KINDER MORGAN WATCH

1 missing in Houston tug boat accident

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6861837.html

By MOISES MENDOZA Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 11, 2010, 1:26PM

The Coast Guard and other agencies today are continuing to search for a crew member missing from a tugboat that sank Wednesday night in the Houston Ship Channel.

The J.R. Nichols, a 54-foot tug owned by Kinder Morgan, sank before 10:30 p.m. Wednesday near the Sims Bayou turning basin. Four people aboard were recovered by a vessel from the nearby LyondellBasell refinery, but one person remains missing. The four suffered from mild hypothermia but have been released from the hospital, the Coast Guard said.

Officials have closed the channel from the Vopak facility to Sims Bayou to allow room for the search. Seven inbound and three outbound vessels were waiting for the blockage to be lifted as of 11 a.m. A Coast Guard official said the channel may not be reopened until this weekend.

A Coast Guard helicopter began assisting the search after daybreak. Officials at midday said they were continuing to treat the work as a search-and-rescue, although drizzly weather hampered their efforts.

“The more time passes, it’s a bigger concern, but people have been found in longer periods than this,” said Coast Guard Captain James Whitehead.

Whitehead said the cause of the sinking was under investigation. He said he wasn’t sure how the J.R. Nichols had performed on previous safety inspections and didn’t think there had been a distress call before the ship sank.

Plans have begun to salvage the tug in the next few days. Workers have contained and are cleaning up about 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel that have spilled from the boat. Roughly 10,000 gallons of fuel remained on the vessel as of 11 a.m.

The fuel was continuing to leak, and preparations were being made this afternoon to plug the vents from which the diesel was spilling.

The tug was returning to base when it sank Wednesday, said Larry Pierce, a Kinder Morgan spokesman. He said the company was reaching out to the family members of the missing man.

“Obviously our thoughts and prayers are with the missing crewman and his co-workers,” Pierce said.