Explore the Full-Screen Story Map Online

NOAA is inviting the public to comment on a draft Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment for projects in Sitka, Alaska. 

The plan aims to compensate the public for the Tug Powhatan oil spill, where the tugboat sank from its dock in Starrigavan Bay resulting in damages to natural resources. 

$3.625 million dollars can do a lot to restore environments impacted by pollution. In Sept. 2018 the Department of Justice finalized a Consent Decree to settle claims relating to the Shell Green Canyon oil spill.  Those funds will go towards implementing restoration projects in the Gulf of Mexico and coastal Louisiana. 

NOAA and co-Trustees restoring resources damaged from a 2000 oil spill at Chalk Point in Maryland have released a Draft Amendment to the 2002 Restoration Plan for public comment.

The U.S. Department of Justice lodged a proposed Consent Decree in federal district court on July 5, 2018, to settle claims of the Trustees (NOAA, U.S. Department of the Interior, and the State of Louisiana) for injuries to natural resources from a 2016 spill releasing an estimated 1,926 barrels of oil from the Shell Green Canyon Block 248 oil production system in the Gulf of Mexico.

This is an excerpt from a monthly series profiling scientists and technicians who provide exemplary contributions to the mission of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R). This month's profile is on Assessment and Restoration Division toxicologist and Alaska Regional Resource Coordinator, Sarah Allan.

NOAA and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation are joining forces to restore habitat damaged from oil spills and hazardous waste releases in California. An initial cooperative agreement between the two organizations includes a recommendation of $1.5 million for restoration with potential for additional funding to support similar projects in other regions over the five-year time period.

It’s been two years since the Deepwater Horizon Trustees settled with BP and began implementing our programmatic plan to restore the Gulf.

The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group approved and released its Final Strategic Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment #3: Restoration of Wetlands, Coastal and Nearshore Habitats in the Barataria Basin, Louisiana (PDF 167 pg).

In January, the Jeff Friend Trail at Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Gulf Shores, Alabama, was re-opened after closing for restoration last fall. The project includes new longer-lasting composite material boardwalks, several new viewing platforms, and easier-to-navigate trail materials.

Oil Spill | Gulf of Mexico off Mississippi River Delta | September 2004

What Happened?

In September of 2004, Taylor Energy’s MC20 oil production platform collapsed and sank in a mudslide during or after Hurricane Ivan. Parts of the platform and piping were buried under the sediments.

The platform was located in the Gulf of Mexico, thirteen miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River.  More than a decade later, crude oil continues to discharge from the well site and surface on the Gulf waters.

What Were the Impacts?

Oil Spill | Sitka, Alaska | April 19, 2017

What Happened?

On April 19, 2017 an out of service tugboat, the Tug Powhatan, owned by Samson Tug & Barge, sank for unknown reasons from its dock in Starrigavan Bay near Sitka, Alaska. After sinking, the tug slid downslope and came to rest approximately 320 yards offshore in 160-180 feet of water.

On May 11, 2016, the U.S. Coast Guard responded to a crude oil spill discharged from a Shell Offshore, Inc. wellhead flow line in the Green Canyon Block 248 subsea oil production system. This system is located approximately 97 miles off south of Timbalier Island, Louisiana. The oil leaked from a piping system used to transport oil from a production well on the seafloor. Shell reported to DOI’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement that the incident resulted in an estimated discharge of 1,926 barrels of oil, or 80,892 gallons, into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

On September 30, 2002, the container ship M/V Everreach spilled approximately 12,500 gallons of oil into the waters of the Cooper River in Charleston, South Carolina.

Oil Spill | Linden, New Jersey | January 1990

What Happened?

On January 1 and 2, 1990, #2 fuel oil spilled from the Exxon Bayway facility’s underwater pipeline in Linden, New Jersey. Approximately 567,000 gallons were released directly into the Arthur Kill, a saltwater channel between New Jersey and Staten Island.

Oil Spill | Calcasieu River, LA | June 2006

What Happened?

On June 19, 2006, over 99,000 barrels of waste oil and millions of gallons of untreated oily wastewater overflowed from storage tanks and discharged into a containment area in CITGO’s Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex. An estimated 54,000 barrels of waste oil and an undetermined amount of oily wastewater flowed out of the containment area and into the Indian Marais, the Calcasieu River, and adjoining waterways in the Calcasieu Estuary.
 

Oil Spill | Patuxent River, Maryland | April 2000

What Happened?

On April 7, 2000, a 12-inch oil pipeline ruptured underground at the Pepco Chalk Point electric generating facility in Aquasco, Maryland. Approximately 140,000 gallons of oil spilled into Swanson Creek, a small tributary of the Patuxent River. The oil moved over containment booms, ultimately affecting approximately 40 linear miles of environmentally sensitive downstream creeks and shorelines along the Patuxent River.

Oil Spill | Jefferson Parish, LA | July 2008

What Happened?

On July 23, 2008, the chemical tanker Tintomara collided with fuel barge DM932 on the Mississippi River, near downtown New Orleans. The Tintomara suffered minor damage, but the DM932 barge split into two sections. Within hours of the spill, NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) was on-scene, providing support for the cleanup and assessment of natural resource damages caused by the 270,000 gallons of spilled fuel oil.

Oil Spill | San Juan, PR | January 7, 1994

What Happened?

On January 7, 1994, the T/B Morris J. Berman—a 302-foot-long barge loaded with 1.5 million gallons of fuel oil—broke away from its tow line and drifted around near San Juan, Puerto Rico. The barge grounded on a nearby coral reef, rupturing seven fuel holding tanks and released approximately 800,000 gallons of fuel oil into nearshore waters.

Oil Spill | Block Island Sound, RI | January 1996

What Happened?

On January 19, 1996, the tank barge, North Cape, and the tugboat, Scandia, grounded off Moonstone Beach in southwestern Rhode Island, spilling an estimated 828,000 gallons of home heating oil. This spill was the worst in Rhode Island history, with oil spreading throughout a broad area of Block Island Sound and beyond, including shoreline of the Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge (NWR).

Oil Spill | Hampden, Maine |

Fuel Spill | Warm Springs Reservation, Oregon | March 1999

What Happened?

On March 4, 1999, an American Transport, Inc. tanker truck jackknifed on State Route 26. The truck spilled 5,388 gallons of unleaded gasoline onto the reservation of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. Most of the spilled fuel flowed overland into Beaver Butte Creek just above its confluence with Beaver Creek, a tributary to the Warm Springs River.

Oil Spill | Unalaska, Alaska | December 8, 2004

Oil Spill | Galveston Bay, TX | March 22, 2014

What Happened?

On March 22, 2014, the 585 foot bulk carrier M/V Summer Wind collided with the oil tank-barge Kirby 27706 in Galveston Bay near Texas City, Texas. The barge spilled approximately 168,000 gallons of intermediate fuel oil into lower Galveston Bay and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico. The majority of the discharged oil stranded on shorelines between Galveston and Matagorda Islands.

Oil Spill | Marshall, MI | July 25, 2010

Oil Spill | Santa Barbara County, California | May 2015

On May 19, 2015, a pipeline owned and operated by Plains All America Pipeline ruptured near Refugio State Beach. Over 100,000 gallons of crude oil were spilled, much of which ran down a storm drain and into a ravine under the freeway, entering the ocean.

Oil Spill | Gulf of Mexico | April 2010

On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion, which killed 11 men, caused the rig to sink and started a catastrophic oil leak from the well. Before it was capped three months later, approximately 134 million gallons of oil had spilled into the Gulf, the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Oil Spill | Gulf of Mexico | November 2005

What Happened?

On November 11, 2005, Tank Barge DBL 152 struck a collapsed pipeline service platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The barge spilled an estimated 1.9 million gallons of a heavy oil mixture. Most of the oil was denser than seawater, causing it to sink to the bottom of the Gulf. 

On April 27, 2003, the tank barge Bouchard 120 hit a bedrock ledge in Buzzards Bay. The impact created a 12-foot rupture in the barge’s hull. An estimated 98,000 gallons of oil spilled into the coastal waters of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

On November 26, 2004, the M/T Athos I hit several submerged objects in the Delaware River while preparing to dock at a refinery in Paulsboro, New Jersey. A nine-ton anchor punctured the vessel’s bottom, releasing nearly 265,000 gallons of crude oil into the Delaware River and nearby tributaries.

On June 10, 1999, a rupture in the Olympic Pipeline discharged approximately 236,000 gallons of gasoline into a tributary of Whatcom Creek. Fumes from the gasoline ignited as it moved down Whatcom Creek, through a city park and residential neighborhoods.

On March 24, 1989 the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of oil. The ecologically sensitive location, season of the year, and large scale of this spill resulted in one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history.

The container ship M/V Cosco Busan struck one of the towers of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on the morning of November 7, 2007. The impact tore a large gash in the hull of the vessel, releasing 53,000 gallons of fuel oil into the water.