Divers to try to locate source of reported oil spill in Gulf after Hurricane Ida

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WASHINGTON — A personal dive staff will attempt to find the supply of a suspected oil spill noticed within the Bay Marchand space of the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, after Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc within the area this week, the U.S. Coast Guard stated on Saturday.

U.S. Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite tv for pc pictures, first reported by the Related Press on Wednesday, confirmed a miles-long brownish-black slick spreading in coastal waters about two miles off Port Fourchon, Louisiana, an oil and fuel hub.

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The photographs appeared to indicate the slick drifting greater than a dozen miles (19 kilometers) eastward alongside the Gulf coast, the AP stated.

Ida, probably the most highly effective hurricanes ever to strike the U.S. Gulf Coast, hit Louisiana a couple of week in the past earlier than shifting northeast and inflicting intense flooding that killed dozens https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-york-city-mayor-declares-state-emergency-after-record-breaking-rain-2021-09-02 in New York and different northeastern states.

A Coast Guard spokesman stated Talos Power had employed Clear Gulf Associates to reply to the suspected spill and contracted the non-public dive staff to find the supply of the slick.

The AP quoted the vitality firm as saying it believes it’s not accountable for the oil within the water.

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Members of the Coast Guard Marine Security Unit’s prevention division and the Gulf Strike Group had been monitoring studies and NOAA satellite tv for pc imagery to find out the scope of the discharge, the spokesman stated.

As soon as the supply had been recognized, the Coast Guard and partnering businesses would work on a restoration and supply management plan, he added.

He stated Clear Gulf Associates has put skimmers and a containment increase within the space to mitigate any additional environmental impression.

The Bay Marchand spill was considered one of a number of reported environmental hazards that authorities had been responding to in Louisiana and the Gulf following hurricane Ida.

The U.S. Environmental Safety Company stated on Thursday it had dispatched a surveillance plane https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-epa-responds-report-oil-spill-after-ida-by-activating-special-aircraft-2021-09-03 to an space in Louisiana exhausting hit by Ida that features a refinery the place an obvious oil spill was reported.

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The plane dispatched from Texas was going to assemble knowledge on a Phillips 66 refinery and different precedence websites.

Phillips 66 had stated flooding had occurred at its Alliance Refinery and a sheen of unknown origin in some flooded areas of the refinery had been found.

U.S. Gulf Coast vitality corporations on Saturday bought a lift from the reopening https://www.reuters.com/enterprise/vitality/us-offshore-oil-recovery-begins-with-ports-refineries-restarting-2021-09-04 of ports and restart of oil refineries shut by Ida, however harm to key amenities nonetheless crimped oil manufacturing.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru and Andrea Shalal and Valerie Volcovici in Washington; Enhancing by Alistair Bell and William Mallard)