On March 25, 2024 at
9:03AM, the EPA was notified by the National Response Center of a discharge of
an unknown amount of crude oil from the Denbury Resources’ Webster Saltwater
Disposal facility located in Webster, Harris County, Texas.
According to the US Coast Guard (USCG), the spill resulted from a power failure
which caused an unknown amount of saltwater and crude oil to overflow secondary
containment into Horsepen Bayou. A dark brown sheen has been observed as far as
the intersection of Horsepen Bayou and Space Center Blvd which is around 2
miles downstream of the discharge point at the facility. Horsepen Bayou feeds
into Mud Lake; Mud Lake feeds into Clear Lake; and, Clear Lake feeds into the Galveston Bay.
Horsepen Bayou also runs through a suburban residential area. Denbury Resources
(RP) has deployed boom in several locations along Horsepen Bayou and has a clean-up contractor on-site recovering product from Horsepen Bayou.
EPA‘s technical assistance
contractor was activated to assess the size of the spill, to document
the RP’s efforts to clean-up the spill and prevent it from migrating further
along the spill pathway, and to conduct community air monitoring. The USCG and
the Texas Railroad Commission are also responding to the incident. The spill
location is in the EPA Area of Responsibility; therefore, EPA is the lead
agency.
Updates on the status of the RP’s clean-up and containment efforts as well as EPA’s findings and actions will be provided as appropriate on the Notices section of this website.
