Stuck barge won’t be moved until it is determined it can be moved without further incident
(Photo: Petty Officer 1st Class LaNola Stone)
CATSKILL – Tuesday’s grounded barge on the Hudson River at
Catskill was carrying gasoline, but it points up the need for the Coast
Guard to reject a proposal to allow 10 new anchorages for 43 vessels between
Yonkers and Kingston. That is the assessment of Hayley Carlock, the director
of environmental advocacy at the Poughkeepsie-based environmental organization
Scenic Hudson.
While there was no leakage of gas from the 60,000 barrels aboard the Tug Meredith Reinauer and Barge RTC150, Carlock said the incident should point up the danger of transporting gasoline, explosive Bakken crude oil and other hazardous materials on the Hudson.
“We don’t think that stuff should be transported, period,”
Carlock said. “And I think in terms of transitioning to a
clean energy future, that is what we should be focusing on. Understood
that for many, many years, other petroleum products have been transported
on the Hudson and that will probably continue, we would like to see it
curtailed rather than increased as the anchorages proposal by the US Coast
Guard would allow.
Carlock said by allowing the additional anchorages on the river, turning it into “a crude oil superhighway,” it would increase the chance of collisions and spills that could harm the ecology of the river and local water supplies.
