Petrochemical Disaster Causing Houston Shipping Bottleneck

The backlog of vessels waiting to traverse through the Houston Ship Channel grew on Monday while it remained closed to traffic for a third day as emergency workers attempted to clear a petrochemical spill from the Intercontinental Terminals Co (ITC) storage facility in Deer Park, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday.

Thirty-one vessels waited to enter the Houston Ship Channel on Monday, while another 31 waited to leave, up from 26, respectively, on Sunday morning. The seven-mile section of the Houston Ship Channel from Light 116 to Tucker's Bayou remained closed, said Coast Guard Vessel Tracking Service Watch Supervisor Ashley Dumont. 

(Reuters,Reporting by Collin Eaton in Houston Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)