USCG Pollution Recovery, Charenton Navigational Canal
The Coast Guard announced that it has accessed the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to pay for costs associated with the pollution recovery operations resulting from the sinking of a Mobil Inland Drilling Unit that sank in the Charenton Navigational Canal in April 2010. "We, along with our partners, are dedicated to mitigating the potential environmental hazard that the MIDU represents," said Capt. Jonathan Burton, commanding officer Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Morgan City. On April 30, 2010, the Hercules 61 overturned after taking on water while transiting the canal and sank in its current position just south of the I-90 Bridge. The MIDU has a 20,000-gallon diesel fuel capacity, but there is no current estimate on how much fuel was on board at the time of the incident.
NOIA Member Deepwater Horizon Response
As BP, the National Response Team, and an army of volunteers respond to the Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico, NOIA member companies are lending their resources in an unprecedented cooperative effort to stop the flow of oil and prevent further damage to the environment. These resources include land-based and offshore facilities, aircraft, marine vessels, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), a containment dome, subsea tooling, subsea video, dispersant, personnel, and technical expertise on suction systems, blowout preventers, dispersant injection, well construction, containment options, subsea wells, environmental science, emergency response, spill assistance, well intervention, and drilling and well competence.
Alyeska Head Touts Post-Exxon Valdez Spill Reforms
A decade after the Exxon Valdez disaster, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the operator of the trans-Alaska pipeline, has made dramatic reforms in its oil-spill prevention and response programs, according to the head of the company. "We're not the company that we were 10 years ago," Bob Malone, president of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., told the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce. Alyeska, the operator of the 795 mile pipeline and the Valdez marine terminal where tankers are loaded with crude oil, was criticized for an inadequate and disorganized response to the March 24, 1989 grounding that caused the nation's worst oil spill. But Alyeska has since installed extensive programs to respond to tanker emergencies.
