500,000 Gallons Of Oil Spilled Due To Ike

AP Study: Hurricane Destroyed Oil Platforms, Tossed Storage Tanks And Punctured Pipelines In Gulf

(AP)  Hurricane Ike's winds and massive waves destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured pipelines. The environmental damage only now is becoming apparent: At least a half million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas, according to an analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

In the days before and after the deadly storm, companies and residents reported at least 448 releases of oil, gasoline and dozens of other substances into the air and water and onto the ground in Louisiana and Texas. The hardest hit places were industrial centers near Houston and Port Arthur, Texas, as well as oil production facilities off Louisiana's coast, according to the AP's analysis.

"We are dealing with a multitude of different types of pollution here ... everything from diesel in the water to gasoline to things like household chemicals," said Larry Chambers, a petty officer with the U.S. Coast Guard Command Center in Pasadena, Texas.

The Coast Guard, with the Environmental Protection Agency and state agencies, has responded to more than 3,000 pollution reports associated with the storm and its surge along the upper Texas coast. Most callers complain about abandoned propane tanks, paint cans and other hazardous materials containers turning up in marshes, backyards and other places.

No major oil spills or hazardous materials releases have been identified, but nearly 1,500 sites still need to be cleaned up.

The Coast Guard's National Response Center in Washington collects information on oil spills and chemical and biological releases and passes it to agencies working on the ground. The AP analyzed all reports received by the center from Sept. 11 through Sept. 18 for Louisiana and Texas, providing an early snapshot of Ike's environmental toll.

With the storm approaching, refineries and chemical plants shut down as a precaution, burning off hundreds of thousands of pounds of organic compounds and toxic chemicals. In other cases, power failures sent chemicals such as ammonia directly into the atmosphere. Such accidental releases probably will not result in penalties by regulators because the releases are being blamed on the storm.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry also suspended all rules, including environmental ones, that would inhibit or prevent companies preparing for or responding to Ike.

Power outages also caused sewage pipes to stop flowing. Elsewhere, the storm's surge dredged up smelly and oxygen-deprived marsh mud, which killed fish and caused residents to complain of nausea and headaches from the odor.

At times, a new spill or release was reported to the Coast Guard every five minutes to 10 minutes. Some were extremely detailed, such as this report from Sept. 14: "Caller is making a report of a 6-by-4-foot container that was found floating in the Houston Ship Channel. Caller states the container was also labeled 'UM 3264,' which is a corrosive material." The caller most likely meant UN3264, an industrial coding that refers to a variety of different acids.

State and federal officials have collected thousands of abandoned drums, paint cans and other containers.

Other reports were more vague. One caller reported a sheen from an underwater pipeline and said the substance was "spewing" from the pipe.

The AP's analysis found that, by far, the most common contaminant left in Ike's wake was crude oil - the lifeblood and main industry of both Texas and Louisiana. In the week of reports analyzed, enough crude oil was spilled nearly to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and more could be released, officials said, as platforms and pipelines were turned back on.

The Minerals Management Service, which oversees oil production in federal waters offshore, said the storm destroyed at least 52 oil platforms of roughly 3,800 in the Gulf of Mexico. Thirty-two more were severely damaged. But there was only one confirmed report of an oil spill - a leak of 8,400 gallons that officials said left no trace because it dissipated with the winds and currents.

(Left: A sheen of oil is seen around a pump jack surrounded by flood waters, Sept. 14, 2008 in High Island, Texas.)

Air contaminants were the second-most common release, mostly from the chemical plants and refineries along the coast.

About half the crude oil was reported spilled at a facility operated by St. Mary Land and Exploration Co. on Goat Island, Texas, a spit of uninhabited land north of the heavily damaged Bolivar Peninsula. The surge from the storm flooded the plant, leveling its dirt containment wall and snapping off the pipes connecting its eight storage tanks, which held the oil and water produced from two wells in Galveston Bay.

By the time the company reached the wreckage by boat more than 24 hours after Ike's landfall, the tanks were empty. Only a spattering of the roughly 266,000 gallons of oil spilled was left, and that is already cleaned up, according to Greg Leyendecker, the company's regional manager. The rest vanished, likely into the Gulf of Mexico.

[riddelup]

Coming to a shore near you.

[mjvw2]

ALL OF THIS WOULD CREAT JOBS /

Posted by krusor

for those of us who can spell

[maine11111]

Its a shame that we as humans cannot take better care of this planet!!! I would hate to see this planet 50 years from now, if there is a planet left. We humans will always be a virus to this planet. We are the only species on this planet that cannot coexist with the environment!!!!

[keating54u]

www.keatingeconomics.com

McCain Received $166,000 In Campaign Contributions from Charles Keating and his Associates.

McCain Used Keatings Private Planes on Nine Occasions

McCain Had Direct Financial Ties To Keating

When the story broke, McCain did nothing to help himself. ''You''re a liar,'' McCain said

when asked about the investments. He challenged reporters saying, ''It''s up to you to find that out, kids......



OH YEAH DRILL DRILL DRILL SAID THE PIRATE!

[rochoa1977]

i work for exxonmobil refinery in baton rouge, louisiana. sure we make enourmous profits, but exxonmobil spends over 400 billion dollars a year in exploration. we make 40 billion in profit. that is only 10 percent!!! 10 cents for every dollar spent!!what about the pharmaceutical companies making money??

[krusor]

CANT WE DRILL FOR OIL ON DRY LAND INSTEAD OF KILLING OUR OCEANS?
WE NEED ELECTRIC CARS / SOLAR POWER / WIND POWER
ALL OF THIS WOULD CREAT JOBS /

[terrapin78]

To quote a loser:

Say it ain''t so Joe!

[freedomobama]

Great. In the past month it sounds like the world is ending!

[tbuckl]

With storms like Hurricane Ike that destroyed oil platforms, storage tanks and ripped open pipelines and which caused the spilling 500,000 gallons of oil in to the enviroment has proved why we need not to drill more wells in the ocean.

[yongamerica]

Oh Yeah, off shore drilling in the stormy Atlantic sounds real appealing now. The net result of storm damage has the potential to be equivalent to dozens of Exxon Valdez oil spills all along the eastern and western ocean shores.

[rochoa1977]

Why should the oil companies pay for all of this?? Building new refineries won''t solve the gas crisis in the US.

[rochoa1977]

42 GALLONS EQUAL A BARREL. NOT 52 !!

[legacyabq]

cwazywabbit Im just wondering.. You always talk tough about accountability and harsh justice..
Are you a police officer?

[govwatch-2009]

That''s all? People spill more than that in one day pumping gas in their car.

[andor3]

"Eleven thousand barrels is a drop in the bucket considering the size of the hurricane."

Seems like quite a lot--enough to fill a swimming pool, or we can talk about the ecological and wildlife damage it can do.

Which is really the point since oil shills arguing for drilling in Alaska claimed no spills.

This should end the argument--no drilling in Alaska, not now, not ever.

[missingamerica]

I remember posing the question on CBS: What happens if all of this new drilling occurs up and down both of Florida''s, and a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane decides to act like tropical depression Gustav and bounce back and forth and up and down both of Florida''s costs?

(http://168.100.10.114/ATL-06A/JavaPlot.html)

I added "Gee, with the storm surge throwing ocean water inland, won''t it carry spilled oil from those new rigs inland a long way, creating a horrendous ecological disaster?"

The oil boyz (they alternate between being Palin/McCain trolls and oil boyz) promptly said that hurricanes don''t cause spills from the oil platforms because they have enough advance warning to seal them up.

lolll...uh-huh....like Katrina didn''t cause any spills...and now, like Ike didn''t cause any spills...

[georgew1956]

sell grain to the foriegners for 385 dollars and get even they don''t care to rob.

[ubrew12]

PugHenry3 said: "Oil companies would have to be crazy to invest even a nickel in new refineries or even do basic repairs to existing refineries. "

Well, ya got that right. Build a refinery, and the price per gallon of the product you''re selling FALLS???? Why would ANYONE want to abett THAT outcome???

[ubrew12]

Hey, PugHenry3:
A 100 mile by 100 mile array of solar thermal collectors over the desert Southwestern U.S. absorbs enough energy to power the ENTIRE U.S.: day and night. No other energy source required. A solar thermal collector is just a mirror, a pipe, and a molten salt solution running through the pipe. The hot salt is later used to drive a steam turbine. These are all 19th century technologies: a competent plumber could build a solar thermal collector in his/her backyard using ordinary materials, and it would last for decades depending on how well built/maintained.

This country, and the world, is going to pay a HUGE cost for its oil addiction. And the cost of avoiding that fate is available at your neighborhood hardware store, and has been for a century. Vote for McCain if you want to prevent developing that solution for ANOTHER 8 years!!!

[beehive21-2009]

Nationalize Oil ,we nationalized the Banks ,yesterday,Nationalize Oil.