River traffic resumes after barge accident but threats remain

4th June 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Susan Buchanan
The Louisiana Weekly

Traffic on the lower Mississippi River restarted last Tuesday after a four-day closure caused by a Baton Rouge barge collision. So if you scrambled up the levee last week to investigate the water’s height, you probably saw tows pushing lots of barges again. Barges, however, remain a challenge for pilots to control in today’s fast current.

Three grain barges sank in Baton Rouge on May 20, and they could remain under water for up to two months until the river recedes, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. When the Baton Rouge stretch was closed recently, shippers sending cargo upriver from New Orleans had to adjust by using rail or trucks, or they just waited until the situation improved.

To understand what an errant barge is like, think of a frisky dog or toddler that suddenly tears away from your family outing in the park.

Captain Mike Lorino, president of the Associated Branch Pilots in New Orleans, said “as far as ships are concerned, we haven’t had any groundings or collisions on the Lower Mississippi this year. But tows are another matter because they don’t have the power of ships, and if they get out of position they can’t recover in the strong current.”

On May 20, the Crimson Gem, a 195-foot vessel pushing 20 barges of corn, collided with a sulfuric-acid barge at the Rhodia Dock in Baton Rouge, according to Brian Dochtermann, spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Office. The barges avoided hitting the neighboring Highway 190 bridge, he said. Three corn barges sank, however. American River Transportation Co. or ARTCO, a subsidiary of Archer Daniels Mid­land Co. in Illinois, owns the Crimson Tide.

“Luckily, there was no release of sulfuric acid,” Dochtermann, bas­ed in Baton Rouge, said. “No injuries, water, or air pollution occurred, and the Coast Guard is investigating the incident.”

But, he said “because of the accident and extreme high water, vessel traffic southbound was closed for nine miles from May 20 to 24–from mile markers 228 to 237 near the Highway 190 bridge.” The Coast Guard reopened the waterway to southbound traffic last Tuesday afternoon, with some restrictions. And after the four-day closure, downriver traffic was backed up by at least 50 towing vessels, pushing a large number of barges. Late last week, river traffic remained log-jammed north of the sunken barges.

Dochtermann said last week “we have limited south and northbound, daylight operations now, and no vessel traffic is allowed at night. Tow boats are allowed to push no more than twenty barges, and must operate with a minimum of 300 horsepower per barge for southbound transit.”

At Wilkinson Point north of Baton Rouge, at miles 232 to 237 on the river, special rules are in effect for southbound pilots. They must use an assisting, towing vessel, with a minimum of 5,000 horsepower at the Point, employ radar and radio communications, and coordinate their transit in that area with the Coast Guard’s traffic service in New Orleans. Even under normal conditions, tow pilots are careful to avoid contact with loading operations at river mile 234 at Wilkinson Point.

“We also have high water restrictions in force for barge fleeting areas, where barges are picked up and dropped off in the river,” Dochtermann said. Restrictions depend on a facility’s location in the river, and on whether the cargo is grains, chemicals or something else. “There are special restrictions on barge configurations in fleeting areas now,” he said. “We can’t check that every barge is moored properly, but the marine industry does a good job of policing itself in fleeting areas.”

Dochtermann said “when breakaways occur, we send someone to investigate whether there was neglect or misconduct, and if there was, the Coast Guard takes action. Companies don’t want to go through that.”

ARTCO, the Crimson Tide’s owners, hired salvage firms McKinney Salvage & Heavy Lift in Baton Rouge and Budwine & Associates in New Orleans to remove the three sunken barges—which are 70 feet, 90 feet, and 100 feet under water, respectively. “The barges are being monitored by the salvage companies daily with side-scan sonar,” Dochtermann said. “They haven’t moved, and at this point are stationary.”

He continued, saying “their locations are not physically marked because of the strength of the current, but they’re under enough water so that they don’t pose any threat to vessel traffic, and most mariners are probably aware of them.”

Dochtermann said “the river’s current remains very fast at six knots, and the salvage operation probably won’t take place until the current is moving at fewer than 3 knots,” something that may not happen for a couple of months. “Our main concern now is the safety of the general public, the mariners and those who will be involved in salvaging.“

River pilots are trained for water at all stages, said Captain Mike Lorino, president of the Associated Branch Pilots in New Orleans. “We have a different river every year,” he said. “The last high-water event was in 2008, and every year prior to that we had high-water conditions.”

Lorino said “during high water, ships moving downriver must have enough power to travel faster than the speed of the current.” If the current is six knots, they must travel faster than six knots. “And in high water, pilots have to make plans sooner to turn on the river,” he said. In his view, navigation by lower Mississippi River pilots has been exceptional in the past month and in every other, high-water phase in recent years.

Chris Bonura, spokesman for the Port of New Orleans, discussed the swollen river’s effect on the Crescent City and said “under high-water restrictions, barges have to stay at least 180 feet away from levees between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. He pointed to restrictions on the number of barges in a tow, and said tow boats must have enough horsepower to fight the current. However, “it’s a misconception that this month’s barge accident in Baton Rouge had a big impact on the Port of New Orleans,” Bonura said. He noted that between Venice and Baton Rouge, five port authorities oversee 250 miles of river engaged in domestic and foreign trade. “Cargo in our region can be moved by barges, railways and trucks,” he said. “When the river was closed for four days in Baton Rouge this month, we could, for example, still receive foreign steel, but for several days it couldn’t get above New Orleans by barge.” However, steel could be moved by rail, he said.

“It’s normal to have a large shipment of imported steel headed to, say Indiana, taken off a ship here and then moved by both barge and rail,” Bonura explained. “What’s needed right away in Indiana is sent by rail, and what they can wait for, they move by barge, which is slower but also cheaper.”

Lorino discussed current and future river conditions, and said “pilots know where the sunken barges are in Baton Rouge, and while it’s not an ideal situation, they can go around them.” He said there are only a few daytime, navigation restrictions in the Lower Mississippi now, but warned “things could change in ten to twelve days as the river drops back below 17 feet, because sediment in the water will start building up and will reduce the draft in Southwest Pass.” The Southwest Pass near Venice is the main entrance for deep-draft navigation into the Mississippi River.

Lorino said the tight, federal budget has hampered dredging activities in the lower river. However, he said “the Army Corps at the present time is using five dredges in the Southwest Pass area” as the river shoals or accumulates silt.

He also said “the Corps just received an additional $10 million to increase the number of dredges in Southwest Pass, but there were no industry bidders on the contract, and therefore we have money but not enough equipment.” He added, “even with that $10 million, we are still $60 million short this fiscal year to keep the channel to its project dimensions.” The Army Corps dredges most parts of the lower river to 45 feet.

For fiscal 2011, the Army Corps allotted $63 million to dredge the river from Baton Rouge south, and at the start of the year said that was all that would be provided. In prior years, the Corps redirected money from other projects to keep the channel dredged. Maintaining the lower river at 45 feet can cost $85 million to $100 million annually in dredging.

Exporters, including grain companies, worry that silt buildups at the mouth of the Mississippi will force them to load ships with lighter cargoes, and that in turn will slow downriver barge traffic and raise their operating costs.

Meanwhile, even with the high water, the Port of New Orleans has stayed on schedule with its expansion plans this month. “In early May, we received two gantry, containerized-cargo cranes built in Korea, and unloaded them onto the dock at the Napoleon Avenue container wharf,” Bonura said. The new cranes are able to reach 19 rows across the width of a ship and can pick up containers stacked that far from the dock.

“They’re much bigger than the other four cranes at Napoleon Avenue, and because they operate on a rail system, moving up and down the dock, the port is building another set of rails now,” Bonura said. “We expect the rails to be ready for cargo in November.” Bonura said “in addition, five acres of marshaling yards, big open spaces to hold incoming cargo, are under construction at Napoleon Avenue. They have thick pads of concrete and can support stacks of five containers.” The port is spending $36.6 million on the new cranes and marshaling yards as part of a planned $250 million to upgrade and expand the port.

“As ships get bigger and wider, new infrastructure is needed to handle them,” Bonura said. Work is partly in preparation for the widening and deepening of the Panama Canal, expected to be complete in late 2014 or early 2015.

Docthermann said at any given time, weather, especially hurricanes, along with high or low river water, operator error, nighttime conditions and other factors can threaten barges on the Mississippi.

A mid-2008 oil spill on the river in downtown New Orleans was the result of human error, and occurred when a barge split open in a collision with the Liberian-flagged tanker Tintoretto, closing 85 miles of river to traffic for almost a week. No major injuries occurred, but nearly 200 ships and barge tows were delayed as they waited to transit the area.

Meanwhile, the local hurricane season starts in June, and barges will have to be secured or moved when storms approach to prevent damage to riverbank properties.

This story originally published in the May 30, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.