Texas City Dike Oil Spill Response Efforts

TEXAS CITY — Cleanup continues along the southern shores of the Texas City Dike after a weekend oil spill that sent about 2,500 gallons of fuel oil into the water.

While most of the oil that spilled from a Buffalo Marine Service barge Friday night had been removed from the water, crews have yet to get all of the oil off the rocks that line the first mile of the dike where much of the oil washed up.

Crews now will use power washers to get the bunker oil off the rocks, Texas City Homeland Security Director Bruce Clawson said.

"We wanted a process that did not involve the use of any chemicals, including any dispersants, and this was the best route," Clawson said after meeting with U.S. Coast Guard, state land office and environmental officials Monday afternoon. The hydroblasting of the rocks will take about three days, Clawson said.

Even when that work is done, Garner Environmental, the company hired to manage the cleanup, will maintain an oil boom off the shore of the dike to capture any residual oil. That boom should be in place for about two weeks, Clawson said.

At the Port of Texas City, oil adsorbents were put in the water to capture any remaining oil, said Henry de La Garza, the spokesman for the Coast Guard's incident unified command.

Also, the oil booms placed in the water during the weekend have been removed with fresh "clean boom."

The spill happened at Dock 34 of the Port of Texas City about 5:30 p.m. Friday. Crews loading Bunker Oil No. 6 from BP to the Buffalo Marine barge over-filled the tanks and let about 50 barrels of the oil spill into the Texas City Ship Channel.

The Port of Texas City and the Texas City Dike were closed Friday night and through the morning Saturday while cleanup crews responded.

The Coast Guard named Buffalo Marine the responsible party for the spill. The company, which has yet respond to Daily News questions about the spill, is responsible for paying for the cleanup.

Part of that cleanup will be of a shrimp boat that was docked at the Boyd's One Stop pier on the dike. The lower part of its hull was covered in oil.

Thus far, there have been no reports of any fish kills or birds covered in oil from the spill, Clawson said.

Officials were concerned about a pelican that remained perched on a piling from a wrecked pier that was in the middle of the oil slick Saturday.

"At first, we thought there was a possibility that (the bird) had gotten into the oil," Clawson said.

But someone who was assigned to keep an eye on the pelican during the weekend decided the bird was not harmed and was "just an elderly pelican that eventually flew off," Clawson said.

source:glavestondailynews
video source: http://www.theindustryconnection.com
Kerry Liles

Category:

Education

Tags:

• texas
• city
• oil
• spill
• emergency
• response