Oil spillages threaten Gulf of Mexico
By Henry Hamman in Sewanee, Tennessee Published:
Last updated: September 8 2005 22:06
Oil storage tanks ruptured by Hurricane Katrina may have dumped as much as 3.7m gallons of crude oil into the lower Mississippi river and surrounding wetlands.
Officials estimate the spillage at roughly a third of the volume of the huge spill when the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground off Alaska in 1989. Last night experts said they could not yet assess the short-term effects of the spills but were hopeful there would be few long-term effects. Some of the oil is expected to find its way into the Gulf of Mexico.
But officials at the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality remain cautious because it is difficult to gain access to the area, which can be reached only by water. It is also unclear how much oil has been lost.
The largest spill, believed to be about 3.3m gallons of crude oil, occurred after two 80,000-barrel storage tanks ruptured at a Bass Enterprises Production site at Cox Bay, Louisiana, just above the mouth of the river.
The tanks were not full at the time of the rupture, a company executive said. Nevertheless, if current estimates prove correct, the spill would be big as a 1969 incident following a blow-out at an offshore well near Santa Barbara, California. That accident is seen as seminal to the development of the US environmental movement.
The second spill at the Murphy Oil Corporation refinery at Meraux, Louisiana, is thought by state officials to have released 420,000 gallons of crude into a flooded area around the refinery. The Murphy spill was discovered by aerial surveillance a few days ago. The Coast Guard, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and a clean-up contractor are working at the site to contain the oil. Contractors have also been dispatched to the Bass spill.
Eric Olsen, a spokesman for the National Resources Defense Council, said the environmental group was attempting to monitor the clean-up and remained concerned about possible threats to drinking water. In recent days concern has mounted over toxic water in New Orleans. The polluted water is being pumped into Lake Ponchartrain, where it is likely to cause significant short-term environmental damage.
Frank Manheim, an associate professor at Virginia’s George Mason University and an expert on pollution in Lake Ponchartrain, said the environmental impact “probably will not be very long lasting but it may be severe in the short term”. Experts said Ponchartrain – an estuary on the Gulf – should not suffer significant long-term damage.
But Prof Manheim, a former geochemist at the US Geological Survey, said the floodwater could be polluted with “things that are serious that we don’t know about”, including pesticides and toxic chemicals.
Link Here
Last updated: September 8 2005 22:06
Oil storage tanks ruptured by Hurricane Katrina may have dumped as much as 3.7m gallons of crude oil into the lower Mississippi river and surrounding wetlands.
Officials estimate the spillage at roughly a third of the volume of the huge spill when the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground off Alaska in 1989. Last night experts said they could not yet assess the short-term effects of the spills but were hopeful there would be few long-term effects. Some of the oil is expected to find its way into the Gulf of Mexico.
But officials at the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality remain cautious because it is difficult to gain access to the area, which can be reached only by water. It is also unclear how much oil has been lost.
The largest spill, believed to be about 3.3m gallons of crude oil, occurred after two 80,000-barrel storage tanks ruptured at a Bass Enterprises Production site at Cox Bay, Louisiana, just above the mouth of the river.
The tanks were not full at the time of the rupture, a company executive said. Nevertheless, if current estimates prove correct, the spill would be big as a 1969 incident following a blow-out at an offshore well near Santa Barbara, California. That accident is seen as seminal to the development of the US environmental movement.
The second spill at the Murphy Oil Corporation refinery at Meraux, Louisiana, is thought by state officials to have released 420,000 gallons of crude into a flooded area around the refinery. The Murphy spill was discovered by aerial surveillance a few days ago. The Coast Guard, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and a clean-up contractor are working at the site to contain the oil. Contractors have also been dispatched to the Bass spill.
Eric Olsen, a spokesman for the National Resources Defense Council, said the environmental group was attempting to monitor the clean-up and remained concerned about possible threats to drinking water. In recent days concern has mounted over toxic water in New Orleans. The polluted water is being pumped into Lake Ponchartrain, where it is likely to cause significant short-term environmental damage.
Frank Manheim, an associate professor at Virginia’s George Mason University and an expert on pollution in Lake Ponchartrain, said the environmental impact “probably will not be very long lasting but it may be severe in the short term”. Experts said Ponchartrain – an estuary on the Gulf – should not suffer significant long-term damage.
But Prof Manheim, a former geochemist at the US Geological Survey, said the floodwater could be polluted with “things that are serious that we don’t know about”, including pesticides and toxic chemicals.
Link Here
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