{"id":35364,"date":"2014-03-24T16:24:04","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T21:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=35364"},"modified":"2014-03-26T15:36:36","modified_gmt":"2014-03-26T20:36:36","slug":"texas-still-learning-when-it-comes-to-oil-spill-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/03\/24\/texas-still-learning-when-it-comes-to-oil-spill-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Still Learning When It Comes to Oil Spill Response"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_35369\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Responders load hundreds of feet of boom onto vessels at the Texas City Dike in this U.S. Coast Guard handout photo taken March 23, 2014. More than 35,000 feet of boom has been deployed in response to an oil spill that occurred Saturday afternoon after a bulk carrier and a barge collided in the Houston Ship Channel, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/03\/10236181_H28286179.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-35369\" alt=\"Responders load hundreds of feet of boom onto vessels at the Texas City Dike in this U.S. Coast Guard handout photo taken March 23, 2014. More than 35,000 feet of boom has been deployed in response to an oil spill that occurred Saturday afternoon after a bulk carrier and a barge collided in the Houston Ship Channel, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/03\/10236181_H28286179-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/03\/10236181_H28286179-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/03\/10236181_H28286179-620x413.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">REUTERS \/US COAST GUARD \/LANDOV<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Responders load hundreds of feet of boom onto vessels at the Texas City Dike in this U.S. Coast Guard photo taken March 23, 2014. <\/p><\/div>\n<p>Two dozen boats and over 500 people are now involved in the response to an <a href=\"http:\/\/kxan.com\/2014\/03\/23\/galveston-bay-oil-spill-threatens-bird-migration\/\">oil spill<\/a> from Saturday that closed the Houston Ship Channel.<\/p>\n<p>What spilled was a heavy fuel oil, called bunker fuel, which was carried in a barge that collided with a ship. Up to 168,000 gallons were dumped into the channel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast ten years, I haven\u2019t seen a spill like this,&#8221; says\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.harteresearchinstitute.org\/dr-larry-mckinney\">Larry McKinney<\/a>, the head of a Gulf research institute at Texas A&amp;M Corpus Christi. &#8220;Before that, we\u2019d see them, seems like, every other year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>McKinney knows a thing or two about the devastation of oil spills, having headed up natural resource protection for the State of Texas and working on spill prevention and response for decades.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese spills here in Galveston are becoming less frequent. That\u2019s the good thing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/141244526&amp;color=13b0bc&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_artwork=true\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A decade or two ago, McKinney says spills were more common and the state was less prepared. And now when spills do happen, there is more equipment stored along the coast, thanks to funding from a state fee on oil.<\/p>\n<p>McKinney says it makes Texas the best state in the Gulf when it comes to a fast response. But what he says hasn\u2019t improved is what to do about oil if it does reach delicate wetlands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re any better prepared now to deal with clean up,&#8221; McKinney says. &#8220;What I\u2019m afraid we\u2019ll see, [and] I hope that we don\u2019t see it, if there&#8217;s oil that reaches into wetlands and marshes, I hope we don\u2019t see a bunch a people out there with big white pads in the marshes trying to pat the oil up. They will do far more damage that just leaving the oil.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, he says bacteria and microbes eat up the oil.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s onshore, what about the oil that may remain out in the Gulf?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d be concerned with heavy bunker fuel, it might contain quite a bit of toxic material to it,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.harteresearchinstitute.org\/dr-paul-montagna\">Paul Montagna<\/a>, also with Texas A&amp;M Corpus Christi, says.<\/p>\n<p>Montagna studied the crude oil that spewed from the 2010 <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill\">Deepwater Horizon<\/a> drilling rig blowout.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was something that was unexpected &#8212; oil floats, so everybody expected the oil to come to the surface and not impact the deep sea,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we found the opposite was happening. \u201c<\/p>\n<p>Some of the oil sank to the bottom of the Gulf where, according to Montagna, it killed off sea creatures and organisms that live thousands of feet below the surface.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why he and other scientists say that while spills may have been polluting the Gulf for decades, there is still much to learn about how best to clean them up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two dozen boats and over 500 people are now involved in the response to an oil spill from Saturday that closed the Houston Ship Channel. What spilled was a heavy fuel oil, called bunker fuel, which was carried in a barge that collided with a ship. Up to 168,000 gallons were dumped into the channel. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[52],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35364"}],"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\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35364"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35511,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35364\/revisions\/35511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}