This clip shows workers cleaning up this 1979 oil spill. This was before concerns with worker exposure to benzene and other hydrocarbon exposures.In June 1979, the exploratory well, IXTOC I, blew out in the Bahia de Campeche, 600 miles south of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. On August 6, 1979, tarballs from the spill impacted a 17 mile stretch of Texas beach. By August 26, most of North Padre Island was covered with moderate amounts of oil. As of September 1, all of the south Texas coast had been impacted by oil. Economically and environmentally sensitive barrier island beaches were cleaned daily. Laborers used rakes and shovels to clean beaches rather than heavier equipment which removed too much sand. This was before worker exposure concerns were issues during oil spill cleanups. Ultimately, 71,500 barrels of oil impacted 162 miles of U.S. beaches, and over 10,000 cubic yards of oiled material were removed. The water depth at the wellhead site was about 50 meters. The IXTOC I was being drilled by a semi-submersible platform on lease to Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX). A loss of drilling mud circulation caused the blowout to occur. The oil and gas blowing out of the well ignited, causing the platform to catch fire. The burning platform collapsed into the wellhead area hindering any immediate attempts to control the blowout. Prevailing northerly currents in the western Gulf of Mexico carried spilled oil toward the U.S. A 60-mile by 70-mile patch of sheen containing a 300 foot by 500 foot patch of heavy crude moved toward the Texas coast. Pemex contracted Conair Aviation to spray the chemical dispersant Corexit 9527 on the oil. A total of 493 aerial missions were flown, treating 1,100 square miles of oil slick. Dispersants were not used in the U.S. area of the spill because of the dispersant's inability to treat weathered oil. The IXTOC I well continued to spill oil at a rate of 10,000 - 30,000 barrels per day until it was finally capped on March 23, 1980 and releasing an estimated three million barrels of oil. The oil hung around for years, resurfacing occasionally with the shifting tides. No detailed report on the response operations was published. An estimation of the total cost was made at 1.5 billion dollars, of which 0.4 for the response expenses and 1.1 for the damage. However neither the Mexican nor the American authorities produced either a scientific or financial report of the accident. For more on the IXTOC I oil spill, link to the NOAA website at http://www.incidentnews.gov/incident/6250 . This is clipped from the Alternative Views program #044-THE GREAT TEX-MEX OIL SPILL from September 1979 available at the Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/AV_044-THE_GREAT_TEX-MEX_OIL_SPILL .

• published: 16 Oct 2012
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