Follow-Up on Watchdog Report: Barge Discharge

We contacted the marine unit at the DEC, who followed up with the barge operator and got the following response from one of their engineers:

“It would appear, from the pictures, that ballast water is being discharged from the vessel. The area of the barge where the apparent discharge is taking place is the area where the ballast tank sea valve is located. If you can enlarge the area directly above, on deck, you will see the port ballast pump. 

“The vessel is double hulled and the water that is apparently being discharged is clean, segregated ballast water. From the properties of the photos, they appear to have been taken on January 8, 2012. Based on that, we believe the ballast water was originally taken on the barge several days earlier at Bay ridge anchorage, New York harbor.” 

It’s always better to be safe than sorry, so we very much appreciate that the watchdog took the time to contact us so that we could look into this issue.

As always, we encourage members of the public to act as citizen watchdogs for Riverkeeper. If you observe what you think may be illegal water pollution, please take photos and call us at 1-800-21-RIVER. You can also follow these instructions to learn how to best report pollution to us!

Read the original story here.