Morgantown Dominion Post
7 July 2006
CONSOL Energy is cleaning up the mess left when two barges filled with 2,000 tons of coal sank in the Monongahela River on Sunday.
Thomas Hoffman, vice president of external affairs at CONSOL Energy, said River Salvage Co., of Coraopolis, Pa., would start salvage and recovery operations today and finish by the middle of next week.
He said the coal was intended for Allegheny Power at the Fort Martin Station, but the power company was unable to offload the coal. As a result, the two barges were tied together and docked at a harbor near the old Humphrey Mine at Maidsville until the coal was needed. Hoffman said the coal is worth about $40 a ton, or $80,000.
Hoffman said at least 85 percent of the coal, or 850 tons per barge, could be salvaged. Once the coal is scooped out by a huge crane and placed in an empty barge nearby, he said, the sunken barges will be lifted out of the river and put in dry dock for repairs. The coal will be dried for several months before it is used.
"This is not an event that people are unprepared to deal with," he said.
Hoffman said CONSOL Energy would be investigating the cause of the accident, but he speculates a leak in one of the barges is most likely to blame.
"When the first barge sank, it carried the other one below," Hoffman said.
Curtis Taylor, chief of wildlife resources for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, said there is not a lot of toxic material associated with raw coal, so the environmental damage to the Monongahela River will be minimal, especially since the company is removing the coal so soon after the barges went under.
"It's great that CONSOL is cleaning up everything," he said.
Taylor said not all barges loaded with coal are recovered. If the barges are not recovered or the coal salvaged, Taylor said it could damage the marine habitat.
"It covers up a lot of the habitat, so we like to see these things taken out of the river," he said.
Taylor said no fish kills have been reported. If there was any damage to the marine habitat, he said, it was caused when the hulls of each barge covered the riverbed. Fresh-water mussel beds may have been harmed, but there is no way to know for certain.