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9/19/2024
WT Staff
 Water comments, questions or concerns? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email us at info@wtla.us
September 19, 2024 1043 pm CDT
NTSB INVESTIGATION UPDATE: MPOG GULF OIL SPILL
A leak from the Main Pass Oil Gathering Pipeline on November 15, 2023 spewed a million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico 80 km south of New Orleans - here is what we know today
Unified Command under US Coast Guard Heartland led the emergency response teams called to a massive oil slick spreading in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast near Plaquemines Parish in November last year. The incident was titled "MPOG Incident 11015" referring to the Main Pass Oil Gathering Pipeline carrying crude oil from seven working oil production platforms in the Gulf. When pipeline operators registered a loss of pressure in on November 15, 2023, the offshore oil rigs went into emergency shut down, cutting off transmission of oil through sixty-seven miles of pipeline. The contents of the pipe leaking into the Gulf estimated at 1.1 million gallons as of the November 20, 2023 statement to the press.
Unified Command announced the end of the operational investigation into the source of the pipeline leak in April 2024. See the FINAL UPDATE: Unified Command completes successful integrity test of MPOG pipeline, press release here. A subsea connector was found unable to hold pressure. This component was carefully replaced under the watchful presence of emergency response vessels, Coast Guard and state authorities.
The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the cause of the incident. According to NTSB spokesperson Keith Holloway, "The primary goal for NTSB investigations is to determine what happened, how it happened and to how to prevent it from happening again."
There is no date set for the final report, Holloway says a typical NTSB investigation can take 12 -24 months to complete. The Investigation Details briefing statement for Third Coast Infrastructure LLC Crude Oil Release is available here.
Once the investigation is concluded, should the findings indicate as such, NTSB may issue safety recommendations. More to follow here as this investigation continues.
New Orleans drinking water is sourced from surface water from the Mississippi River. Spills of contaminants into the drinking water sources challenge water facilities to treat contaminated water to US EPA Safe Drinking Water Act and State of Louisiana water quality standards. Understanding the impact of toxics spills and working to prevent pollution is part of our regular coverage here.
See the latest Safe Drinking Water Act compliance stats for Louisiana here, including the US EPA list of serious violators.
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