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Coast Guard starts icebreaking on the Hudson
Jan 25, 2011 11:48 am
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Ice on the Hudson surrounds the Athens Lighthouse."]
[/caption]The Coast Guard has begun icebreaking operations on the Hudson River to allow the flow of oil and other barge-carried goods to continue through the rest of winter. Oil barges navigate up the Hudson between New York and Albany and the ice must be broken up to allow them to continue their travel, said Petty Officer Thomas McKenzie in a Mid-Hudson News Network story on January 25. “Approximately 300 vessels transit the Hudson River during the winter months carrying five million barrels of petroleum products to the communities of the north region that includes home heating oil impacting hundreds of thousands of people who live in that area,” he said. “The Coast Guard does maintain a presence on the river during ice breaking season which runs from December 15 until the end of March.” The Coast Guard also conducts daily reconnaissance flights, providing updated information about ice conditions, which is them transmitted to waterway users. The price of fuel up and down the Hudson Valley, when not locked in through special offers usually made the previous summer, fluctuate wildly based on the river's condition and cost of ice cutting.
[/caption]The Coast Guard has begun icebreaking operations on the Hudson River to allow the flow of oil and other barge-carried goods to continue through the rest of winter. Oil barges navigate up the Hudson between New York and Albany and the ice must be broken up to allow them to continue their travel, said Petty Officer Thomas McKenzie in a Mid-Hudson News Network story on January 25. “Approximately 300 vessels transit the Hudson River during the winter months carrying five million barrels of petroleum products to the communities of the north region that includes home heating oil impacting hundreds of thousands of people who live in that area,” he said. “The Coast Guard does maintain a presence on the river during ice breaking season which runs from December 15 until the end of March.” The Coast Guard also conducts daily reconnaissance flights, providing updated information about ice conditions, which is them transmitted to waterway users. The price of fuel up and down the Hudson Valley, when not locked in through special offers usually made the previous summer, fluctuate wildly based on the river's condition and cost of ice cutting.