Send
Print
Gulf of Mexico – 20 April 2015 – Michael Kunzelman and Jeff Donn reports about the oil spill of 2004 that took place in the Mexican sea due to a hurricane, is causing far worse environmental impact than reported. Even today, “a band of rainbow sheen” stretching over miles “off the coast of Louisiana” can be seen throwing up bubbles while the slick mark remains a testimony to “the longest-running commercial oil spill” still polluting the Gulf of Mexico.
The oil platform was run by “Taylor Energy Company”, who hid the fact for more than years that there was an initial crude leakage, paying heavily to suppress the gravity of the environmental impact caused by oil spills. Evidences gathered by an associate “press investigation” show that little has come to the public eye when secretive and costly attempts were made “to halt the leak”.
The findings show that the average oil spill per day over the sheen has equalled to ninety one gallons on a daily basis that spreads over an area of “eight square miles”. However, a leak estimate presented by the “Coast Guards” provides a figure which is twenty times greater than the “one recently touted by the company”.
The documentation to eliminate oil leakage by the company of Taylor has been kept secretively so far. Moreover, Ian MacDonald, a professor of biological oceanography at the University of Florida, said:
The oil platform was run by “Taylor Energy Company”, who hid the fact for more than years that there was an initial crude leakage, paying heavily to suppress the gravity of the environmental impact caused by oil spills. Evidences gathered by an associate “press investigation” show that little has come to the public eye when secretive and costly attempts were made “to halt the leak”.
The findings show that the average oil spill per day over the sheen has equalled to ninety one gallons on a daily basis that spreads over an area of “eight square miles”. However, a leak estimate presented by the “Coast Guards” provides a figure which is twenty times greater than the “one recently touted by the company”.
The documentation to eliminate oil leakage by the company of Taylor has been kept secretively so far. Moreover, Ian MacDonald, a professor of biological oceanography at the University of Florida, said:
"(The sheen) presents a substantial threat to the environment”.
As per SkyTruth, their satellite reports show an estimation of three hundred thousand to “1.4 million gallons” of oil-spillage has occurred from the catastrophic hurricane of 2004. Accordingly, “Atmospheric Administration” and “National Oceanic” enlists “Taylor spill” as the eight largest one witnessed by the Gulf from the year of 1970. The president of SkyTruth, Mr. John Amos says:
"The Taylor leak is just a great example of what I call a dirty little secret in plain sight."
The said issue has become a “chronic” spill that is almost impossible to seal completely. The information relating to the oil spillage was contained secretly thereby shrouding it from “public scrutiny” which was backed by the government. The inability to block the leakage along with the “demands for confidentiality” has been a baffling issue with the industrial experts and environmental activists.
In an industry consultant who has been the “former engineering manager for Shell Oil Company”, Ken Arnold’s words:
"It's not normal to have a spill like this. The whole thing surprises me. Normally, we fix things much more quickly than this."
Taylor’s spillage has not been the first one, the gulf of Mexico is known for oil spillage that occur due to man-made wells deep at the ocean bed or by natural disasters as the site is particularly prove to mud-slides in the oceanic bed. However, the last remaining full-time employee of Taylor informed that the company didn’t take any measures to “assess the risk of mudslides at its platform”.
Moreover, Taylor hesitates on sharing the detailed information with any of its peers so as to take future precautions from this evidence. The company claims the secrecy over the related information as their “valuable asset”.
Nevertheless, the company claims that there was no such precedent in its history that addressed any such situation. Thus, the company has spent a lump sum to come with innovative ways to stop the spillage. Harry Roberts, a professor at “Louisiana State University”, hired by the company “to perform a geological analysis of the site” terms the situation as a “learning curve” that can be useful for other companies.
The spokesman of Taylor Company declines AP’s finding and terms “Waterkeeper Alliance's lawsuit” a "sham". However, “there are glaring inconsistencies” in the quantity of the oil spillage between various reports. The company claims that it has taken steps to seal the well opening; the present sheen caused by oil leakage is only due to peripheral residuous “oozing from the sediment”. Nevertheless, SkyTruth says in that case, if “the wells really are sealed” and “the slick sizes should be steadily shrinking”. However, the size of the oil slicks remains persistent.
References:
http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/04/16/4480328/secrecy-shrouds-decade-old-oil.html
