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Three miles of the Houston Ship Channel were reopened yesterday after a 10,500-gallon bunker spill closed the section during the weekend.

A Unified Command consisting of the U.S. Coast Guard, Texas General Land Office, Port of Houston Authority, the Houston Fire Department and O'Brien's Response Management responded to the spill on Saturday.

Watchstanders from Sector Houston-Galveston received a call at approximately 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, 2009, reporting that the 458-foot motor vessel Chemical Supplier had collided with Buffalo Barge #251 in the vicinity of Brady's Island near the I-610 bridge. The motor vessel was headed inbound attempting to turn around in the ship channel when it struck the barge resulting in the rupturing of one of the vessel's fuel tanks.

The Chemical Supplier is reported to have a 2-foot by 4-foot gash in one of its fuel tanks, approximately 5-feet above the water line. Upon colliding with the barge, crewmembers on board the Chemical Supplier began transferring the #6 heavy fuel oil from the ruptured fuel tank to an empty fuel tank on board.

The following resources were utilized during the response effort:

* 15,100 feet of containment boom (currently deployed)
* 11 workboats
* 6 roll off boxes (dumpsters)
* 6 vacuum tanks
* 2 helicopters
* 2 frac tanks (large storage tanks)
* 2 drum skimmers (used to extract oil from the water)
* Clean Channel oil spill recovery barge

The following response organizations have been working with the Coast Guard in the oil response effort:

* T&T Marine Salvage
* United States Environmental Services
* Clean Channel
* Phoenix Environmental
* Oil Mop
* Garner Environmental

The source of the leak was secured at approximately 1:25 a.m on Saturday. The fuel tank contained an estimated 22,500 gallons of fuel oil. At present, approximately 10,500 gallons of #6 heavy fuel oil has been reported to have spilled into the Houston Ship Channel.

"We immediately deployed boom to contain the spill, and boats and skimmers to recover the spilled oil. The Coast Guard is working diligently with its partner agencies to reduce environmental impact, " said Capt. James Whitehead, deputy commander of Sector Houston-Galveston.

According to Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Mark Mackowiak, the spill had "very minimal impact to the overall port operations."

Mackowiak said about 4,200 gallons of oil had been removed as of Monday.