Container lost from cargo ship contains sulfuric acid

NASG HEAD, N.C. (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard says a cargo ship lost 70 of its 30,000 containers off North Carolina’s Outer Banks in 65-mph (100-kph) storm winds and waves up to 30 feet (9 meters) tall.

The agency says one of the containers knocked overboard Saturday from the Maersk Shanghai contained nearly 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms) of sulfuric acid, a chemical commonly used to produce fertilizer. The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk <a target=”&mdash;blank” href=”https://pilotonline.com/news/local/article%E2%80%941a308e77-7a6c-5c4e-84c5-acbdea25a0f0.html?spMailingID=13057449&amp;spUserID=MTI4MTcwMDY0NzkxS0&amp;spJobID=1360477366&amp;spReportId=MTM2MDQ3NzM2NgS2″>reports</a> that Coast Guard spokesman Ronald Hodges cites experts in saying the environmental threat appeared minimal because sulfuric acid dissolves in saltwater.

Company spokeswoman Katherine Mosquera says the Liberia-flagged ship anchored in Charleston, South Carolina, where officials were assessing the situation.

The Coast Guard says it found four of the containers floating offshore.

It wasn’t immediately reported what other containers held.

———

Information from: The Virginian-Pilot, <a target=”&mdash;blank” href=”http://pilotonline.com”>http://pilotonline.com</a>

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.