The US federal government is planning to use a $15.3m payment from Kirby to pay for environmental restoration projects in the area impacted by a 2014 fuel oil spill.

But first, it is asking for the public to weigh in on an agreement with the barge owner to end a lawsuit over the incident.

The Justice Department is taking comments through 3 January on its consent decree filed during litigation over a spill in the Houston Ship Channel that followed a collision between a Kirby tug and barge and Cleopatra Shipping’s 43,193-dwt Summer Wind (built 2005).