Divers Investigate Cause Of Oil Spill Off The Coast Of Louisiana : NPR

President Biden, aboard Marine One, inspects the damage from Hurricane Ida on an aerial tour of communities in Laffite, Grand Isle, Port Fourchon and Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, on Sept. 3, 2021. Port Fourchon is a major oil and gas hub in the Gulf region.

JONATHAN ERNST/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

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JONATHAN ERNST/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

President Biden, aboard Marine One, inspects the damage from Hurricane Ida on an aerial tour of communities in Laffite, Grand Isle, Port Fourchon and Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, on Sept. 3, 2021. Port Fourchon is a major oil and gas hub in the Gulf region.

JONATHAN ERNST/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Divers were working Sunday to locate the source of an oil spill roughly two miles off the coast of Louisiana, in the Bay Marchand area of the Gulf of Mexico, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Coast Guard spokesperson Lt. John Edwards said Houston-based Talos Energy, an oil and gas company with operations in the Gulf, had hired Clean Gulf Associates as the oil spill response organization for the polluted area in Bay Marchand.

Talos has also contracted the dive team that will determine the source of the spill, Edwards said. In the meantime, Edwards said Clean Gulf Associates is running skimmers — devices that help pick up spilled oil from the water — in the region to help mitigate any further environmental impact.

The Coast Guard says it has multiple teams working to determine the extent of the pollution. Once the source of the leak has been identified by divers, the Coast Guard will work on a recovery and source control plan, Edwards said.

Since divers are continuing to retrieve information on the spill, the source remains unclear. The Associated Press reported that although Talos has hired Clean Gulf Associates and divers to find the source of the leak, the company said it does not believe they are responsible. The Coast Guard also said it does not know where the oil may be coming from.

“Talos took the initiative to respond to the pollution report and hired an oil spill response organization, however; the source of the product and the responsible party has not been determined yet,” Coast Guard spokesperson Gabriel Wisdom said.

Talos and Clean Gulf Associates did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Experts say the spill is far enough away for now to avoid major harm

News of the spill in Bay Marchand comes after the Associated Press reported satellite imagery from the National Oceanic and…