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The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill has become the defining image of the environmental risks associated with offshore oil drilling. However, far from the television cameras and public outrage, a lesser known oil spill is currently occurring and could potentially be the only one. one of the worst in the history of the United States.
The "Taylor leak" resulted in an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico about 16 kilometers off the coast of Louisiana in 2004, after Hurricane Ivan caused a huge underwater landslide. Some 14 years later, with only nine of the 25 wells leaking clogged, hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil are still being dumped into the Gulf each day.
Oil quantities are still controversial and secret, but most estimates suggest that this will be one of the worst offshore disasters in US history, as reported by the Washington Post.
A large survey by the Associated press (AP) in 2015 found that the oil spill was much worse – more than 20 times worse in terms of amount of oil – than that initially reported by Taylor Energy. A recent report of the AP said that a court file submitted by federal government lawyers suggests that between 37,000 and 113,000 liters of oil will flow daily from several wells around a drilling rig. . Federal lawyers quote a report written by a scientist who studied satellite images of the area and collected oil samples from the site.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill spilled 134 million liters of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 87 days. As a direct result of oil contamination, NOAA scientists concluded that Deepwater Horizon killed thousands of marine mammals and sea turtles, as well as contaminating their habitats.
"Taylor's escape is just a great example of what I call a dirty little secret in plain sight," said John Amos, president of SkyTruth, an environmental monitoring group that monitors groundwater. of oil by satellite. AP in 2015.
Remarkably, the public was only made aware of the leak in 2010, when investigators investigating the Deepwater Horizon spill had noticed a strange oil spill on satellite images of the area. Even after his discovery, they minimized the extent of the spill and claimed that the photos of the leak were misleading.
Taylor Energy is now gone. Four years after the death of the company's founder in 2004, the company agreed to sell all of its energy assets to Samsung C & T Corporations and Korea National Oil Corporation. A $ 666-million trust was created to pay for the leak response work. However, there is currently a legal dispute over the remaining $ 423 million, which has not been spent.
Meanwhile, the oil continues to flow.
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