An oil spill has released over a million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Coast Guard reports that the leak was first reported to them on Friday.
The Coast Guard reports that the leak appears to be near the Main Pass Oil Gathering (MPOG) company’s pipeline system, located around Plaquemines Parish, La., southeast of New Orleans.
We do not know when the leak began, but it was initially reported to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Thursday morning around 9:10 a.m. There is a three- to four-mile-wide slick, but the search for the specific location of the leak is still ongoing.
“Remotely operated vehicles, deployed Friday morning, continue to survey the pipeline with no findings of a source area at this time,” the Coast Guard reported Tuesday.
This is not the 2010 Deepwater Horizon, but this is one of the biggest oil spills in U.S. waters, with initial assessments estimating that it is at least 1.1 million gallons.
The Deepwater Horizon disaster killed 11 oil workers, released millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf, took five months to shut off the flow of oil, and killed up to 105,400 sea birds.
It is too early in this process to estimate how this spill will impact marine life, the fishing industry, or the Gulf Coast.
Oil drilling in the Gulf region has become increasingly controversial, with environmentalists claiming that the continual threat of ecological catastrophe is far greater than the economic rewards from drilling. Oil workers who make their livelihoods from working on the oil rigs, exploring for new oil, and refining the oil and natural gas and Gulf coast states who depend on the revenue from offshore leasing disagree.
In January 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that would freeze all new oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters. After a series of unfavorable court rulings, the administration ended the pause and resumed leasing.
The Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 requires the administration to hold a series of lease sales in the Gulf, originally scheduled for September but currently pushed back to December. The administration also auctioned off 1.6 million acres for leasing in March.
In August, the state of Louisiana joined Chevron and the American Petroleum Institute in suing the administration for shrinking the acreage being auctioned off. The administration claimed that it did so to protect the endangered Rice’s whale. Last week, a federal court rejected the administration’s arguments.
The Coast Guard, MPOG, and the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s office have formed a Unified Command team to investigate the source of the spill. The pipeline was shut down on Thursday when MPOG realized there was a problem with the 67-mile pipeline. The exact source of the leak remains unknown. Alabama Today is continuing to monitor this situation>
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
