Tanker, bulk carrier collide in Houston Ship Channel
LA PORTE, Texas — Two ships collided Monday in the Houston Ship Channel, causing a leak of flammable liquid.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, two large vessels — the Conti Peridot, a Liberian bulk carrier, and the Danish-flagged Carla Maersk, a chemical tanker — collided in foggy conditions just after 12:30 p.m. CT near Morgan's Point.
The Carla Maersk was carrying 216,000 barrels of the gasoline additive Methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE, which began spilling into the water, Coast Guard Petty Officer Manda Emery said. MTBE is flammable and causes dizziness and suffocation.
The ship channel was closed in both directions and the Coast Guard had "air mobilizing" teams on the coast looking for the presence of the chemical. A strong odor of gasoline remained in the air.
Three cargo tanks on the vessel were ruptured, releasing an unknown quantity of the gasoline additive, said Coast Guard Capt. Brian Penoyer, commander of the Houston-Galveston Coast Guard District.
Crews were examining the vessel's tanks to determine how much of the product may have been spilled into the 50-mile channel that connects the Gulf of Mexico to the Port of Houston.
The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a team of investigators to the scene, according to an NTSB statement.
The leak was halted about 90 minutes after the Coast Guard received word of the collision, Emery said.
"This chemical, when it's in liquid form, will float on water and is toxic to both people and wildlife. You will smell this chemical long before you reach toxic levels, and we encourage anyone on the water to stay away from areas where you can smell this," USCG officials said.
An incident command center was set up at City Hall in Morgan's Point, where about 300 residents were told to shelter in place.
The collision was the second in a week in the busy shipping channel. On Thursday, a cargo ship and an oil tanker bumped. No pollution and no injuries were reported in that incident.
The Port of Houston, a major part of the ship channel, is home to the nation's largest and one of the world's largest petrochemical complexes. It typically handles about 70 ships per day, plus 300 to 400 tugboats and barges, and consistently ranks first in the U.S. in foreign waterborne tonnage, U.S. imports and U.S. export tonnage. It is second in the U.S. in total tonnage.
No injuries were reported but officials halted activity at the Barbours Cut Terminal, where cargo vessels are loaded and unloaded.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency describes MTBE as a volatile, flammable and colorless liquid that dissolved rather easily in water. It's used to raise the oxygen content of gasoline.
Emery said it was too soon to blame rain and fog for the collision.
Records show the Conti Peridot was built in 2011 and left Panama Feb. 27 for Houston. It previously had been to Shanghai, China. The Carla Maersk, built in 1999, left Venezuela Feb. 7, arrived in Houston last Wednesday and was headed back to Venezuela.