A barge that capsized close to St. Goarshausen, Germany may be leaking “small amounts” of sulfuric acid into the Rhine River.
A barge that capsized close to St. Goarshausen, Germany may be leaking “small amounts” of sulfuric acid into the Rhine River, said Martin Mauermann, head of the Waterways and Shipping Office Bingen. While there’s no indication of a bigger leak at the moment, “we cannot exclude that small amounts of acid are leaking into the river,” Mauermann said in a telephone interview today. “Measurements are being complicated by strong currents.” The vessel capsized on Jan. 13 at the Loreley cliffs, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the German city of Koblenz. It was carrying sulfuric acid for BASF SE, the world’s biggest chemical company, and headed to the company’s facility in Antwerp, Belgium, from its plant in Ludwigshafen. Authorities observed a drop in the pH-value, a scale to measure the degree of acidity, of the river in Koblenz after the accident, Mauermann said. “That suggests that acid leaked,” he said.
