The Times-Picayune reported this morning that a busted well-head is spilling oil into Bayou St. Dennis near Lafitte.Oil is reportedly already fouling the marshes there. Though these small spills don’t get the attention of BP’s drilling disaster, they are all too common and contribute to the loss of Louisiana’s wetlands.Just last the Gulf Restoration Network’s Jonathan Henderson spotted yet another leaking well during one of the many monitoring flights he’s conducted since BP’s drilling disaster began in April. As the Washington Post reported last week, federal records “show a steady stream of oil spills dumping 517,847 barrels of petroleum — which would fill an equivalent number of standard American bathtubs — into the Gulf of Mexico between 1964 and 2009. The spills killed thousands of birds and soiled beaches as far away as Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Altogether, they poured twice as much as oil into U.S. waters as the Exxon Valdez tanker did when it ran aground in 1989.”That’s why the Gulf Restoration Network is fighting for better oversight of oil and gas development to protect the Gulf Coast communities and wildlife.Matthew Preusch is a volunteer with the Gulf Restoration Network.
