SAN LEON — A leaking pipeline that spilled oil into a canal prompted firefighters to close FM 517 at Avenue R in San Leon on Friday.
San Leon volunteer firefighters arrived early Friday morning at the spill, which drained into a wet canal that runs from Dickinson Bay under FM 517 to a nearby power plant.
Firefighters and the Texas Department of Transportation blocked the highway between Avenue R and 27th Street.
A U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said the road would reopen at 9:30 p.m.
Craig Cook, an oil spill response officer with the Texas General Land Office, said the spill was stopped Friday morning and that cleanup efforts were under way. He noted the mitigation could take “at least a couple of days.”
A steel barrier, which was erected after Sept. 11, 2001, to block boater access to the northern reaches of the two-mile canal, prevented the spill from reaching Dickinson Bay, Cook said.
“We received a call that someone was smelling fumes in the area, and we investigated with the Coast Guard and found oil in the canal between the power plant and the barrier,” Cook said.
Investigators found two spill areas, one 5 feet in diameter and the other 3 feet across, where oil was bubbling from the ground from a breached, underground pipeline.
Investigators found no reason to believe the spill involved foul play, he said.
Andrea Morrow, a spokeswoman with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said no orders to evacuate or shelter in place were issued.
Cook and two members of the Coast Guard cited safety concerns as reasons to deny The Daily News access to the closed road to view the spill.
“It didn’t get into Dickinson Bayou and was stopped in the canal, but there was an impact to coastal waters,” Cook said.
A spokesman with the Coast Guard said the spill could potentially affect Dickinson Bayou but that an oil-absorbent boom was placed across the canal’s access point to the bayou.
FM 517 has narrow shoulders near the spill and firefighters closed the road for the cleanup workers’ safety, Cook said.
An investigation on how much oil spilled, who owned the pipeline and what effect the spill had on the environment would follow, Cook said.
It was unclear if the transportation department would close FM 517 this weekend.
