April 22, 2010

UPDATE

Burning Oil Rig Sinks into the Gulf of Mexico
UPDATE: The offshore oil rig that suffered an explosion on Tuesday has sunk into the Gulf of Mexico.  11 workers are still missing.  Prior to sinking the oil rig was spilling 13,000 gallons of oil, most of which was being burned off in the fire.  Now that the oil rig has sunk it seems that the oil is now spilling into the gulf.  Read more here:
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/burning_oil_rig_sinks.html

April 21, 2010 For Immediate Release

Contact: Anne Rolfes, Founding Director, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, (504) 452 - 4909

Another Accident Rocks the Oil Industry

Workers Still Missing

Rig May Topple into the Gulf

(New Orleans) A rig known as Deepwater Horizon, operating approximately 41 miles offshore from Louisiana, caught fire on Tuesday night, putting workers lives in danger and posing a potential environmental catastrophe. News reports confirm that 126 people were on the rig at the time. Accounts vary, however, as to the number of workers still missing. “The oil industry in this state is not as careful as it could be or should be,” said Anne Rolfes, Founding Director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. “Peoples lives are at stake and the industry needs reform.”

The rig belongs to a company called Transocean and was operating for BP. The fire broke out at 10 PM on Tuesday night and was so big that rescue efforts by the Coast Guard were hampered. Reports indicate that the rig may tip over into the Gulf of Mexico at any moment. The accident calls into question President Obama’s newly announced policy that opened new regions of the U.S. coastline to drilling.

This accident is the fourth petrochemical industry accident in 15 days and is the most serious in a string of problems that the industry has had this month. Among the most significant problems:

April 6^th – An oil spill in the Delta Wildlife Refuge resulted in the spilling of at least 18,000 gallons of oil over a 160 square mile area.

April 13^th - A pipe rupture at Dow’s Hexion Chemical released titanium tetrachloride and caused the closure of schools in St. Charles Parish. Workers on the scene reported that Dow did not have a “Level A” emergency response team and had to borrow a crew from Shell.

April 14^th – Three workers were injured at ExxonMobil in Baton Rouge. The cause of this fire has yet to be made public. This lack of information is typical of this refinery, the second largest in the nation.

“These accidents are part of a scary trend in the industry here in Louisiana,” continued Ms. Rolfes. Refinery reports to the Department of Environmental Quality from 2005 – 2008 detailed that ten of Louisiana’s largest refineries reported 2,116 accidents during the four year period, an average of 10 per week. These accidents resulted in the release of 15.6 million pounds and 21.8 million gallons of pollutants near schools and in neighborhoods. This information can be found at www.labucketbrigade.org

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The Louisiana Bucket Brigade is an environmental health and justice organization supporting neighborhoods’ use of grassroots action to create informed, sustainable communities free from industrial pollution.

Read More:

Oil Spill Could Harm Wildlife in Gulf

Watchdog: Rig fire, spill- time for oil industry to pause

Images of the Deepwater Horizon from The Washington Post

NOAA chart of oil spill locations

GRN view from above- images and blog from a fly over by GRN Campaign Director, Aaron Viles.