Following Boat Crash, Another Leak in the Gulf of Mexico

(July 27) -- Not again! A new oil leak has hit the Gulf Coast Tuesday after a small boat collided with a wellhead in Bayou St. Dennis, just north of the ecologically diverse Barataria Bay in Louisiana. There were no reported injuries, but morale in nearby Jefferson Parish, where oil from BP's well has already caused extensive environmental and commercial damage, is unsurprisingly not good.

"We cannot catch a break," Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Director Deano Bonano said in a message to fellow officials, reports WDSU. "We have no estimate at this time of the volume of oil [from the new leak]."

The collision reportedly took place overnight, but local and federal emergency workers are still struggling to control a geyser of oil and/or natural gas said to be spewing 20 feet into the air, according to Fox News. The area has been evacuated except for response crews. Other boats attempting to use the waterway are being diverted a mile away from the site, reports WWLTV.

Jefferson Parish officials have not yet identified which company owns the wellhead, but a BP spokesman tells Surge Desk that he is "not aware of any connection" between the new leak and his company, as all of the BP developments in the gulf are in deep water and the new incident took place closer to shore. A parish spokesman declined to comment for this story, but a press conference on the situation has been scheduled for 2:30 p.m. local time.

UPDATE Tuesday, July 27, 5:30 p.m.: Jefferson Parish Public Information Officer Patricia Borne issued a statement identifying the owner of the well as Cedyco Corp. of Houston. The wellhead is leaking "mostly natural gas with light oil mixed in," and the resulting geyser is a whopping 100 feet high, not 20 as previously reported. The Coast Guard has taken control of the situation and is monitoring the air for "dangerous levels of contamination." Both Jefferson Parish and Surge Desk have attempted to contact Cedyco to no avail.

UPDATE Wednesday, July 28 10:00 a.m.: A spokesman for the Coast Guard told Surge Desk that despite having over 100 emergency response workers on the scene since last night, "at this time there are no reports the leak has been contained," and there is no official estimate of when it will be. There is also no estimate of the flow rate at this time, though the resulting sheen measures 1 mile by 50 yards. A two-mile exclusionary zone remains in place around the wellhead, and 1,300 feet of boom have been deployed.

More: Check out images of the 100-foot-tall plume and the new oil slick

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