Houston Ship Channel traffic clearing: Update

Updates inbound and outbound ship traffic status.

Two-way ship traffic resumed today on the Houston Ship Channel following a fuel spill which had closed the waterway.

Outbound ship traffic resumed yesterday and inbound ship traffic resumed today, the US Coast Guard said.

But only one ship at a time can pass the area near the spill in either direction, so the Houston-Galveston Vessel Traffic Service is guiding the movements.

Earlier today, most outbound vessels had cleared the channel. Only two outbound vessels were waiting to pass the spill area as of 9:30am ET. Meanwhile, 56 inbound vessels were still waiting at that time.

Two-way tow traffic also resumed yesterday after a collision between a tanker and a barge on 10 May led to the fuel spill.

The VLGC Genesis River collided with and punctured one of two barges being pushed by a tug boat, sending an estimated 9,000 bl of reformate into the channel. The second barge was overturned and remained near the channel, according to an update yesterday. Each barge carried 25,000 bl.

Clean up operations include the deployment of 20,550 ft of product containment and absorbent boom.

Salvage teams yesterday secured the barges near the channel and were beginning to remove the remaining fuel from the vessels.

The cause of the incident remains under investigation.