Federal and state agencies say they are responding to reports of oil and chemical spills Hurricane Ida After the Associated Press released the aerial photos.
Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson Nick Conger said on Thursday that a special plane carrying photographic and chemical testing equipment was dispatched from Texas to Louisiana to fly over areas hit hard by Category 4 storms, including Midland. The agency first arrived at the Phillips 66 refinery along the Mississippi River. An obvious oil spill was reported on Wednesday.
Coast Guard spokesman Third-Class Sergeant Gabriel Westdom said Thursday that his aircraft also flew over the refinery and the Gulf of Mexico. The Associated Press released photos of a mile-long brown-black oil slick in the waters south of Port Fulchion, Louisiana.
The Associated Press first reported a possible leak on Wednesday after reviewing aerial images of the disaster area taken by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Ada made landfall on Sunday and its eye wall passed through Louisiana at a wind speed of 150 miles per hour. The storm surge was so strong that it temporarily reversed the mighty Mississippi flow.
NOAA photos show a black and brown oil slick floating near a large drilling platform with the name Enterprise Offshore Drilling written on the helipad. The company is headquartered in Houston and said on Thursday that its Enterprise 205 drilling rig had been safely secured and evacuated before the storm, and there was no damage.
The company said in a statement: “Company personnel returned to the facility on September 1 and confirmed the integrity of all systems and that our facility did not have environmental emissions.”
Sandy Day, a spokesperson for the U.S. Security and Environmental Enforcement Agency, which oversees oil rigs, confirmed that it received a report on Wednesday and the Associated Press released photos of the oil spill. But the location is in state waters, not a federal jurisdiction further offshore.
Patrick Courreges, a spokesperson for the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, said his agency was unable to conduct on-site investigations into the spill.
“It will take a while before we get out,” Courreges said on Thursday. “We don’t have planes, helicopters or ships suitable for sailing in the Gulf.”
Aerial photos taken by a US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) plane on Tuesday also showed severe flooding at the large Phillips 66 Alliance refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. In some parts of the refinery, rainbow luster and black streaks can be seen on the surface of the water leading to the river.
In statements issued on Monday and Tuesday, Phillips 66 stated that there was “some water” in the refinery, but did not respond to questions about environmental hazards.
Only after the Associated Press sent photos to the company on Wednesday that showed extensive flooding and what appeared to be oil in the water, did the company confirm that it had “found luster of unknown origin in some flooded areas of Alliance Refinery.”
Phillips 66 spokesperson Bernardo Faras said on Wednesday night three days after the hurricane: “At this time, the gloss appears to have been fixed and contained in the refinery.” “Cleanup personnel were on the scene. The incident was discovered after the incident was discovered. It has been reported to the appropriate regulatory agency.”
According to the state call records provided to the Associated Press, although Fallas described the leak as a “gloss of unknown origin,” Phillips 66’s report to the Louisiana regulator on Wednesday described it as “heavy oil in the flood.” “. The log also contains a phone call from an oyster harvester, concerned that water pollution from the refinery is polluting the environmentally sensitive riverbed downstream.
The spokesperson of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Gray Glenley, said on Wednesday that a state assessment team was sent to the refinery to observe that the on-site oil spill was being resolved with oil booms and absorbent pads. A dike designed to protect the factory has burst, allowing floodwater to flow in during the storm and then recede as the tide recedes.
Langley said it is impossible to estimate how much oil may leak from the refinery.
As of Wednesday, Louisiana regulators are tracking approximately 100 reports of chemical and oil spills across the state. According to call records, reports ranged from leaking diesel from sunken ships to overturned fuel tanks and flooded pipelines. Some chemical manufacturers also report that toxic chemicals are discharged or burned due to power outages.
Stephanie Morris, a spokesperson for the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office, said that four days after Ada’s attack, state regulators are still in the early stages of responding to the environmental hazards caused by the storm. She said that a national aircraft has been flying over the affected area, focusing more on identifying ongoing threats than quantifying what has leaked into the water and air
“We are in what we call a rapid assessment phase because we are trying to assess it from the air,” Morris said. “We just understand the situation and location outside. We still don’t know the source or amount of gloss.”
© 2021 Canadian Press
