Oil spill closes part of Houston Ship Channel

Oil spill closes part of Houston Ship Channel       A three-mile section of the Houston Ship Channel remains closed after a tanker spilled about 10,500 gallons of oil late Friday night.
      The U.S. Coast Guard said some 130 persons worked over the weekend in an effort to clean up oil spilled after the tanker Chemical Supplier struck a barge Friday night while trying to turn around in the waterway at Brady’s Island near Interstate 610.
      The agency said the source of the leak was secured at about 1:25 a.m. Saturday.
      Mark Mackowiak, Coast Guard chief petty officer, said the spill has closed the last three miles of the 52-mile shipping channel, the area north of the I-610.
      The Associated Press Sunday quoted a Coast Guard spokesman as saying he was not sure when the waterway would open. It said at least nine ships were waiting to come into the area,
      The Chemical Supplier sustained a two-foot-by-four-foot gash in a fuel tank, about five feet above the water line, the Coast Guard said.
      “Upon alliding with the barge, crewmembers aboard the Chemical Supplier began transferring the No. 6 heavy fuel oil from the ruptured fuel tank to an empty fuel tank on board,” the agency said.
      Video of the spill can be found be seen here.