The US Coast Guard is responding to an oil spill at the Hilcorp Caillou Island facility in Terrebonne Bay, LA. According to a statement from the USCG, less than 14,000 gallons of crude spilled after the platform experienced a structural failure, causing a tank to fall into the water.
Environmental Safety & Health Consulting Services is working to remove the spill and has deployed 4,500 feet of containment boom, three skimming vessels, and five response vehicles to the scene of the spill. Currently, there are no reports of wildlife impact.
Hilcorp has set up a claims line for people affected by the spill at 281-486-5511. The cause of the collapse is still under investigation.
This is the second oil spill in less than a week to affect Louisiana. On August 4, WCC Energy Group LLC spilled 4,000 gallons near Bayou Sorrel in Iberville Parish, about 20 miles southwest of Baton Rouge. That spill occurred while the company was piping oil into a barge tank, according to Coast Guard spokesman Riley Perkofski.
Bayou Sorrel was previously a hazardous waste dump and gained national notoriety after fumes from the 265-acre site resulted in the death of 19-year-old trucker Kirtley Jackson. The site was cleaned up as a Superfund site and was removed from the Superfund list in 1997.
In July, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that over one million gallons of oil has been collected and removed from the environment by the USCG at the Taylor Energy MC20 oil spill that has been going continuously for the past 18 years. According to NOAA, more than $432 million from Taylor Energys Decommissioning Trust went to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to fund ongoing efforts to stop the spill in 2022.
