The Longest Running US Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of

When Hurricane Ivan knocked over an offshore oil platform off the coast of Louisiana in 2004, oil started leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. The company that owned the platform went bankrupt and never had the well capped. It wasn't until 15 years later that the US Coast Guard hired Timmy Couvillion to use his specially designed containment device to start collecting the leaking oil. But to this day, the leak continues from America's longest running oil spill.



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[Hollowsmith]

Taylor: "It's basically fixed. There's only a couple gallons a day leaking."

US Coast Guard: "Actually we have proof that there's hundreds of gallons leaking each day."

Taylor: "Yea whatever but, even if we were wrong, there's nothing that can be done to stop the leaking."

Couvillion: "Actually, we just figured out how to contain the oil to prevent the leaking into the ocean."

Taylor: "Yea whatever but, even if we were wrong again, we're suing you since you aren't qualified to know what you're doing."

Vice: "What are you talking about? Couvillion did way better than you at minimizing this problem."

Taylor: "We're now suing Vice for reporting on us suing Couvillion for fixing what we couldn't fix...because they're so unqualified."

[armadilloburns]

If a poor man steals, he goes to prison and if a rich man steals, he is made a king!

[jonatanjimenez]

It’s crazy how a company has more say on the land than the people living in it.

[christopherlaw]

Even when caught red handed, such a company cannot even face and accept the truth that they failed in their duty and work to mankind.

[jackwillis]

Any time a corporation tells you “nothing more can be done” or “the technology isn’t there yet” you know they’re lying and just trying to protect themselves from becoming irrelevant.

[atlas]

Wrote a report on this spill in 2016 for a school project, and 4 years later they didn’t do anything to fix it. Glad to see action is being taken now

[CollinY]

How can regular people mess up and go to jail but major groups can’t even be brought to justice

[_MRK]

Fortunately they dismissed the insane lawsuit against the cleanup company.

[zacharyoliver]

I was a pipeline maintenance speciist for Marathon Pil and BP here in the US . There are major spills and disasters that happen daily that you don't know about. I was on a 30, 000 gallon diesel spill in the middle of Indianapolis that was never spoke of.

[papwithanhatchet]

This is a near textbook example of a SLAPP suit. Wipe Taylor out by forcing them to immediately rectify the leak and mitigate damages despite costs, then send those responsible for this environmental crime to prison.

[moosasoumahoro]

They dont wanna fix the problem but they wanna sue🤣

[williamx]

They call it a "SPILL" to make people not worry. Bruh, it's a full out "LEAK"

[cola]

US talking about Chernobyl: "look at those commies not letting the public know about a large incident immediately, it would never happen here"
Also US:

[thacrypt]

Those Taylor executives need to go to prison. This affects everyone in the world, not only Americans. This makes me so angry and sad at the same time.

EDIT: With this many likes, I guess I ain't the only one feeling this pain!🥀🥀

[kisahnalahnpoveda]

I live right on the Gulfcoast and have never heard anyone ever talk about this. Good job reporting Vice. Reminds me of old Vice.

[jakeorgeron]

It’s crazy because I work out here in Fourchon and I’ve been knowing about the Taylor spill for quite some time and the other day I was speaking to a few coworkers about it and how nobody seemed to keep up with the issue and I’m glad Vice is able to cover things like such

[TheBK]

Anyone else notice the improvement recently in some of VICE's stories? Maybe they have listened to us complaining about the massive drop in quality they've had. I hope to keep seeing more stuff like this posted!

[LegendNinja]

2-3 Gallons a day, more like 2000-3000 Gallons a day.
Taylor Energy: Whoopsie daisy! hehe.

What scumbags, need to be held accountable.

[thefatmoop]

Oil companies are the skum of the earth. I nearly did an engineering internship with one, glad i didn't take it

[joncampion]

It's unreal they get away with this shhh.