CLEAR LAKE, Texas – On Monday, crude oil and saltwater leaked out of a Denbury tank—which is an ExxonMobil subsidiary—that had lost power, seeping into the Horsepen Bayou in Clear Lake.
KPRC 2′s Daji Aswad traveled to Sylvan Rodriguez Park where crews have been cleaning up since the spill. She spoke with Bob Cavnar, an oil industry expert, about the equipment being used and how effective it is in cleaning the water.
Cavnar said that a power outage could be a sign of a leak into local waterways.
“Most of these saltwater disposal facilities have float systems where pumps go on and off according to how high the tank is,” Cavnar said. “If there’s a power failure, even though the float gets to the point where the motor should turn on with no power, it won’t turn on.”
The EPA reported that they estimate 10-15 barrels worth of crude oil, and 2,000 barrels of salt water contaminated the bayou. As of Tuesday, they estimated that 1-2 barrels of crude oil remained in the bayou.
“That amount of crude is a pretty small amount, when it comes to oil spills,” Cavnar said.
The scene around the area currently includes trucks, a bright orange barrier, hoses and workers putting a liquid into the bayou. Even though they’ve made progress, more labor is still needed to finish cleaning the area as much as possible.
“It’s really hard,” Cavnar said. “It’s never 100-percent [oil free], because you’ll get something absorbs when it goes into the water. Where it gets sticky is on the shore where there’s grass, mud, those kinds of things where it’s hard to recover. And that’s just going to take evaporation and degradation of the crude before it goes away.”
ExxonMobil does not anticipate that this situation will have a lasting impact on the Clear Lake environment. They said the oil is being contained quickly, but they will continue to monitor the situation in the future.
“We expect to complete the clean-up soon and will continue to monitor the area,” a statement from the company read. “Our priority remains the safety of the surrounding community and environment.”