14-year Taylor Energy oil leak could prove larger than BP spill, new research says
A toppled oil platform that has been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico for more than 14 years may have released much more oil than recent estimates have indicated, possibly pushing the total volume well beyond BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.
New research indicates 2,100 to 71,400 gallons of oil are escaping each day from the Taylor Energy platform site, about 10 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River. The high estimate of 71,400 gallons per day is more than two times larger than the highest potential rate cited by the Coast Guard when it ordered Taylor to fix the problem late last year.
At the higher rate, and added up over the past 14 years and four months, the Taylor leak could top the 2010 BP disaster by more than 241 million gallons, potentially making it one of the largest – and slowest – oil disasters in history.
University of South Florida marine scientist Shaojie Sun presented the new oil release estimates at the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Conference in New Orleans last week. He stressed that his estimated range is extremely wide. While the total Taylor Energy release could soar as high 375 million gallons, it may also be as low as 11 million gallons.
Either way, the Taylor site has been an unchecked and overlooked problem for far too long, said Ian MacDonald, an oil spill expert and oceanographer at Florida State University.
“There is a significant oil flow from that site,” he said. “It doesn’t vanish into the ether with no impact.”
Read more: https://www.nola.com/environment/2019/02/14-year-taylor-energy-oil-leak-could-be-two-times-larger-than-bp-spill-new-research-says.html
Site of the Taylor Energy platform
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A 14-Year-Long Oil Spill Nobody Talks About Could Become One Of The Worst In US History
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