Oil Spill Response Center at Port O’Connor Community Center

When the oil spill occurred in the Houston Ship Channel on March 22, about 168,000 gallons of oil were spilled into Galveston Bay, most of which was recovered. A small portion came this way and was being skimmed until weather interfered. By the time oil made landfall on Matagorda Island on March 27, the Response Team had deployed protective booming surrounding Chester Island Bird Sanctuary and across Saluria Bayou and big Bayou to protect the small back bays and marshes and the large Espirtu Santo Bay.

The Matagorda Incident Command Post was set up at the Port O’Connor Community Center, The Unified Command established eight 25-person task forces to accomplish its plan. And by March 28 four task forces were ready to attack the oil which had come ashore at Matagorda Island. The response effort is being made by the US Coast Guard, the Texas General Land Office, US Fish & Wildlife, Texas Parks & Wildlife, Kirby Inland Marine and numerous environmental contractors.

As of April 13, representatives of the Command Center reported there were still 3.3 miles of heavily oiled Matagorda Island south shoreline left to be cleaned. 1,480,240 pounds of oil sand and oil debris have been removed and taken to a waste disposal facility in Alvin. A date for completion could not be forecast due to changing weather conditions.

Clean-up reports and photos can be found on Dolphin Talk’s Facebook page.