An aerial photo from Monday, July 29, 2024, shows the oil slick from a crude spill into Bayou Lafourche from two days earlier. (Photo courtesy Lafourche Parish Gov’t)
A valve that should have stopped a storage tank from leaking more than 34,000 gallons of crude oil into Bayou Lafourche was accidentally left open in what a company spokesman is calling “operator error.”
Initial details on the cause of the spill came Wednesday from state Rep. Joe Orgeron, R-Cut Off, ahead of a pending federal investigation His House district includes the Crescent Midstream crude oil facility in Raceland, where the oil seeped through a containment dike, flowed into a stormwater canal and then into the bayou.
The valve in question allows water to be separated from oil placed into storage tanks at the Raceland facility. That water is typically stored separately and then later disposed off site. Because the valve wasn’t closed when oil was being piped in, the crude spilled onto the property and found its way through the dike.
“Our initial investigation indicates that operator error contributed to the spill on Saturday inside the Crescent Midstream pump station in Raceland,” company spokesman Mike Smith told the Illuminator.
An investigator with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, is expected to be in Lafourche Parish soon, and the agency will conclude with an official cause of the spill.
Lafourche Parish President Archie Chaisson said about half of the 34,000 gallons of oil spilled made it into the bayou.
Bayou Lafourche provides drinking water for Lafourche, Terrebonne, Assumption and parts of Ascension parishes, which are home to more than 300,000 people. An advisory for all of Lafourche Parish to conserve water was lifted Wednesday as cleanup continues on the section of the bayou where oil sullied the banks and threatened wildlife in the water.
“Concern over the water supply is, for the most part, finished,” Orgeron said in a phone interview. “That’s the update I received.”
An oil-covered alligator was pulled from the water Tuesday and taken to a rehabilitation center for cleaning and care.
Local officials also reported a fish kill in the area but haven’t formally attributed it to the oil spill. A lack of oxygen in the water might also have caused the fish to die.
Containment booms, skimmers and vacuum trucks continue to pull oil out of the bayou, and crews wash the crude from vegetation on the banks.
Orgeron said mitigation efforts will not require the use of chemical dispersants, which are not permitted for use in inland waters. With the spill relatively contained to a bayou, the booms and skimmers have been sufficient, he said.
Chaisson said the initial phase of the cleanup will last another week, and the project will then enter maintenance mode for as long as the presence of oil persists.
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