Crews will hunt for leak near sunken barge in Ohio

According to authorities, a wreck was found between Ohio’s Kelleys Island and Canada’s Pelee Island leaking something.

The Coast Guard is responding to a report of a discharge of an unknown substance from the site of a sunken barge near Kelley’s Island Shoal in Lake Erie, Sunday.

Crews are planning to dive around the wreckage Monday to see if they can find and seal the leak. They are investigating whether the sunken ship is the Argo.

Using side-scan sonar, a technology that allows the lake bed to be surveyed for about 200 yards in either direction from a surface vessel, Mr. Kowalczk observed an object on the bottom that clearly did not belong there.

“What has been reported from responders is consistent with a lighter-end petroleum-based solvent that would quickly dissipate when it reaches the air”, Lt. Cmdr. Paul Migliorini, commander of the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Office Toledo, said during the news conference at the National Museum of the Great Lakes.

Commander Migliorini said the leak as now observed poses no threat to drinking-water supplies drawn from Lake Erie or to aquatic life in the area.

The barge’s measurements match Argo’s dimensions as listed in historical records and there are no reports of another tanker barge being lost in the same area, he said.

While the barge’s identity hasn’t been confirmed, researchers with the Cleveland Underwater Explorers are virtually certain it is the Argo, said Christopher Gillcrist, executive director of the National Museum of the Great Lakes.

Salvage crews will be on scene Tuesday to secure the leak.

NOAA scientific support and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency are working with the Coast Guard to take all necessary actions to ensure the safety of the public and the environment, a Sunday evening release from the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard is warning boaters to stay away from the area, which is about two miles south of the Canadian border, because it could be risky to breathe in the fumes from the solvent.