The United States Coast Guard is investigating about 90 reports of oil and chemical releases related to Hurricane Isaac, including a leak from an abandoned oil and gas industry storage facility in Plaquemines Parish that killed brown pelicans, officials said Tuesday, as the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries closed the coastline from Elmer’s Island to Belle Pass due to a carcinogenic tar mat in the Gulf of Mexico and tar balls washing ashore.
The Coast Guard is investigating some 90 reports of oil and chemical releases since Hurricane Isaac churned the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana waterways. One oil and chemical leak is from a closed storage facility in Plaquemines Parish that killed several brown pelicans, officials said Tuesday.
A tar mat in the Gulf and tar balls washing ashore have prompted the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries to close a stretch of coastline from Elmer’s Island to Belle Pass.
Vice Adm. Robert Papp Jr. held a press conference at Coast Guard Sector New Orleans’s headquarters in Algiers where it was reported that the Coast Guard says hurricanes typically causes new oil spills and stirs oil resting the seabed.
“It often happens, particularly down here in the Gulf area,” said Papp.
The White House nominated Papp to succeed Adm. Thad Allen as commandant of the Coast Guard.
There was no mention in the press conference news releases about the Navy Five Year Weapon Testing Plan, including plans to kill sea life and to dump more chemical weapons into on of the largest bodies of water in the world, the Gulf of Mexico.
A major conference about the growing Gulf Dead Zone, including the suffocating stench of fish kills a year ago, also omitted the Navy Five-Year Weapons Testing program in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Gulf coast closure affects commercial and recreational fisheries from the Gulf’s shore to one mile offshore, according to the Times Picayune.
Fish kills are also being reported in southern Louisiana parishes, including Assumption Parish where toxins from oil and gas are contaminating the area.
Some Louisiana officials are blaming leaf and tree debris for the fish kills.
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