New Oil Spill- Bp Fails Again

Many believed that the oil spill drama had subsided, but look again. While BP was trying to fix the oil leak that was caused 3 months ago, they unfortunately hit a pipe with a water vessel.

This spill has been spotted about 10 miles south of Lafitte, Louisiana near Bayou St. Dennis. “This spill involves a well in a portion of Barataria Bay known as Mud Lake,” reports Jonathan Serrie of Fox News. Also, according to Donald Nalty, COO of oil spill cleanup contractor ES&H, states “it’s apparent that some type of vessel has hit the well head, has laid it over” reports Fox News. A towing vessel “struck” the well causing [it] to emit natural gas and oil.

The Coast Guard confirmed that the well-head “is discharging a mist of orange and brown oil about 100 feet in the air. The Coast Guard does not have a specific flow rate for the well determined yet, although there have been early reports that there is natural gas and mud mixed in with oil coming from the well,” reports CNN. The well is too dangerous for anyone to get close enough to determine just how much oil is leaking out because the oil was gushing from the well in 6 feet of water.

There is hope for the leak to be capped as Jefferson Parish Councilman, Chris Roberts states that he doesn’t “expect it is going to be a huge problem to contain it or cap it because it isn’t uncommon.”
As questions arise to the time it will take to cap the well, Capt. Ed Cubanski, Chief of incident management for the Coast Guard can not give a clear answer because he is still unsure of the condition of the spill. Cleanup has however begun and “the Coast Guard has tapped the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund,” reports CNN.

Oil spill response actions have begun and Thad Allen, Ret. Coast Guard Adm., has reported that “response crews were able to take advantage of the ‘significant resources,’ vessels of opportunity, skimming equipment and boom already in the area to work on the Gulf oil spill.”

The spill was reported to have happened about 1 am Tuesday and a safety zone has already been established “2 miles around the site to protect vessels and mariners from the hazards associated with the release” states the Coast Guard.