A contractor is cleaning up about 11,500 gallons of oil that overflowed from a tank being filled in south Louisiana, the Coast Guard says.
The Associated Press reports Lt. j.g. Lisa Siebert says much of the oil was on the ground rather than nearby Bayou Teche, so the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took over the investigation and cleanup supervision.
A stretch of the 135-mile-long waterway remained closed to commercial traffic, Siebert says. Investigators don’t know how much oil got into the water.
The company’s Houston headquarters did not immediately return a call for comment today.
State police say a shelter-in-place advisory for nearby residents was lifted at about 8 a.m. today. Trooper Brooks David says in an email that he did not know how many families were affected.
Siebert says the spill apparently happened because an alarm failed to signal that the tank was too full as it was being filled Monday, and an open valve let oil flow out of an overflow tank.
A Coast Guard statement late Monday said crews have deployed more than 200 yards of boom on the bayou.
