MILWAUKEE — The U.S. Coast Guard responded to the Kinnickinnic River for reports that a massive tug boat sank 26 feet after taking on too much water on Tuesday morning.
By the time that U.S. Coast Guard officials learned about the incident, around 11:30 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 2, it was too late to prevent the 112-foot vessel from sinking. They instead are making sure that it’s not spreading pollutants into the water while trying to pull it out of the waterway.
“At this point in time, the Coast Guard’s focus is the marine environmental protection and the potential waterway impacts,” said Capt. Seth Parker, Commander of Sector Lake Michigan.
The vessel, dubbed ‘MICHIGAN’ by its designers, has a maximum capacity of 40,000 gallons of oil/fuel. It’s unclear how much fuel was on-board at the time the vessel submerged into the Kinnickinnic River.
Crews from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Milwaukee Harbor Patrol and the Port of Milwaukee all contributed to the response effort, TMJ4 reported.
Absorbent materials were deployed in the Kinnickinnic River to prevent any pollutants from seeping into other areas from the Port of Milwaukee.
U.S. Venture, the Appleton-based company which the MICHIGAN tug boat belongs to, has been aware and engaged in the response effort from the beginning also.
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