Authorities Continue to Monitor Runaway Barges

Frank Zagari usually sees a crowd during lunch and dinner at Rocky’s II Restaurant and Lounge in Stowe Township. But on Wednesday afternoon, only three people sat in the lounge, and the lunch crowd hours earlier was pretty much non existent.

Emergency officials shut down the Fleming Bridge for most of Wednesday after four barges, one that contained hazardous benzene, broke away from a boat on the Ohio River while it was preparing to enter the Emsworth Locks and Dam. The runaway barges prompted federal, state and local salvage efforts and kept rescue teams busy. 

For Rocky’s, however, business remained slow. The office people who regularly come for lunch and the workers who stop in after, weren’t stopping in this day.

“Business is probably down about 80 percent,” Zagari, owner for 15 years, said. “A lot of our business is off the island.”

Traffic along Island Avenue and Neville Road continued to flow past the business, as motorists blocked from the Fleming Park Bridge that connects Neville Island to Stowe Township were re-routed away, either onto Route 51 toward Interstate 79 or toward the McKees Rocks Bridge.

Cmd. Richard Timme of the U.S. Coast Guard's Pittsburgh office, said the barges became stuck in a back channel of the Ohio River that isn’t navigable. Timme said similar barges carrying 2 million tons of petroleum routinely pass down the Ohio River each year.

The highest priority was to salvage the barge carrying the chemical benzene, a component of coal-tar light oil. Authorities used a series of barges powered by four towboats to dislodge the barge from the shoreline near the CSX Railroad Bridge Wednesday afternoon. 

Three other barges– an empty one stuck on the opposite side of the railroad bridge, a second carrying steel coils that sunk nearby and a third carrying coal that went a bit further downriver and got hung up at the Lock and Dam-- had no effect on river traffic.

Plans were to salvage the empty copper barge Wednesday night from the railroad bridge. The others would be rescued at some point soon, officials said.

Paul Pochatko of Stowe said he and other nearby residents were mostly worried about the flammable materials on the barges and the potential dangers the materials might pose to citizens.

“Depending on the way the wind blows, that’s the only thing we were concerned about,” Pochatko said.

Timme said the remaining barges posed no serious threats or environmental hazards.

For the Army Corps of Engineers, the coal barge still remains a concern. 

Kathy Griffin, chief operations division with the Army Corps of Engineers, said the barge at the Emsworth Dam is acting as an obstruction, preventing free water flow. The Emsworth Dam, she said, is raised and lowered to maintain a navigation pool, but if it doesn’t have the ability to open and close the gates, that affects water elevation.

“The coal barge is laying up against the dam abutments,” she said. “The coal barge does interfere.”

Still, the remaining barges have to remain until river levels come down.  The barge stuck on the Emsworth Lock and Dam would pose more of a threat to the infrastructure if removed now rather than waiting until water levels  fall, Timme said.

“It’s better off for everybody if it stays where it is as the river comes down,” Timme

Timme and Griffin estimated it could take days -- even weeks -- before the barge can be removed. The sunken barge will need a crane to take it up, Timme said.

Timme said the responsibility for the barges remains with the cargo owners. The high-priority barge carrying hazardous coal belonged to Marathon Ashland.

Timme said the Coast Guard will mandate a more thorough investigation, which could result in civil penalties depending on what is found. He said high waters and fast river currents were likely to blame.

Towboats owned by different maritime owners in port volunteered to help retrieve the runaway barges, he said.

“The lock and dam is crucial to everybody on the river,” Timme said.

Alvin Henderson Jr., acting chief of the Allegheny County Emergency Services, was overseeing the response from the county and said an emergency plan was put in place Wednesday morning. The Sto-Rox School District was advised of the situation and made the decision to cancel classes, he said.

“That was a decision they decided to make on their own,” Henderson said.

Ohio Township Police Chief Norbert Micklos said only the Sto-Rox middle and elementary school in Kennedy Township was evacuated. The school had an early dismissal at 11 a.m. for parents who could pick up their children. Other students went home on their regular buses.

Zagari said his business wasn't evacuated, though he said for insurance purposes it might have helped to recoup the day's losses. The bridge reopened shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday. The Sewickley Bridge remained open.