Progress at the Texas City “Y” Oil Spill in Galveston Bay

The March 22 vessel collision in Galveston Bay (see Kirby Barge Oil Spill, Houston/Texas City Ship Channel, Port Bolivar, Texas) that resulted in an oil spill of approximately 168,000 gallons caused the closure of the heavily trafficked Port of Houston for 3 days. The Houston Ship Channel is now open to all marine traffic. There is a safety zone in effect in cleanup areas.

The Unified Command has approved the use of unpaid volunteers to conduct 26 miles of shoreline assessments.  There are approximately 150 volunteers that started conducting surveys on Friday, March 28.   The volunteers were trained by U.S. Coast Guard instructors how to identify different types of oil and wildlife using reporting tools developed by OR&R’s Emergency Response Division.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, “Wildlife responders currently include experts from U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and are responding with rehabilitation, husbandry and stabilization trailers staged along the Texas City Dike, Bolivar Peninsula and the Phoenix Pollution Control Facility. As of March 27, responders had found 45 birds that were dead on arrival to the stabilization trailers, and they were currently rehabilitating 12 birds.”

Following the spill, NOAA provided trajectory forecasts of the floating oil movement and overflight tracking of the oil to the U.S. Coast Guard. NOAA continues to provide shoreline assessment, information management, and weather forecasts. Shoreline assessment is a systematic way of assessing shorelines for their degree of contamination and prioritizing them for cleanup.

Marine mammal and turtle stranding personnel, NOAA Weather Service and additional NOAA personnel are working on-scene. Natural resource damage assessment personnel are at Galveston Bay and are initiating preassessment activities. The preassessment period is an on-scene evaluation of the type of oil, where it has gone, where it may be going and what resources are or may be at risk.

See March 27 U.S. Coast Guard news release.