• Energy

Pipelines Leak, Colonial Could Pay For Its NC Damages

• oil spill
• pipelines

By Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer Following a massive gasoline leak in Huntersville, North Carolina, Colonial Pipeline could face a daily fine of $200,000 if it doesn’t improve how it detects leaks. Colonial’s pipes leaked almost 18 times more gasoline than it originally estimated, sometimes thousands of gallons at a time with the Huntersville leak […]

• Ocean

Advocates Want Answers About So-Cal Oil Spill, Authorities Point Fingers

• California
• Coast Guard
• dolphins
• Navy
• oil spill

by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer An oil spill has been sighted off the coast of San Clemente Island, the southernmost of California’s Channel Islands. The spill was initially spotted by the captain of a whale-watching boat, who filmed a pod of dolphins swimming through the oil slick and called it “the most tragic thing [he had] ever filmed.” But […]

• Ocean

Sunken Ship Cleanup Efforts in Sri Lanka Delayed by Monsoon Season

• oil spill
• Sri Lanka

by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer A ship that burned for nearly two weeks off the coast of Sri Lanka has finally sunk, and cleanup crews are eager to remove harmful debris from the ecosystem. But monsoon season is delaying the salvage efforts, and officials say there may still be oil and chemicals leaking from the ship’s remains. […]

• Energy

Trump Administration Restart of Huge St. Croix Oil Refinery Raises EJ Concerns

• air pollution
• Environmental Justice
• oil and gas
• oil refinery
• oil spill
• pollution

The idyllic island of St. Croix, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands, is a Caribbean paradise — and also the site of one of America’s largest oil refineries. The Limetree Bay oil refinery caused one of the biggest oil spills in U.S. history and violated the Clean Air Act, and until early this year had been idled since 2012. 

Why this Matters: The refinery provides jobs on the island that had been hurt by two hurricanes in 2017.  But it also raises numerous troubling issues, not the least of which is that the majority of people living near the refinery are Black and nearly a third identify as Hispanic or Latino, and many are poor.

• Energy

Oil Spill Hits Israel’s Mediterranean Coast

• fossil fuels
• Israel
• oil spill

by Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer Clumps of sticky oil washed up on Israel’s Mediterranean beaches this weekend after a tanker was suspected of leaking. Officials are calling it one of the country’s “most serious ecological disasters” that has already seriously harmed marine life, including sea turtles and a fin whale that washed up dead […]

• Energy

Chevron Oil Spill Further Highlights Decades-Long Environmental Injustice

• Bay Area
• Chevron
• Environmental Justice
• oil spill
• Richmond

by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer This past Tuesday, local residents observed a sheen on the water near the wharf off of Point Richmond in the San Francisco Bay–the result of a 600-gallon petroleum spill from Chevron’s Richmond oil refinery. The refinery, which processes 245,271 barrels of oil per day, was able to contain the […]