I think we are all aware how horrible an oil spill can be. Birds that get covered in the oil suffer as they are more susceptible to the temperature, can’t fly, ingest the oil, which causes internal organ damage, and unless cleaned by humans, most birds covered in oil will die. The same thing is true of marine mammals. Because the oil covered the top of the water, marine plants die and the food chain of the ecosystem eventually suffers.
Unfortunately, a large oil spill occurred in the port of Port Arthur, Texas on Saturday when an 800 foot tanker that was going to the Exxon Mobil Corp. refinery in Beaumont and a vessel pushing two barges collided. What resulted was the largest oil spill in Texas in 16 years as 45,000 gallons of oil was spilled along about 9 miles of the Port Arthur shoreline.
Fortunately, there is a bit of good news; if there can be any good news from an accident such as this. No one was injured in the collision. The Coast Guard was quick to respond and deployed 46,000 feet of boom, plastic walls which helps clean up the oil. Assisting the five Coast Guard vessels in the cleanup were 15 oil skimmers, three boom vessels, and officials from the local police and fire departments.
There isn’t much flow in the area where the spill occurred, so that helped keep spreading down. The Coast Guard reported today that about half of the spill had either been contained or had evaporated and the waterway is expected to reopen by Thursday. Experts don’t except a rise in oil prices as the local refiners have enough crude oil to get through this brief shutdown period.
There are two sensitive wildlife areas near the spill, but so far, it seems as if the spill hasn’t affected that much. There was a report of a heron being covered by oil and officials have urged residents to report any other animals affected by the spill.
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