WAVELAND, MS - JULY 09: A worker uses a shovel to pick up oily globs that washed ashore from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico July 9, 2010 in Waveland, Mississippi. Millions of gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf since the April 20 explosion on the drilling platform. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Posted: Tuesday, 27 July 2010 11:55AM
Mississippi River Closed Due To Hazardous Spill
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard closed the Mississippi River between markers 776 and 769, just north of Memphis, Tennessee, due to a hazardous material spill late Monday, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
The spokesman said it was unclear how long the river would be closed and the Coast Guard needed to approve the plan to lighter and clean up the spill before operations could begin.
The Coast Guard was on site and assessing the plan, which includes removing the hazardous acrylonitrile off a damaged barge.
Oil traders did not expect the incident to have any effect on crude movement up the river, unless the closure is prolonged.
The closure also had little effect on corn and soybean barge shipments, although it could, if it lasts long, commodities traders said.
"I think this should be short lived and doubt it will have much affect, unless it lasts a lot longer than we'd expect," said one crude oil trader.
A longer-than-expected outage could mean more crude draws in the U.S. Gulf coast, another trader said.
Valero Energy Corp operates a 195,000 barrel per day refinery in Memphis.
"At this time there is no impact to operations at the Memphis refinery," said Bill Day, a spokesman for the company.
The incident occurred at about 9 p.m. on Monday (0100 GMT Tuesday), when a collision occurred between the Merrick Jones, a 128-foot (39-meter) towing vessel pushing 26 barges, and the Dixie Express, an 87-foot towing barge pushing two barges of acrylonitrile.
An unknown amount of acrylonitrile was released into the water after one of the barges being pushed by the Dixie Express was damaged in the incident. The source of the spill has been secured, the Coast Guard said.
Story Copyright 2010, Reuters
Photo Copyright 2010, Getty Images
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