Assessment of Ike’s Environmental Damage Begins

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Hurricane Ike’s winds and massive waves destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured pipelines. The environmental damage is now becoming apparent: At least a half million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas, according to an analysis of federal data by the Associated Press.

In the days before and after the deadly storm, at least 448 releases of oil, gasoline and dozens of other substances into the air and water and onto the ground in Louisiana and Texas were reported. The hardest hit places were industrial centers near Houston and Port Arthur, Texas, as well as oil production facilities off Louisiana’s coast, according to the AP‘s analysis.

“We are dealing with a multitude of different types of pollution here … everything from diesel in the water to gasoline to things like household chemicals,” said Larry Chambers, a petty officer with the U.S. Coast Guard Command Center in Pasadena, Texas.

The Coast Guard, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state agencies, has responded to pollution reports associated with the storm and its surge along the upper Texas coast. The Coast Guard’s National Response Center in Washington collects information on oil spills and chemical and biological releases and passes it to agencies working on the ground. The AP analyzed all reports received by the center from Sept. 11 through Sept. 18 for Louisiana and Texas, providing an early snapshot of Ike’s environmental toll.

At times, a new spill or release was reported to the Coast Guard every five minutes to 10 minutes. Some were extremely detailed, such as this report from Sept. 14: “Caller is making a report of a 6-by-4-foot container that was found floating in the Houston Ship Channel. Caller states the container was also labeled ‘UM 3264,’ which is a corrosive material.” The caller most likely meant UN3264, an industrial coding that refers to a variety of different acids.

State and federal officials have collected thousands of abandoned drums, paint cans and other containers.

The AP‘s analysis found that, by far, the most common contaminant left in Ike’s wake was crude oil. In the week of reports analyzed, enough crude oil was spilled nearly to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and more could be released, officials said, as platforms and pipelines were turned back on.

The Minerals Management Service, which oversees oil production in federal waters offshore, said the storm destroyed at least 52 oil platforms of roughly 3,800 in the Gulf of Mexico. Thirty-two more were severely damaged. But there was only one confirmed report of an oil spill from a platform — a leak of 8,400 gallons that officials said left no trace because it dissipated with the winds and currents.

About half the reported crude oil was spilled at a facility operated by St. Mary Land and Exploration Co. on Goat Island, a spit of uninhabited land north of the heavily damaged Bolivar Peninsula. The surge from the storm flooded the plant, leveling its dirt containment wall and snapping off the pipes connecting its eight storage tanks, which held the oil and water produced from two wells in Galveston Bay.

By the time the company reached the wreckage by boat more than 24 hours after Ike’s landfall, the tanks were empty. Only a spattering of the roughly 266,000 gallons of oil spilled was left. It has been cleaned up, according to Greg Leyendecker, the company’s regional manager.

The rest vanished, likely into the Gulf of Mexico.