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Argo Response Completed

Maritime Activity Reports, Inc.

December 17, 2015

  • Unified Command responders perform salvage operations for the Lake Erie sunken tanker barge Argo, hot-tapping and pumping the barges tanks on November 29, 2015. (U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Kurt Kollar, Ohio EPA)
  • T&T Salvage contaminated water diving operations in Lake Erie – November  2015 (Photo: T&T Salvage)
  • Unified Command responders perform salvage operations for the Lake Erie sunken tanker barge Argo, hot-tapping and pumping the barges tanks on November 29, 2015. (U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Kurt Kollar, Ohio EPA) Unified Command responders perform salvage operations for the Lake Erie sunken tanker barge Argo, hot-tapping and pumping the barges tanks on November 29, 2015. (U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Kurt Kollar, Ohio EPA)
  • T&T Salvage contaminated water diving operations in Lake Erie – November  2015 (Photo: T&T Salvage) T&T Salvage contaminated water diving operations in Lake Erie – November 2015 (Photo: T&T Salvage)
The response effort to remove a hazardous cargo from the 104-year-old sunken tank barge Argo in Lake Erie officially ended Monday afternoon with the demobilization of all remaining equipment.
 
Contracted by the U.S. Coast Guard as part of a Unified Command effort, salvors T&T Salvage recovered the highly toxic cargo from the 1911-built Argo, which sank in 1937 laden with a cargo of benzol that contained a high percentage of the carcinogen benzene. A total of 33,475 gallons of cargo and water mixture were removed from the vessel.
 
As the only Coast Guard recognized Salvage and Marine Firefighting service provider with a base of operations in the Great Lakes that is also a Coast Guard classified Oil Spill Recovery Organization, T&T said it was selected by the Coast Guard to design a diver directed hot-tapping and pumping system to recover the remaining high benzene cargo from the sunken barge at a depth of approximately 50-feet below the lake’s surface.
 
Led by T&T’s Great Lakes Response Center, the system included pumping the cargo to a series of storage tanks onboard a barge equipped with designed-for-purpose inert gas and vapor recovery systems to ensure the safety of the public and responders.
 
Working in a Unified Command that included the Coast Guard, U.S. and Ohio Environmental Protection Agencies and National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, T&T said it achieved all operational objectives over the course of the project, from safely conducting around-the-clock cold water contaminated water diving operations to collecting environmental and barge hull samples for further analysis.
 
Shore-side transfer operations began December 8 when cargo mixture was pumped into tank trucks for transfer to a disposal facility. A total of 10 transfers over the course of five days were completed without incident. Following the transfers, the portable tanks were decontaminated December 12.
 
A total of 13 federal, state, local and Canadian agencies and salvage organizations worked together to remove the product from the 104-year-old vessel.
 
In all, up to $5.2 million was made available from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund and $450,000 from the hazardous material superfund to utilize in clean-up operations, the Coast Guard said. Cost documentation for the response is still being finalized and will be reviewed to ensure proper accountability of all funding used.

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