August 2, 2021 By David Murray On July 8, a federal district judge in Houston exonerated Kirby Inland Marine from any liability or fault in a May 2019 collision in the Houston Ship Channel. The collision between one of its tank barges and an oceangoing vessel, the Genesis River, resulted in the Kirby barge releasing 473,600 gallons of reformate, a gasoline blending stock, into the channel. The bench ruling was a finding of fact and law that the operator of the Genesis River holds 100 percent of the liability, making any subsequent appeal unlikely. Judge Jeffrey Brown of the United States District Court of the Southern District of Texas, Galveston Division, ruled that the captain of the Genesis River failed to disclose to the two harbor pilots that his boat had poor handling and was recommended to go no faster than 6 to 8 knots within the Houston Ship Channel. The Genesis River’s crew also shut down its ECDIS electronic chart system instead of placing it on standby as the pilots requested.