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USA has experienced a large number of oil spills that have gravely aff ected their waters.
• Other causes of oil spills are spills that during Hurricane Katrina from various
occur when various water vehicles such as sources including pipelines, storage tanks
motorboats and jet skis leak fuel. and industrial plants.
• When drilling work is carried out in the
November 28, 2000 - Port Sulphur,
sea, the oil and petroleum used for such
Louisiana
activities is released into the sea, thus
causing oil spills. Some 13,500 barrels of crude oil leaked into
the Mississippi River about 96 kilometres
Major Oil Spills in the US south of New Orleans aft er the tanker
March 2006 - Prudhoe Bay, Alaska Westchester lost power and ran aground. Th e
spill was the largest in US waters since the
In March 2006, there was a leak in a pipeline
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill of 1989.
owned by British Petroleum (BP). Th is
resulted in more than 5,000 barrels of oil August 10, 1993 - Tampa Bay, Florida
being spilled onshore on Alaska’s North An estimated 8,000 barrels of oil carried by
Slope. BP had to suspend production aft er it a tank barge called the Bouchard 155, spilled
was discovered that pipeline corrosion caused
into Tampa Bay, Florida aft er the barge was
the leak. Th e incident led to stronger pipeline
in a collision with the freighter Balsa 37 and
inspection requirements.
the barge Ocean 255.
August–September 2005 - New Orleans, Th e United States has sustained almost 47
Louisiana oil spills. Th at is the largest number of oil
In 2005, the coast guards estimated that spills any country has ever had in the world.
more than 167,000 barrels of oil were spilled Th e high frequency of spills is linked to the
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