An oil spill was discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, south of the US state of Louisiana, where Hurricane Ida caused severe damage. Divers are now searching below the surface for the source.
The US Coast Guard has sent personnel to clean up a large slick of oil and gas under the sea floor.
The dump was located at a location three kilometers offshore from Port Fortune, south of New Orleans in Louisiana, according to Al Jazeera. The leak is still going on.
A Coast Guard spokesman said on Saturday that demarcation measures have been put in place to prevent oil from spreading over larger areas. There are also ships on site to clean the oil. So far, they have raised a modest 160 liters.
Companies refuse
A Coast Guard spokesperson says the discharge consists of crude oil and comes from the Marchand Bay oil pipeline in the Port Fortune region. Management should belong to Talos Energy. They, in turn, helped remove pollution — although they do not consider themselves responsible for the spilled oil, according to the AP news agency.
Divers are working to identify the exact source of the leak.
The magnitude of the emissions was also not made clear. The Associated Press analyzed satellite images and saw that the oil moved 19 kilometers east along the coast, but did not reach the ground.
The ongoing release is one of the many environmental threats caused by Hurricane Ida, which authorities are currently working to address.
More leaks
Earlier this week, the US Environmental Protection Agency dispatched aircraft and detected emissions from a refinery in the area.
It’s been a week since Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana, a Category 4 hurricane classified as one of the strongest the coastal region has ever seen.
Eleven years ago, the largest oil spill in US history occurred outside New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico, when an explosion occurred at the Deep Water Horizon oil platform, which then sank.
Then large quantities of oil spilled into the sea.
In April 2010, one of the largest oil spills in US history occurred, after an explosion at the Deep Water Horizon oil platform off New Orleans.
Eleven oil workers were killed in the explosion on April 20, 2010. A few days later, the oil rig sank. BP, which leased the platform, ends up focusing on the disaster.
For several months, attempts were made to seal the leak with a cap dedicated to trapping oil, which repeatedly failed.
For several months, the figure was written for the number of barrels of oil spilling from a well onto the sea floor. On June 20, BP’s internal documents revealed that it could be 100,000 barrels per day.
A US court has sentenced BP to gross negligence, and to pay billions of dollars in fines.
More Stories
This is how much the President and Vice President of the United States earn
Melania on Donald Trump: “He is not Hitler” | the world
Major attack on Gaza – hospitals appeal for help