http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2011/06/authorities_continue_to_invest.html
Times-Picayune
Louisiana Environment and Flood Control > Breaking News
Published: Thursday, June 09, 2011, 3:50 PM Updated: Thursday, June 09, 2011, 4:00 PM
By Paul Purpura, The Times-Picayune
Federal authorities continued their investigation today to identify and determine the source of an oily substance fishers discovered Wednesday in Breton Sound.
The brown oil-like substance was floating about two miles southeast of Baptiste Collette Pass and has not touched land, according to the Coast Guard.
The agency conducted an aerial inspection in the area of North Breton Island today with Plaquemines and St. Bernard parish officials in a Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry patrol airplane, Petty Officer Steve Lehmann said.
Samples that Coast Guard pollution inspectors gathered Wednesday have been sent to a laboratory for analysis, and another day or more could pass before results are in, a spokesman said.
A fisherman notified authorities Wednesday morning after spotting the substance Plaquemines Parish officials feared was remnant oil from last year’s Deepwater Horizon catastrophy.
A private company, Oil Mop, has been hired and has sent barges and work boats to the scene, according to the Coast Guard.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement is investigating with the Coast Guard.
A charter fishing captain took this cellphone photo of a suspected oil slick off the coast of Plaquemines Parish. June 8, 2011
Paul Purpura can be reached at 504.826.3791 or ppurpura@timespicayune.com.
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Special thanks to Richard Charter