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Yonkers waterfront sees increase barge,
tug traffic
By Ernie Garcia The Journal News • May 25, 2008
YONKERS - Higher petroleum prices and increased traffic in New York
Harbor are causing more vessels to drop anchor along the city's
waterfront.
In recent weeks, more tug boats and barges have appeared in a federal
anchorage site in the Hudson River parallel to the city. The increased
number of vessels has piqued the curiosity of residents who pay close
attention to the river.
"All of a sudden we have a plethora of barges off the waterfront," said
Bob Walters, who lives near Warburton and Odell avenues. "Something has
changed that they are up here."
What has changed is the growing size of vessels and volatile petroleum
markets, said Lt. Cmdr. Mike McBrady of the U.S. Coast Guard, which
patrols the Hudson River and New York Harbor.
"The ever-rising price of crude oil has caused some longer-term
contracts or more traditional signed contracts between shippers and
buyers of oil to be renegotiated. They are waiting on the next contract
or deal," McBrady said of the vessels anchored near Yonkers.
McBrady said that the Hudson River along the Yonkers shore is a federal
anchorage where vessels are permitted to park. Federal Anchorage 17 runs
approximately from the George Washington Bridge to Yonkers on the New
Jersey side of the waterway, and vessels can drop anchor halfway out
into the river.
Most of the vessels anchored near Yonkers are empty barges awaiting
their orders to enter the Arthur Kill or the Kill Van Kull into Newark
Bay to take on cargo.
In past years, the Yonkers anchorage went largely unused, but McBrady
noted that in the past decade New York Harbor has experienced a 40
percent increase in water traffic. The New York port is the
third-largest in the United States and the largest petroleum port on the
East Coast.
While the anchorages near Staten Island and Brooklyn could accommodate
deep draft and coastal barge traffic in the past, they are now full
almost every day, McBrady said. In addition, regulations requiring
double hulls to prevent oil spills like the Exxon Valdez have increased
the size of ships, which consequentially consumes more anchorage space
near the refineries in New Jersey.
The increased use of the Yonkers anchorage and of another anchorage
along the shore in Riverdale has prompted complaint calls to the Coast
Guard. McBrady said that he has received "a couple" of noise complaints
about barges running generators for their electricity.
Stan Chelluck, chief operating officer of the Bouchard Transportation
Co. in Melville, N.Y., said his company has used the anchorage near
Yonkers.
"Some of the requirements for anchorage have changed, so that's probably
why you're seeing more vessels up there," said Chelluck, adding that
Fleet Week also reduced the amount of anchorage space available near
Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Walters said he has noticed barge crews disembarking on the Yonkers pier
to shop for groceries at a Riverdale Avenue supermarket downtown. He
welcomed an increased use of the river.
"It makes the river even more interesting that we have these tugs and
barges off the shore," Walters said.
Reach Ernie Garcia at
elgarcia@lohud.com or 914-696-8290.
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