Past oil spills have affected Galveston beaches

So far Texas beaches have been spared any problems from the oil released by the Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf, but Galveston Bay has experienced two of the past ten worst oil spills.

In 1979 the oil tanker Burmah Agate collided with the freighter Mimosa southeast of the Galveston entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. The result was an explosion and fire that released 10.7 million gallons of oil into the bay. The fire burned for two months and 7.8 million gallons were consumed by the fire. Northerly winds kept most of the oil offshore, where it was eventually dispersed or was contained at the wreck site.

The heaviest onshore impact of the oil spill occurred on west Galveston Island, where 1500 barrels of oil washed onto the beach. Nearby marshes did not get any significant residue. An abstract of the spill event stated that the beach was successfully cleaned by front end loaders and vacuum trucks.

In 1984 the British tanker Alvenus grounded in an offshore ship channel 11 miles off the coast of Louisiana, spilling 2.8 million gallons of Venezuelan crude into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill drifted westward with the Gulf current into Texas, and for two weeks heavy tar-like crude came ashore on Galveston beaches.

The oil covered 90% of the West Beach and 80% of seawall beaches, with some oil getting into the marsh grass areas of the East Bay area.

Sonya Porretto remembers the effects of the spill on her family-owned beach business. “At that time, the oil was on our bathing suits, bodies and feet while we worked on the beach. I remember my father purchasing gallons of mineral oil to get the tar balls off of us. The worst part, he felt we needed to remain open for business to cater to the public.”

In fact, tourism losses that year were estimated to be $1 million a day for Galveston. It took two months to completely remove the oily sand from the beaches of Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula.

Coastal communities are hoping the current oil spill will not drift westward onto its beaches. But if it does, the Galveston area will have had experience cleaning up oily beaches and should be up to the task.