{"id":35360,"date":"2014-03-24T10:20:36","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T15:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=35360"},"modified":"2014-03-24T10:20:36","modified_gmt":"2014-03-24T15:20:36","slug":"galveston-bay-spill-will-take-economic-ecological-toll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/03\/24\/galveston-bay-spill-will-take-economic-ecological-toll\/","title":{"rendered":"Galveston Bay Spill Will Take Economic, Ecological Toll"},"content":{"rendered":"
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REUTERS \/US COAST GUARD \/LANDOV<\/p>

A barge loaded with marine fuel oil sits partially submerged in the Houston Ship Channel in this U.S. Coast Guard picture taken March 22, 2014. The barge leaked oil into the Houston Ship Channel after colliding with another ship near Texas City on Saturday and emergency responders laid down floating barriers to contain the spill, U.S. Coast Guard officials said. <\/p><\/div>\n

From the Texas Tribune:<\/em><\/a><\/h4>\n

With no end in sight to containing a spill that may have dumped 150,000 gallons of fuel oil into Galveston Bay on Saturday, the hit to Texas\u2019 economy and environment is already huge \u2014 and sure to grow.<\/p>\n

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The 50-mile Houston Ship Channel, one of the world\u2019s biggest waterways for the transport of petroleum products, chemicals and other materials, remains shut down. Cruise ships can\u2019t depart from key ports. Galveston Bay\u2019s multibillion-dollar<\/a> recreational and commercial fishing industry is off limits during a peak tourist season. And the scores of vulnerable species in Galveston Bay, most notably birds that are soon to begin their northward migration along the upper Texas coast, are at grave risk.<\/p>\n

The type of oil that spilled \u2014\u00a0a marine fuel oil known as RMG 380 \u2014\u00a0is black, sticky and particularly heavy. That means that instead of evaporating from the surface of the water like gasoline would, much of it will sink, persisting in the environment for months or even years<\/a>. While this heavier oil is not acutely toxic, it can smother wildlife, to devastating effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuel oil is not easy to clean off anything,\u201d said Jim Suydam, a spokesman for the General Land Office, the state agency that is leading the response and cleanup efforts in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard. \u201cIt sticks to things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coast Guard Lt. Kristopher Kidd said Sunday that it still isn\u2019t clear how much oil spilled into the bay when a 585-foot bulk carrier collided with an oil barge on Saturday. The barge was holding close to 1 million gallons of oil, but Kidd said only one tank with a capacity of 168,000 gallons was affected. That tank \u201cdidn\u2019t completely empty,\u201d he said, but a substantial portion of it probably did. The oil barge has been removed, but there is no easy way to contain the spill, and efforts have been further hampered by strong winds.<\/p>\n

The most recent oil spill of a comparable size off the coast of Texas occurred in 2010, when close to a half-million gallons of oil ended up in the Port Arthur Ship Channel. The waterway was closed for several days, a big blow to oil refineries and other operations in the port.\u00a0(The 2010 BP oil spill, while far larger in scope, had less effect on the bay, Suydam said \u2014 though Texas beaches took a bigger hit, and some are still recovering.)<\/p>\n

Even though more oil was involved in the 2010 Port Arthur incident than Saturday’s spill, experts say the current situation in Galveston Bay will create much bigger problems. The Port Arthur spill<\/a> was confined to that ship channel; this one occurred in open water.<\/p>\n

Scott Hickman, who has been chartering boats in Galveston Bay for decades, said slicks are clearly visible from shore, and the smell of oil is strong. His boat-chartering business is poised to lose thousands of dollars a day, he said \u2014 during spring break no less \u2014 because operations are shut down as containment efforts continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really, really the worst stuff you can dump in the water,” he said.<\/p>\n

Suydam added that Galveston Bay is an ecologically sensitive area<\/a>, which was far less true of the Sabine-Neches waterway where the Port Arthur spill occurred. Migratory birds such as the loon will begin their northward flight this month and are sure to be affected by the sticky oil slicks. In their case, Suydam said, even a few barrels of oil could have had a major impact.<\/p>\n

Galveston Bay and its environs are also home to thousands of other species of shorebirds that will get coated when they dive for fish.\u00a0Tom Harvey, a spokesman for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said birds covered in sticky black oil have already been recovered in Galveston’s East Beach area, which faces the ship channel.<\/p>\n

The economic impact of this spill is also likely to exceed that of the 2010 spill. The Houston Ship Channel is a significant financial engine and a large reason Texas is the top exporting state in the nation; its exports now exceed New York City’s. The state\u2019s ongoing oil and gas boom has boosted the channel’s importance even more, with refineries along it working furiously to process crude oil so it can be shipped elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suydam said the spill has “already\u00a0had an economic impact as far as industrial activities.” But he expressed optimism about the cleanup operation, saying Texas is in a good position to respond to the spill.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve got the most robust response capacity in the United States,” he said.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Texas Parks and Wildlife was a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune in 2011 and 2012, BP America was a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune in 2011 and 2012, and BP Corporation North America was a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune in 2010.\u00a0<\/i>(You can also review the full list of Tribune<\/i>\u00a0donors<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0sponsors<\/a>\u00a0below $1,000.)\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune<\/a> at http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2014\/03\/24\/galveston-bay-spill-has-huge-economic-ecological-t\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Texas Tribune: With no end in sight to containing a spill that may have dumped 150,000 gallons of fuel oil into Galveston Bay on Saturday, the hit to Texas\u2019 economy and environment is already huge \u2014 and sure to grow. The 50-mile Houston Ship Channel, one of the world\u2019s biggest waterways for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[52,137,21],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35360"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35362,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35360\/revisions\/35362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}