Transportation Accidents and
Water Pollution
U
GEORGE W. BURKE, JR., Chief
Water Quality Criteria and Practice Section
Technical Services Branch
Division of Water Supply and Pollution Control
Public Health Service
S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare
Washington, D. C.
INTRODUCTION
"Time Bombs on the Mississippi." "Lifting Lethal Load to Safety." These
titles of articles about the WYCHEM 112 reflect excitement concerning operations to salvage 1,100 tons of liquid chlorine in four giant size pressure tanks
from the Mississippi River near Natchez, Mississippi. This operation brought a
great deal of attention to waterways accidents and the pollution problems they
cause.
During the salvage of this hazardous cargo the Chief of Merchant Marine
Safety of the U. S. Coast Guard informed the Surgeon General of the U. S. Public Health Service that a barge containing 1,100 tons of phenol had been sunk in
the Mississippi River near Helena, Arkansas, and that the Coast Guard was concerned about this potential hazard.
PHS investigation of this wreck, which had occurred four months before PHS
was informed, revealed that already one-third of the cargo had been released to
the river. The absence of any water pollution complaints was explained by calculations which indicated that diluted concentrations in the river at that time
probably did not reach levels which could be expected to be objectionable. It
was concluded that the remainder of the cargo did not constitute an immediate or
serious public health hazard but that nuisance concentrations might result if it
were released suddenly to the river. The probability of this happening, however,
was remote since the phenol was not in a liquid state under pressure, as in the
case of the chlorine,  but probably a solid state which would be dissolved slowly.
Many find it difficult to understand why the chlorine situation caused so much
concern, whereas the wreck of a barge load of phenol, a pollutant which makes
water pollution control administrators cringe, did not present a problem. At the
risk of over simplifying, it might be stated that the chlorine, being impractical
as to its quantity and location for discharge to the river, constituted a potential
air pollution hazard, whereas the phenol could be easily and unobjectionably
diluted away by the river.
Not all transportation accidents end with so little pollution damage. A few
examples will show what is happening.
A few months ago a barge loaded with 2.3 million gals of oil and gasoline
was grounded on the Pacific Coast near Aberdeen, Washington. The fuel escaping this barge caused the death of razor clams by the tens of thousands of lbs.
During the transfer of anhydrous ammonia from a barge at Creve Coeur,
Illinois,   a hose broke and released a cloud of chemical.   As a result 10, 000
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