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Cleaning Up a Diesel Oil Spill at Texas Point Wildlife Refuge

A Coast Guard officer in an orange life vest and ball cap watches over a flood-water cleanup site, where a large rusted oil tank sits surrounded by containment booms and airboats with workers.

Collection

USCG Released photos Hurricane Rita

SABINE, Texas (Oct. 3, 2005)- Petty Officer Bryan Nystrom, Coast Guard Atlantic Strike Team, and Jeff Greylok, Texas General Land Office, oversee clean up and containment response Monday at a leaking Sabine Offshore Services tank near Texas Point, Texas, in the wake of Hurricane Rita. The 130,000 gallon capacity diesel tank was moved by Rita three miles from its original position into a marsh area of the Texas Point Wildlife Refuge. The leaking tank had approximately 67,000 gallons in it from the reported 100,000 gallons were in the tank prior to the Hurricane. The sensitive location, the middle of the marsh, made the removal of the oil and salvage challenging. The Coast Guard and Texas General Land Office are on scene overseeing contractors removal of the diesel fuel. The tank has been slowly leaking diesel fuel which has been contained in the booms and removed. Removal of the fuel started on Monday, and will take approximately three days.

Citation

“Cleaning Up a Diesel Oil Spill at Texas Point Wildlife Refuge,” Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, accessed November 3, 2026, https://hurricanearchive.org/items/show/2384.