OIL SPILL ON
SANDY CREEK

photo courtesy of EPA

On Monday, October 13th, an oil line operated by the Texas-based company known as Plains All American Pipeline, LP broke, sending an estimated 350 barrels of oil into a small stream near the Sandy Creek Wildlife Management Area, inside Homochitto National Forest, in far eastern Adams County, Mississippi. The next day Plains found their broken pipe and notified appropriate authorities.

A boom and an underflow dam were installed approximately eight miles downstream from the pipe break. A significant amount of oil had already entered the Homochitto River, and some oil had made it into the Mississippi River. A "hard boom" was installed in the Homochitto beneath the Highway 61 bridge approximately 15 - 20 miles downstream from the break.

Oil has pooled all along the waterway. As of October 20th, over 200 barrels of oil had been recovered and more oil was being removed by adsorption to booms, pads, snares, and oiled debris. Plains had mobilized approximately 100 persons, numerous vacuum trucks, roll-off boxes, heavy equipment, air boats, john boats, ATVs, a fixed-wing aircraft, a helicopter, pumps, boom, and miscellaneous response gear and materials.

An oiled Snowy Egret and a Belted Kingfisher have been recovered and rehabilitated and an oiled alligator has been observed in the Homochitto River.

Over a week after the spill, on October 22nd, Naturalist Jim Conrad, who lives near the oil break, and local resident Karen Wise, walked along the small stream in which the oil spill took place, as well as along a few hundred yards of Sandy Creek, just below where the polluted stream flowed into it. The following pictures were taken.

Blobs of oil still float down the small stream in which the spill took place.