Post-Hurricane Pollution Recovery Continues

Friday, October 21, 2005

Personnel from the multi-agency unified command here continue to assess, investigate and oversee the cleanup of six major and three medium oil spills caused by damage to facilities after Hurricane Katrina struck southeast Louisiana. Cleanup efforts continue at the following facilities: Chevron Empire Terminal in Buras, La.; Sundown East and Sundown West, both in Potash, La.; Bass Enterprises Production Company Cox Bay facility at mile marker 35 on the Mississippi River; Bass Enterprises Production Company in Pointe a la Hache, La.; Dynegy Venice in Venice, La.; Murphy Oil in Meraux, La.; Shell Pilot Town in Pilottown, La.; and Shell Nairn in Port Sulphur, La. More than 100 state and federal responders, in addition to various industry partners, local agencies and contracted workers, are supervising the cleanup efforts. The Coast Guard continues to maintain environmental awareness during the cleanup efforts by staging rapid response personnel to respond to any new spill reports. The following numbers reflect the latest reports on the major and medium spills. Total numbers for amounts of oil and fuel spilled, evaporated, dispersed and recovered are rounded estimates and are subject to change as progress is made at the cleanup sites. Estimates for recovered volume at some sites may represent an oil/water mix. Louisiana Response Overview (volumes listed are in gallons): Major spills (classified as 100,000 gallons or more): 6 Medium spills (classified as 10,000 gallons or more): 3 Minor spills: 127 (spills in the process of assessment to determine severity) Volume spilled: 8 million Volume recovered: 3 million Volume evaporated: 2 million Volume naturally dispersed: 2 million Volume remaining to be recovered: 1 million Feet of containment boom (floating barrier used to contain oil on the water's surface): 32,000 Feet of sorbent boom (collecting oil by soaking, blotting or adhesion): 109,000 Skimmers(mechanical oil recovery device) employed: 27 Storage barges: 29 Shoreline impacted: 8 miles Shoreline cleaned: 4 miles