Pipeline Spill Contained in Mississippi Delta Bayou

Cleanup crews are responding to an oil spill from a pipeline in Cox Bay, Louisiana, near Port Sulphur on the Mississippi River Delta.

Watchstanders from Coast Guard Sector New Orleans received a report from the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office at about 0900 hours of an oil discharge in Cox Bay. The owner of the flowline, Time Energy, reports that the source of the leak has been secured. An incident management team from Coast Guard Sector New Orleans visited the site Thursday to begin coordinating the response.  

Time has contracted OMI Environmental Solutions for a spill response, and the cleanup crews have deployed about 300 feet of spill boom around the affected area. 

A Coast Guard aerial survey determined that the site had an unrecoverable sheen about 200 yards long extending from the marsh surrounding the discharge source. An area of the marsh of about 200 feet by 600 feet has been soiled by oil, but no wildlife impacts have been reported. 

Time Energy is working with the Coast Guard and state agencies to mitigate environmental damage. The cause of the incident is under investigation.

Small-scale spills and natural oil seeps are routine in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which consults on some but not all reportable spill events, responds to as many as 40 incidents or more in a given year in the Gulf region.