Loose Barges Clog Icy River; One Spills Fuel

A barge loaded with 350,000 gallons of gasoline hit a bridge and ruptured Monday, spilling about 10,000 gallons of the fuel that formed a slick about 3 miles wide on the ice-choked Monongahela River, authorities said.

The barge was one of at least 50 that broke loose from their moorings along a 40-mile stretch of the river between Brownsville and Pittsburgh.

The leaking barge, which belongs to Gutman Oil Co. in Charleroi, was damaged after it broke free and drifted into the Monongahela Bridge, about 15 miles south of Pittsburgh.

Emergency crews caught and tied up the barge and planned to transfer the remaining gasoline to an empty tanker. Only one compartment of the barge was ruptured, so there was little danger that the entire cargo of 350,000 gallons would go into the river.

Meanwhile, rising water on the river from a weekend thaw forced the evacuation Monday of about 200 people who live along the river near Maxwell, about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh.

Another gasoline barge was hung up in Charleroi, near Monongahela, but state environmental officials said the river was so high that crews could not get near the barge to see if it was leaking.

Public health officials and water companies were notified of the gasoline spill, but no contamination of drinking water was reported, said Betsy Mallison of the state Department of Environmental Resources.

Pittsburgh’s water supply was not endangered by the spill because it comes from the Allegheny River.

Several miles south of the spill site, about 25 coal barges broke loose and piled up at a dam. About a dozen other barges broke loose on the Monongahela at Pittsburgh and floated into the Ohio River. Three of those barges became stuck under a bridge in downtown Pittsburgh, and the state officials closed the span to river traffic.

“We’re afraid that ice and debris will pile up behind the barges and dam up the channel,” said Dick Skrinjar of the state transportation agency.