Another well gushes oil into waters

Oil and gas leaked from a damaged well on a waterway in Louisiana in the United States on Tuesday, north of a bay where officials have been fighting the spill from the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard said the tow boat Pere Ana C. struck the wellhead near Mud Lake early on Tuesday. No one was hurt and the boat was later moved to LaRose after the incident. The well is abandoned, the Coast Guard said, and a company called Environmental Safety and Health Inc. hired for the cleanup was on site by the afternoon. The Coast Guard did not know who owns the well or how much oil had leaked.
Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the government's point man for the massive BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, said 6,000 feet (1,830 metres) of protective boom was placed around the site. The boom and skimming equipment were already nearby because of the Gulf spill. Chief Petty Officer John Edwards said a strip of oil 50 yards (45 metres) wide and a mile (two kilometres) long was spotted on the water near the well. The extent of the damage beyond that was unclear. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal addressed the media in Grand Isle in Louisiana, and said the tug hit which was towing a barge struck the pipeline at 01:00 local time (0600 GMT) as they were exiting Mud Lake into the Barataria waterway. Jidal said that during the Coast Guard's flight over the well a brownish-orange coloured mixture of oil, gas, and mud could be seen spewing about one hundred feet (30 metres) in the air.
"I want to emphasise this is very different than the deep water incident that happened 5,000 feet (1524 metres) below the surface. This wellhead is one and a half feet (half a metre) above water," he added. Boat captain Clifford Montecino said he couldn't believe it happened again. "I thought here we go again. Here's another one. Thank God this is on a smaller scale than the other one." Mud Lake is part of a network of bayous and lakes north of Barataria Bay, an ecologically sensitive coastal estuary where authorities have been fighting waves of oil from the Deepwater Horizon accident.
Authorities are concerned that the leak could force a halt to water traffic leading into Barataria Bay.
That could hamper efforts to redeploy oil-fighting equipment that was moved inland ahead of last week's Tropical Storm Bonnie.
Meanwhile in Michigan, crews were working on Tuesday to contain and clean up more than 800-thousand gallons (3.02 (m) million litres) of oil that poured into a creek and flowed into the Kalamazoo River, coating birds and fish.
Authorities in Battle Creek and Emmett Township warned residents about the strong odour from the oil, which leaked Monday from a 30-inch (76 centimetres) pipeline built in 1969 that carries about eight (m) million gallons (30 (m) million litres) of oil per day from Griffith, Indiana, to Sarnia, Ontario.
Crews waded in oily water as they worked to stop the oil's advance downstream.
Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge Inc.'s affiliate Enbridge Energy Partners LP of Houston estimated about 819-thousand gallons (3.1 (m) million litres) of oil spilled into Talmadge Creek before the company could stop the flow. Enbridge crews and contractors deployed oil skimmers and absorbent booms to minimise its environmental impact. The company had begun testing the air near the spill, with the primary concern being the possible presence of the cancer-causing chemical benzene.
On Tuesday, the company said it hadn't found any levels that would be of concern in residential areas.
Groundwater testing also was planned. Authorities evacuated two homes near the leak, and some locals said they were concerned about the fumes. But there were no reports of sickened residents.
The cause of spill was under investigation. The oil spilled into the creek, which flows northwest into the river. The site is in Calhoun County's Marshall Township, about 60 miles (96 kilometres) southeast of Grand Rapids. The Kalamazoo River eventually bisects the city of Kalamazoo and meanders to Saugatuck, where it empties into Lake Michigan.
Officials didn't think the oil would spread past Morrow Lake, which has a dam upstream of Kalamazoo
The Michigan Department of Community Health warned the public to stay away from the creek and river during the cleanup.
It also said people shouldn't eat fish from the waterways or have contact with the water, and farmers and homeowners who use the water for irrigation or livestock should stop.