CHICAGO (Reuters) - A barge carrying hydrochloric acid on the Ohio River took on water near Louisville, Kentucky, but it did not appear that any hazardous material was released into the river and navigation through the area was not affected, the Coast Guard said on Monday.
The Coast Guard said the void space of a double-hulled barge, one of seven in the barge tow, was found to be flooding early on Monday. The tow was moved to the bank of the river, where the condition of the barge would be further evaluated.
There were no reports of lost or contaminated cargo or pollution in the water.
The Coast Guard dispatched a marine investigator to the scene, near river mile marker 626, about 21 miles west of Louisville.
"The plan right now is to continue pumping water out of the void space. At that point they are going to gauge the condition of the barge to see of they have to tow it to a nearby port to offload it or if they can do a repair right there," said Ensign Tucker Rodeffer, chief of facility inspections for Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley.
"We've put out a local safety broadcast so that vessels transiting the area know about the situation, but it's not a issue as far as vessels safely navigating the area," he said.
The Ohio River is a main waterway connecting farms in the Midwest to export terminals on the Gulf Coast, which handle about 55 to 65 percent of grain and soybeans exported from the United States every year.
(Reporting by Karl Plume; Editing by Walter Bagley)
