Barge Collision in HOU Ship Channel

Barge Collision Spill Impacts Houston Ship Channel
Posted by Joseph Keefe
Monday, July 20, 2015, 8:29 AM

A barge carrying one million gallons of petroleum naphtha caught fire and spilled the product in Houston Ship Channel on Monday after colliding with another barge in the Texas, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard closed a section of the Houston Ship Channel from mile marker 348 near Bolivar Peninsula, but the incident is not affecting ship channel traffic, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

The channel is part of the Port of Houston, one of the busiest seaports in the United States.

The collision occurred around 1:20 a.m. (0620 GMT), when both the barges were being hauled by tug boats and one of the tugs lost power, according to a report on the website of Houston's Channel 13, an ABC affiliate.

The barge that caught fire after being ruptured by the collision had been extinguished by a Houston Fire Department fire boat, it said.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it was not sure if the spill had any environmental impact. There were no reports of injuries.

In June, a section of the channel was briefly closed following the release of up to 23,000 gallons of naphtha after a cargo tank on a barge was damaged.

In March, there were two separate collisions on the waterway within the space of one week, with brief shutdowns of the channel.