18-year oil spill in Gulf: 1M gallons collected since 2019 | Lifestyles

“As of July 12, 2022, 1,016,929 gallons of oil have been collected from the MC-20 site” over more than three years, the Coast Guard said in a news release. That amount – more than 3.8 million liters – would fill about 1.5 Olympic swimming pools.

The Coast Guard said that the containment system it ordered is collecting an average of about 900 gallons of oil a day.

Neither agency estimated the 18-year total.

Some earlier estimates put the daily maximum at 33 times the current daily amount, but that figure is also far above early government estimates of 7.5 gallons a day in 2012 and 12 gallons a day in 2015.

Estimates were even lower from Taylor, which unsuccessfully took the Coast Guard and its contractor to court over the containment system.

The New Orleans-based company agreed in December 2021 to drop three lawsuits, turn over a $432 million cleanup trust fund and pay an additional $43 million to settle a federal lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Greg Gerard Guidry signed the settlement in March, according to online court records.

The trust fund money went to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to pay for continuing efforts to plug the well and stop the spill, NOAA said in its press release.

“Experts continue to work on a permanent solution,” the agency said.