The Coast Guard is coming down hard on the owners of a broken oil platform that has been allowed to leak off southeast Louisiana for more than 14 years. 
 
 New federal estimates put the leak rate at the Taylor Energy Co. well at 10,500 gallons to 29,000 gallons of oil per day. That’s five to 13 times larger than government’s estimate from just a year ago, and would rank the Taylor Energy leak as one of the largest and longest-running oil spills in North America. 
 
 Last week, the Coast Guard directed Taylor Energy to decide on a new containment plan and a contractor to do the work. The new method of containment “must eliminate the surface sheen and avoid the deficiencies associated with prior containment systems,” the Coast Guard wrote in an administrative order. The company will be fined up to $40,000 per day for failing to comply. 
 
 Full containment of the leak could cost upwards of $1 billion, according to Taylor Energy. The company disputes the new leak estimates and the cause of the chronic sheens that often stretch for miles from the well site. According to scientists employed by Taylor Energy, the sheens are caused by oil and gas bubbling up from the oil-saturated seafloor, and not from leaky wells. 
 
 Site of the Taylor Energy platform. 
 
 Taylor Energy’s platform, known as MC-20 Saratoga, was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan on Sept. 15, 2004. The storm triggered an underwater mudslide that snapped the 550-foot-tall platform’s legs and buried a cluster of wells. Taylor plugged some of the 28 wells and added three containment domes. 
 
 Several environmental groups have for years disputed Taylor’s claim that its multimillion-dollar containment effort had limited pollution to just a trickle. 
 
 In 2013, Skytruth, an environmental group based in Shepherdstown, W. Va., that specializes in remote sensing and digital mapping, measured the sheen at more than 20 miles long. The Gulf Monitoring Consortium, made up of Skytruth and other groups, estimated a daily release rate of between 100 and 400 gallons. 
 
 It wasn’t until 2016 that federal regulators began investigating how oil and gas was still leaking from the site. That same year, Taylor Energy sued the federal government over the remaining $432 million from a $666 million trust, which the company was required to create to pay for the leak response. Taylor Energy argued that its response worked and that the remaining funds should be returned. 
 
 12 years after Gulf oil platform destroyed, feds start investigating environmental damage 
 
 In a 2017 legal filing, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement estimated the leak’s range at 42 to 2,300 gallons per day. But this year, the government cited the vastly larger daily estimate of up to 29,000 gallons. 
 
 The Coast Guard noted the new rate in its recent order for additional containment work. 
 
 “The worst-case estimate of the daily volume of release far exceeds previous estimates and is in the order of hundreds of barrels per day,” the Coast Guard told Taylor Energy in a letter. 
 
 The Coast Guard’s order is long overdue, said Dustin Renaud, communications director for the Gulf Restoration Network. 
 
 “The time to clean this up was 14 years ago,” he said. “Taylor Energy has shown nothing but negligence all this time.” 
 
 Taylor Energy says the government won’t reveal how it arrived at the much larger estimate. The Coast Guard declined to share details on the estimate with NOLA.com | Times-Picayune until it can determine whether the information is “publicly releasable.” 
 
 Will Pecue, Taylor Energy president, said the new estimates are “ridiculous” and “based on erroneous science.” He believes the larger estimates are aimed at bolstering the government’s case for retaining the trust’s remaining $432 million. 
 
 “There is intent to dismiss the past record,” he said. 
 
 The wells at the Taylor Energy site were relatively low in pressure. The former platform’s production of 1,100 barrels, or about 46,000 gallons, of oil per day, the company required pressurized gas injections. It’s unlikely the platform site could leak at the new estimated rates without pressurization, said Christopher Reddy, a marine scientist hired by Taylor Energy to assess the site. 
 
 A more likely source of the sheen is the sediment, which Reddy described as “heavily contaminated” with oil. Recent sediment sampling showed traces of drilling fluid, likely used during the work to plug and decommission wells after Hurricane Ivan. The sheen on the water’s surface was also found to have drilling fluid. The fluid’s presence indicates the sheen is coming from the sediment and not subsurface wells, which would be pure crude oil and contain no drilling fluid, Reddy said. 
 
 Large sheens on the water’s surface often correspond with disturbances on the seafloor, such as when a remote observation vehicle or divers collect samples. 
 
 “When you touch the bottom, you create a sheen,” he said. 
 
 Buried oil from Deepwater Horizon disaster still harming wetlands 
 
 Reddy cautioned that any restoration or cleanup work at the site could release a large quantity of oil. 
 
 Based on the high end of the new leak estimates, the site may have released 150 million gallons of oil over the past 14 years. That would make the total release on par with the estimated 168 gallons spilled during the BP oil oil disaster in 2010. But, as Taylor Energy’s representatives note, the sheen has never been documented reaching the shore, nor has it caused large-scale damage to fisheries or wildlife. 
 
 It doesn’t take a BP-level disaster to harm the Gulf of Mexico, said Renaud of the Gulf Restoration Network. While the BP spill’s impact was heavily studied, the environmental damage from the Taylor Energy leak has largely been ignored. 
 
 “When you have 10,000 to 30,000 gallons of oil leaking into the Gulf there can’t help but be environmental impacts,” he said. “We just don’t know what they are yet, and we need to change that.” ||||| U.S. Coast Guard Response boats work to clean up crude oil where the Deepwater Horizon sank Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico. The mobile drilling platform was engulfed in flames after an explosion Tuesday. Share Print Share 
 
 A drilling rig that burned for more than a day before sinking Thursday has fouled Gulf of Mexico waters with a potentially major spill of crude oil, officials said. 
 
 The collapse of the oil rig could disgorge up to 336,000 gallons of crude a day into waters about 40 miles off the Louisiana coast. 
 
 U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said the sunken rig, the Deepwater Horizon, increased the threat for environmental damage, which previously appeared minimal. 
 
 With new challenges from the collapsed rig, a growing assemblage of cleanup crews began to work in the area, hoping to stop the oil before the spill were to reach the shore. 
 
 Meteorologists predicted a change in the Gulf's current today that would push the oil toward the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines. 
 
 But Landry said the spill isn't expected to reach the coast. “We have the ability to keep it offshore,” she said. 
 
 BP, the oil company that leased the offshore rig, said it had mobilized four aircraft that can spread chemicals to break up the oil and 32 vessels that can recover more than 171,000 barrels of oil a day from the surface. 
 
 BP officials also expected to have a million feet of boom in place to help contain the spill by today. 
 
 “We have contingency plans in place to respond to any anticipated situation, and the full resources of BP are being mobilized to implement those plans,” said David Rainey, vice president of Gulf exploration for BP. 
 
 Even then, federal and BP officials said it wasn't clear whether oil was flowing from the well after the platform sank because they didn't know what was happening underwater. 
 
 Water will dilute pollution 
 
 On the surface, cleanup crews observed a sheen of a crude oil mix on the water, a mile wide and five miles long, but it appeared to be from firefighting efforts at the rig, Landry said. 
 
 She said there's another 700,000 gallons of diesel fuel onboard the platform that could also spill. 
 
 The rig was in nearly mile-deep waters in an area known as the Mississippi Canyon. It's home to whales, dolphins, sport fish and sea birds. 
 
 Still, experts said the oil will do less damage at sea than along the coast because the water will quickly dilute the pollution. What's more, they suggested, the marine animals likely scattered after the rig exploded. 
 
 “It will affect some things on the surface, but it won't have the same devastating effect as one on the beach,” said Gilbert Rowe, head of the marine biology department at Texas A&M; University in Galveston. “I'm less worried about toxicity than annoying birds and animals with this slimy stuff.” 
 
 But Aaron Viles, of the Gulf Restoration Network, an advocacy group, said the spill demonstrated the cost of offshore drilling. He said the oil could affect a bustling fishery and the spawning grounds for the over-fished Western Atlantic bluefin tuna. 
 
 “There are always smaller spills that get overlooked,” Viles said. “This one puts the cost of offshore oil and gas exploration into focus.” 
 
 matthew.tresaugue@chron.com ||||| BP Will Pay For Gulf Oil Spill Disaster, CEO Says 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption John D. McHugh/AFP/Getty Images John D. McHugh/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 The CEO of petroleum giant BP told NPR on Monday that his company is fully responsible for the cleanup and any "legitimate" claims from an undersea pipeline rupture that threatens to deposit hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude on the U.S. Gulf Coast. 
 
 "It is indeed BP's responsibility to deal with this, and we are dealing with it," Tony Hayward told Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep. 
 
 "We will absolutely be paying for the cleanup operation. There is no doubt about that. It's our responsibility — we accept it fully," he added. 
 
 Hayward also said the British oil giant was "mounting a massive response" to what he described as a "tragic accident." 
 
 The Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig was hit by an explosion April 20 and sank two days later. More than 90 workers were rescued, but 11 are still missing and presumed dead. BP leased the rig, which lies about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, from Houston-based Transocean. 
 
 Deepwater Horizon Disaster April 20: Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes off Louisiana coast. Eleven workers missing and presumed dead. April 22: Rig sinks. April 23: Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry says no oil appears to be leaking from the undersea wellhead or at the water's surface. April 24: Leak reported; oil is estimated to be leaking at the rate of 1,000 barrels a day. April 29: Coast Guard says leak may be five times greater than earlier estimate: 5,000 barrels a day. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declares state of emergency. May 1: Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen is named national incident commander. May 2: President Obama visits Coast Guard station in Venice, La. May 3: BP CEO Tony Hayward tells NPR his company will pay for the cleanup and any "legitimate" legal claims. 
 
 The cause of the blast has not yet been determined. 
 
 When pressed on whether BP was prepared to pay claims to individuals who lose their livelihoods owing to the spill, Hayward said the company has "made it clear that where legitimate claims are made, we will be good for them." 
 
 "We have a claims process set up. There are small claims today that are being paid instantly," he said. "[For] bigger claims, we clearly have a process to run through." 
 
 Over the weekend, Alabama Attorney General Troy King said he had told BP representatives to stop circulating settlement agreements among coastal residents that reportedly offered payments of up to $5,000 in exchange for not suing the company. 
 
 Hayward called it "an early misstep" involving "a standard contract with the team we're using that was eliminated very early in the process." 
 
 President Obama has made clear that BP must shoulder the cost of the disaster. "BP is responsible for this leak. BP will be paying the bill," Obama said Sunday as he toured a Coast Guard staging area in Venice, La. 
 
 Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar were expected to meet later Monday with top BP executives to discuss the crisis, including how the company planned to pay for the cleanup. On Sunday, federal officials shut down fishing from the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle. 
 
 The Coast Guard and BP have said it's nearly impossible to know how much oil has already gushed since the rig blast. The Guard had estimated the slick to be at least 1.6 million gallons — equivalent to about 2 1/2 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Other experts say they believe far more oil has been released in a spill many fear now may eclipse the 11 million gallons released by the Exxon Valdez. Sheen from the massive slick has already reached parts of the Louisiana coastline. 
 
 Officials say it's likely that oil will continue gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for at least another week as a result of the pipeline rupture 5,000 feet below sea level. A plan to install a device to capture the oil and siphon it to a barge waiting at the surface would take that long, Hayward said. 
 
 Hide caption A boat uses a boom and absorbent material to soak up oil in Cat Bay, near Grand Isle, La., on June 28. A tropical storm is expected to hit the Gulf and impede cleanup efforts. Previous Next Joe Raedle/Getty Images 
 
 Hide caption Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and wife Carole Rome Crist (right) stand with others during a Hands Across the Sand event June 26 in Pensacola, Fla. The event was staged across the nation to protest offshore oil drilling. Previous Next Joe Raedle/Getty Images 
 
 Hide caption Oil clouds the surface of Barataria Bay near Port Sulpher, La., on June 19. Previous Next Sean Gardner/Getty Images 
 
 Hide caption Workers adjust piping while drilling a relief well at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Previous Next Charlie Neibergall/Getty Images 
 
 Hide caption A dolphin rises up out of the water near Grand Terre Island off the coast of Louisiana on June 14. Previous Next Derick E. Hingle/AP 
 
 Hide caption President Obama stands with Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (right) and Gulfport, Miss., Mayor George Schloegel after meeting with residents affected by the oil spill. Previous Next Charles Dharapak/AP 
 
 Hide caption Crude oil washes ashore in Orange Beach, Ala., on June 12. Oil slicks, 4 to 6 inches thick in some parts, have washed up along the Alabama coast. Previous Next Dave Martin/AP 
 
 Hide caption A volunteer uses a toothbrush to clean an oil-covered white pelican at the Fort Jackson Oiled Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Buras, La., June 9. Previous Next Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Hide caption A shrimp boat skims oil from the surface of the water just off Orange Beach, Ala., as a family enjoys the surf. Oily tar balls have started washing up on Orange Beach and beaches in the western Florida panhandle. Previous Next Dave Martin/AP 
 
 Hide caption Sand from a dredge is pumped onto East Grand Terre Island, La., to provide a barrier against the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, June 8. Previous Next Charlie Riedel/AP 
 
 Hide caption A dead turtle floats on a pool of oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in Barataria Bay off the coast of Louisiana on June 7. Previous Next Charlie Riedel/AP 
 
 Hide caption Workers use absorbent pads to remove oil that has washed ashore from the spill in Grand Isle, La., June 6. Previous Next Eric Gay/AP 
 
 Hide caption Plaquemines Parish coastal zone director P.J. Hahn lifts an oil-covered pelican out of the water on Queen Bess Island in Plaquemines Parish, La., June 5. Previous Next Gerald Herbert/AP 
 
 Hide caption Heavy oil pools along the side of a boom just outside Cat Island in Grand Isle, La., June 6. Previous Next Win McNamee/Getty Images 
 
 Hide caption President Obama walks alongside Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle (from right), U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is in charge of the federal response to the spill, and Chris Camardelle after meeting with local business owners in Grand Isle, La., June 4. Previous Next Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Hide caption A brown pelican sits on the beach at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast after being drenched in oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, June 3. Previous Next Charlie Riedel/AP 
 
 Hide caption U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announces that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into the BP oil spill. With him, from left: Stephanie Finley and Jim Letten, U.S. attorneys for the Western District of Louisiana; Ignacia Moreno, assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division; Tony West, assistant attorney general, Civil Division; and Don Burkhalter, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi. Previous Next Cheryl Gerber/AP 
 
 Hide caption The oil slick off the coast of Louisiana, seen from above. Previous Next NASA via Getty Images 
 
 Hide caption A worker leaves the beach in Grand Isle, La., on May 30. BP is turning to yet another mix of undersea robot maneuvers to help keep more crude oil from flowing into the Gulf. Previous Next Jae C. Hong/AP 
 
 Hide caption Protesters cover themselves with a water and paint mixture during a demonstration at a BP gas station in New York City on May 28. Previous Next Mary Altaffer/AP 
 
 Hide caption Workers clean up oil in Pass a Loutre, La. The latest attempt to plug the leak was unsuccessful. Previous Next Jae C. Hong, File/AP 
 
 Hide caption Residents listen to a discussion with parish officials and a BP representative on May 25 in Chalmette, La. Officials now say that it may be impossible to clean the hundreds of miles of coastal wetlands affected by the massive oil spill. Previous Next Sean Gardner/Getty Images 
 
 Hide caption An oil-soaked pelican takes flight after Louisiana Fish and Wildlife employees tried to corral it on an island in Barataria Bay on the coast of Louisiana. The island, which is home to hundreds of brown pelican nests as well at terns, gulls and roseate spoonbills, is impacted by oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill. Previous Next Gerald Herbert/AP 
 
 Hide caption A sign warns the public to stay away from the beach on Grand Isle, La. Officials closed the oil-covered beaches to the public indefinitely on Saturday. Previous Next John Moore/Getty Images 
 
 Hide caption Pelican eggs stained with oil sit in a nest on an island in Barataria Bay on May 22. Previous Next Gerald Herbert/AP 
 
 Hide caption A bird flies over oil that has collected on wetlands on Elmer's Island in Grand Isle, La., May 20. The oil came inland despite oil booms that were placed at the wetlands' mouth on the Gulf of Mexico. Previous Next Patrick Semansky/AP 
 
 Hide caption Members of the Louisiana National Guard build a land bridge at the mouth of wetlands on Elmer's Island. Previous Next Patrick Semansky/AP 
 
 Hide caption The hands of boat captain Preston Morris are covered in oil after collecting surface samples from the marsh of Pass a Loutre, La., on May 19. Previous Next Gerald Herbert/AP 
 
 Hide caption Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (center) and Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser (right) tour the oil-impacted marsh of Pass a Loutre, La. "This is the heavy oil that everyone's been fearing that is here now," said Jindal. Previous Next Gerald Herbert/AP 
 
 Hide caption BP Chairman and President Lamar McKay (left), with Transocean President and CEO Steven Newman (center) and Applied Science Associates Principal Deborah French McCay, testifies during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing May 18 on response efforts to the Gulf Coast oil spill. Previous Next Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP 
 
 Hide caption This undated frame grab image received from BP and provided by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee shows details of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP has agreed to display a live video feed of the oil gusher on the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee's website beginning Thursday evening. Previous Next Senate Environment and Public Works Committee/AP 
 
 Hide caption President Obama speaks with local fishermen about how they are affected by the oil spill in Venice, La., on May 2. Previous Next Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Hide caption Danene Birtell with Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research tends to a Northern Gannet in Fort Jackson, La., on April 30. The bird, normally white when full grown, is covered in oil from the oil spill. Previous Next Alex Brandon/AP 
 
 Hide caption Since the explosion, a third oil leak has been discovered in the blown-out well. Previous Next Gerald Herbert/AP 
 
 Hide caption In this aerial photo taken April 21 more than 50 miles southeast of Venice, La., the Deepwater Horizon oil rig burns. Previous Next Gerald Herbert/AP 
 
 Hide caption Tendrils of oil mar the waters of the Gulf of Mexico in this satellite image taken Monday. An estimated 5,000 barrels of oil a day are seeping into the Gulf, after an explosion last week on a drilling rig about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. Previous Next Courtesy of Digital Globe 1 of 36 i View slideshow 
 
 "We have fabricated and will have on location by next weekend a subsea containment system, with the intention of containing the leak," he said. Hayward described the device as "a dome ... that sits over the top of the wellhead and channels the oil to the surface, where it can be contained." 
 
 Such an operation, he said, had "never been done at 5,000 feet." 
 
 Eight robotic submarines were working around the clock to fix the well's blowout preventer — a "fail safe" that nonetheless was unable to prevent the spill, Hayward said, adding that the mechanism's failure was unprecedented. 
 
 "No one understands why it failed," he said. 
 
 The company is also in the process of drilling a relief well to isolate the well. 
 
 Hayward said 700 fishing vessels had been deployed to support its effort to contain the spill. "In the last 48 hours, we have trained over 3,000 people [who have] signed up on the volunteer program, so there is an enormous effort to work with the local communities," he said. "I talked with a fisherman who was on the program. He was loading his vessel with oil booms to go and deploy them." 
 
 He declined to say whether he supported a proposal by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) to temporarily halt all offshore oil drilling until the exact cause of the accident is determined. 
 
 "We clearly need to understand what has happened here and that will come out with the investigation," Hayward said.
– A massive cleanup effort has been ordered on a quietly devastating oil spill that's been contaminating the Gulf of Mexico for 14 years. The Washington Post reports the US Coast Guard has mandated Taylor Energy "institute a … system to capture, contain, or remove oil" from the affected site off the Louisiana coast, infused with up to 30,000 gallons (about 700 barrels) of oil a day since Hurricane Ivan destroyed a company oil platform in 2004, per DOJ estimates. Contractors commissioned by Taylor Energy had previously said the oil spill was minimal, at the most around 2,000 gallons a day. If the company doesn't comply with the Coast Guard's new decree, it could be hit with a fine of up to $40,000 per day. To put it in context, the BP Deepwater Horizon spill dumped 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf before it was capped after 87 days in July 2010; the Taylor spill could be at 3.5 million barrels. The Taylor spill remained hidden from the public by both the company and the Coast Guard for six years after the hurricane. It was discovered only when nonprofits and environmental groups investigating the BP spill came upon oil slicks that didn't appear to be related to that particular incident. Taylor Energy—which contends the oil "sheens" on the surface of the water aren't from leaking wells, but from oil and gas floating up from the oil-heavy seafloor—says full containment of the leak could cost more than $1 billion, the Times-Picayune reports. Still, "the time to clean this up was 14 years ago," a rep for the Gulf Restoration Network says. "Taylor Energy has shown nothing but negligence all this time." (The largest tanker oil spill in three decades happened earlier this year.)