Owner Of Oil Well Leaking 29K Gallons/Day Since 2004 Claims Cleanup Too Costly: Loses Lawsuit

[hatrack]

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U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed a U.S. District Court judge’s ruling in August that Belle Chasse marine contractor Couvillion Group has legal immunity while performing work ordered by the federal government. Taylor is also suing the U.S. Coast Guard over its order to halt what had become one of the largest and longest-running oil disasters in U.S. history.

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After Taylor challenged the 2018 order to fix the leak, the Coast Guard hired Couvillion to do the job. Since April 2019, Couvillion has collected and recycled more than 770,000 gallons of oil. That’s equal to about seven oil spills the Coast Guard would define as "disasters of national significance." While managing a round-the-clock oil catchment system about 10 miles off the Louisiana coast, Couvillion President Timmy Couvillion was also fighting an expensive legal battle with Taylor. This week’s appeals court ruling appears to end that fight.

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An oily sheen appears on the water's surface just before the Couvillion Group installed an underwater oil containment system at the site of the damaged Taylor Energy drilling platform.

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The company’s platform, known as MC-20 Saratoga, was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The storm triggered an underwater mudslide that snapped the 550-foot-tall platform’s legs and buried a cluster of wells. Taylor plugged some of the wells and installed three containment domes.

Several environmental groups had for years disputed Taylor’s claim that its containment effort had limited pollution to just a trickle. Oily sheens were regularly seen stretching for several miles on the water’s surface near the site. The Coast Guard was spurred to take action after a government study estimated the site was releasing up to 29,000 gallons of oil per day. Couvillion designed and installed a containment system that latched on to the toppled platform. The oil is captured and then hauled back to shore, where it is processed and sold at a discounted rate.

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https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_bdf656ac-da8a-11eb-8d8b-6bbfbf63b648.html

[Phoenix61]

1. Most people have no idea how many abandoned wells

are scattered around the Gulf of Mexico. Many start off owned by large companies and as they become less profitable are sold off to smaller companies which don’t have the resource to deal with catastrophic failures.

[Firestorm49]

2. Gulf shrimp seems to have lost its appeal.