Oil spill, fire shut channel for hours

Most of the light fuel evaporated or burned; no injuries reported

Authorities shut down parts of the Houston Ship Channel and suspended the Lynchburg ferry service for 15 hours after a fuel spill and fire occurred a few hundred yards from the Battleship Texas early Tuesday. The Coast Guard reopened the channel at 3:30 p.m. after an overflight showed that most of the fuel had burned up or evaporated.

A crude oil tanker leaving dock just past midnight Monday after unloading its cargo hit something, possibly a sewer pipe, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. It leaked as much as 90,000 gallons of light fuel oil that caught fire, burning for about 45 minutes and sending flames up to 200 feet into the air. The fuel, a low-sulfur marine gas

oil, is comparable to diesel gasoline, officials said.

Later in the day, responders worked to contain and clean up four separate oil sheens, including one threatening the San Jacinto state park and the Battleship Texas. The Coast Guard closed a “safety zone” from the Cargil facility to the Cemex docks.

The Coast Guard was to be joined in the investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

It could have been much worse, officials said.

“It was just incredible that there was no loss of life,” said Scott Gaudet, who directs the Texas General Land Office’s local response. He credited that to firefighting by the Port of Houston Authority, the Coast Guard and the Harris County Sheriff ’s Office.

About two dozen crew members on the 810-foot, 58,000-ton Aframax River were evacuated; no injuries were reported either on the ship or on the nearby dock.

The spill may have some environmental impacts, but they will be limited. The fuel oil that spilled floats, unlike crude oil, and much of it had burned off or evaporated, according to Petty Officer 3rd Class Dustin Williams, a Coast Guard spokesman. However, some fuel did reach the shoreline.

“If you had to spill (some type of oil), this would be the one that would dissipate the quickest,” Gaudet said. The ship operator’s spill-response contractor, OMI Environmental Solutions, is containing the oil with floating booms so that it can use skimmers or absorbent materials to collect as much as possible, he added.

The Panama-flagged ship, built in 2002, had been in Houston since Sunday and was en route to southern Mexico, according to MarineTraffic. com.

Williams said the shutdown had blocked the entry or exit of about 10 ships by noon Tuesday. The ship channel is the nation’s busiest waterway with 8,000 annual vessel calls carrying more than 230 million tons of cargo, according to the state Department of Transportation.