Oil spills caused by Hurricane Gustav "plague" Louisiana

One of the major stories about the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav has been how it shut down the offshore oil industry to the point that many gas station around the Southeast have been hit with extreme shortages. The New York Times reported today that Southern drivers could continue to face long lines, high prices and widespread station closings until mid-October.

But getting far less ink is the fact that Gustav destroyed rigs (see photo) and spilled oil, too. In fact, more than 30 oil spills "ranging from simple sheens to 8,000 gallons plagued   Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav," the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today.

The size of the spill doesn't necessarily determine the amount of damage done to the environment. One spill, which occurred about 25 miles northwest of Breton National Wildlife Refuge, dumped "only 20 barrels -- small in relation to most spills -- yet it oiled about 20 brown pelicans, 10 severely," FWS officials said.

This is, of course, not nearly as bad as the spills caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Those two hurricanes destroyed 117 platforms that either became unmoored or fell into the sea, causing  a total of just over 741,000 gallons of oil to spill on the outercontinental shelf -- mostly because of pipelines that tore free from collapsing rigs.

[Photo of platform damaged by Gustav from FWS]

--Craig Pittman

Comments

[paminator]

"The size of the spill doesn't necessarily determine the amount of damage done to the environment."

What nonsense.

[amber.l,largo.10th grade.]

Paminator,
well the size may not mater but that does not change the fact that it caused damage.gas should not be used for the fact that this kind of thing could anytime.
spills like this are bad no matter how you look at them.if the economy would use better sources than gas and oil than this may not have happened.

[paminator]

amber.l, largo.10th grade-

It is great to see students participating in the discussions here. I emphatically encourage you to continue.

If you wish your comments to convey your thoughts as clearly as possible, please proof-read before posting. Your comment is full of grammatical and spelling errors.

[Erica]

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