to stick to the oil droplets. Eventually (depending on how strong-flowing and full of sediment a river is) some of the oil-sediment combination may settle out to the bottom of the river, usually near the river mouth as the water slows down and reaches the ocean.
One notable example is related to an oil spill that happened on the Mississippi River in New Orleans in 2008. The tanker Tintomara collided with Barge DM932, ripping it in half and releasing all of the heavy fuel oil it was carrying. Downstream of where the responders were cleaning up oil, the Army Corps of Engineers was dredging the sediments that build up at the mouth of the Mississippi and an oily sheen appeared in the collected sediment.
Responders suspected the oil from Barge DM932 had mixed with the river sediment and fell to the bottom further downstream as the river neared the Gulf of Mexico.
Learn more about oil spills in rivers at http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/resources/oil-spills-rivers.html.