Ingleside, TX — Federal and local officials are dealing with an oil spill at the Falcon Refinery.
Some 25,000 barrels of crude oil spilled out of a ruptured storage tank.
Over two million gallons of oil are kept in the storage tanks at the refinery.
Two of these tanks ruptured causing thousands of gallons to leak.
Crews from the Texas General Land Office at 7:30 Wednesday came started to siphon the oil into another tank for secondary containment.
But the crew got an unfortunate surprise when that secondary containment tank started to leak.
Jimmy Martinez, the regional director of the Texas General Land Office said, "Oil has gotten into the secondary containment. We found 3 different locations where the oil escaped the secondary containment and now we have some free floating oil outside what they call a duck pond directly behind the facility here."
Crews from the environmental protection agency's emergency response team have flown in from Dallas. They are here to oversee the operation; specifically monitoring the oil's proximity to the coastline, and making sure that oil does not run into redfish bay.
No injuries to humans to report, but four oily birds were taken to the ARK in Port Aransas.
The EPA has previously classified this area as a potentially hazardous zone back in 2002.
The clean-up will continue all day Thursday. (Story by Spencer Lubitz)
