In 2004, Hurricane Ivan damaged a group of oil wells 10 miles off of Louisiana's coast, triggering a steady, uncontrolled flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico that has continued for eleven years.  For over a decade, crude oil has continued to leak from the damaged wells at a rate of up to 3,000 gallons per day, creating miles-long oil slicks that can be seen from space and rendering at least five hundred million gallons of sea water toxic to life. It's the longest-running commercial oil spill ever to pollute the Gulf of Mexico - and if nothing is done, experts warn that the leak will continue for another century or more.

Unbelievably, there are no immediate plans to stop this pollution!

For the past decade, Taylor Energy Co., which owns the wells, and the U.S. Government, which should be holding them accountable, have been downplaying the extent and environmental impact of the leak - while engaging in secretive deals that the public hasn't been allowed to see.  

The Unified Command group set up by the U.S. Coast Guard to deal with the spill consists of officials from both Taylor Energy and various federal agencies. They're the only ones authorized to talk about the leak - but they have refused to answer basic questions related to the spill, citing "trade secrets". Local environmental restoration directors and oil industry insiders, people whose job it is to know about oil pollution, were never told about Taylor's dirty little secret, and the Associated Press had to take Unified Command to court just to get access to federal and corporate reports regarding the spill. Out of the 15,000 pages of documents turned over, all but four were deemed "confidential" and heavily redacted.

Through Unified Command, Taylor Energy claimed that the leak only releases 4 gallons of crude per day - comparable to a naturally-occurring oil seep - and that the oil released from the site comes from the sediment around the wells, not the wells themselves. According to Taylor's dubious reports, a 1,170 foot long slick created in 2009 contained the impossibly low figure of only 1.5 gallons of oil. But outside scientists and environmental watchdog groups know that the leak is far worse than Taylor - or the U.S. Government - admits.

Ian MacDonald, a Florida State University oceanography professor, warns that the leak "presents a substantial threat to the environment" and is capable of harming birds, fish and other marine life. His "conservative" estimate is that Taylor's reports lowball the amount of oil leaking by, on average, "a factor of 100 or more." Satellite data acquired by the nonprofit watchdog group SkyTruth suggests that many of Taylor's oil slicks cover at least 8 square miles and contain as much as 4,000 gallons of oil. And, contrary to official statements from Unified Command, the volume of the slicks has increased dramatically since last year. According to SkyTruth, up to 1.4 million gallons of oil has seeped into the Gulf from the Taylor site since 2004 - and there's no end in sight.

Last year, Taylor presented federal officials with plans for a "final resolution" of the spill. Details of that plan are a closely-guarded secret, but the company claims that nothing can be done to completely eliminate chronic sheens at the site, and suggests that the "best course of action ... is to not take any affirmative action". They even made the ridiculous argument that their toxic slick "...does not have appreciable impact on coastal or local ecology, because surface feeders and marine mammals can just push the oil out of the way.” 

Shockingly, the U.S. Government appears to agree. While they claim to have ordered additional work to stop the leak, there is no evidence showing what - if anything - has been done. The corporation has even tried to broker a deal with the U.S. Government that would exempt them from financial responsibility for their mess!

While executives and officials may be able to ignore oil spills, the people and wildlife of the Gulf don't have that luxury. Just ask Jonathan Henderson, Coastal Resiliency Organizer with the Gulf Restoration Network in New Orleans.  In an interview, he said, "I’ve been on the water in the sheen in a boat, and my eyes burned, the fumes were heavy and I became light headed. It’s hard to imagine that wildlife, birds or fish that came into contact with it wouldn’t be affected.” Florida State researcher Oscar Garcia-Pineda, who studies oil pollution, was also sickened by the toxic fumes, even though he was wearing a respirator. "It's just amazing how much oil is there," he said.

Taylor Energy and the U.S. Government have shown that they're willing to allow their "dirty little secret" to poison the Gulf for the next 100 years - leaving our grandchildren to clean up the toxic soup. This isn't just appalling - it's criminal. The Gulf doesn't need bureaucracy, secret deals, or corporate promises. It needs action. Taylor Energy must be held accountable for this leak, and the pollution must be stopped now.