Continuing Oil Leak Investigated

Citing the public's right to know why an oil rig 11 miles off the coast of Louisiana, USA, has been leaking oil for seven years, a coalition of watchdog and environmental groups has filed a lawsuit against Taylor Energy Company LLC. 

 

The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court  by the Waterkeeper Alliance and several Gulf Coast Waterkeeper organisations, aims to halt the spill and to make public the facts of the company's seven-year response and recovery operation. The lawsuit claims that the damaged operation has been leaking several hundred gallons per day into the Gulf of Mexico.

 

The spill is one of several identified in a new Gulf monitoring report released on 2^nd February 2012 by watchdog groups including SkyTruth, SouthWings, Lower Mississippi Riverkeepers and the Waterkeepers Alliance.

 

Part of the evidence presented in the course of the lawsuit will come from satellite images, research by SkyTruth and aerial observations by SouthWings.

 

The Waterkeeper Alliance and its local Waterkeeper organisations say the spill started after an undersea landslide in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan in 2004. An offshore platform and 28 wells were damaged and, since then, Taylor has yet to stop the daily flow of oil from the site.

 

A report released this week by the Gulf Monitoring Consortium, a partnership between Waterkeeper Alliance, SkyTruth, and SouthWings, investigates several spills in the Gulf (including the Taylor Spill) and highlights numerous deficiencies in the reporting and response process.