Salvage Operations for Barges to Begin Next Week

Salvage operations to recover two barges stranded in the Ohio River won’t begin before Monday, when high water recedes, the U.S. Coast Guard said, according to the Courier Journal. River Salvage Co. of Crescent, Pa., has been hired to secure the two barges that broke loose early Tuesday when cabling or a coupling snapped just after the tow had cleared McAlpine Locks. Two runaway barges were secured, but one remains partly submerged on the Indiana shore midway between the Sherman Minton and K & I bridges, and another is partly underwater and lodged at the McAlpine Dam. Both are out of the commercial channel and aren’t impeding river traffic. One of the stranded barge’s cargo of salt spilled in the river, while the other barge lost about 1,450 tons of liquid fertilizer. The high water diluted the spillage, and there was no environmental damage, the Coast Guard said. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency staff members, who were initially on the scene to monitor the spill, are no longer on site, the Coast Guard said. Source: Courier Journal