On Saturday, April 8, a barge containing 1,400 tons of methanol was emptied into a receiver barge and moved to a Louisville area shipyard for repairs. The receiver barge was moved into a nearby fleeting facility.
No tanks were breached, and no methanol found its way into the Ohio River from an accident that occurred on March 28, when the 102', 3,000-hp, towboat Queen City, pushing 11 barges along the Ohio River, struck an unidentified stationary structure, dislodging 10 of its 11 barges from the tow. Three of the barges were caught up inside the McAlpine Locks and Dam near Louisville, Ky.
As of Saturday, two of the three barges have been successfully removed, while a third barge, full of corn, remains stuck. Recovery efforts are continuing.
Water testing on samples collected from five locations below the McAlpine Dam on Friday, April 7 again showed no detectable presence of methanol in the Ohio River.
Now that the methanol has been safely transferred out of the once-stranded barge and into the receiver barge, air and water monitoring efforts have ended.
The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating.
