Nearly 840 gallons of ‘oily water’ collected from Tabbs Bay after crude oil spill over the weekend

Hundreds of gallons of crude oil spilled in Tabbs Bay near Baytown on Jan. 2, 2020. The U.S. Coast Guard is working to clean up the spill Monday. (Gil Gredinger / KPRC)

HOUSTON – The U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies are cleaning up a crude oil spill in Tabbs Bay near Baytown Monday.

“An estimate of 630 gallons of crude oil has been discharged from an out-of-service wellhead,” Coast Guard officials wrote in a press release Monday. “One mile of shoreline is impacted and approximately 840 gallons of oily water has been collected.”

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Over 6,400-feet of boom was deployed in three stages to contain the spill, officials say. Vacuum trucks and a floating drum skimmer were also on-scene Monday to collect and recover discharged crude oil and prevent impact to the Houston Ship Channel and the surrounding environment.

“Nearly 12,500-feet of absorbent material has been placed along the shoreline and workboats are onsite to collect soiled absorbent boom,” officials wrote.

The cause of the spill is under investigation.

The U.S. Coast Guard is working to clean up a crude oil spill near Baytown on Feb. 3, 2020. (KPRC)

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