The Coast Guard and state agencies are continuing to respond to an oil discharge from a hole in an XTO Energy pipeline in a marsh area near Pointe à la Hache, Louisiana

Coast Guard continues response to oil discharge near Pointe à la Hache
December 1st, 2017

NEW ORLEANS – The Coast Guard and state agencies are continuing to respond to an oil discharge from a hole in a pipeline in a marsh area near Pointe à la Hache, Louisiana, Thursday.

Coast Guard Sector New Orleans Incident Management Division reports approximately 1,260 gallons of product have been recovered through the use of boom, sorbent pads, drum skimmer package, and rope-mope skimmer package



An in-situ burn will be conducted to remove the bulk of the remaining oil from the impacted marsh. Plans for the in-situ burn have been approved and the burn is scheduled to start at 11 a.m., Friday. Air monitoring will be conducted during the burn.

Personnel from Teichman Group LLC, OMI Environmental Solutions, New Orleans, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinators Office, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, and Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries are responding to the incident.

The source of the discharge is secured.

The pipeline is owned by XTO Energy.

There are no reported injuries or waterway restrictions due to the incident.

The cause of the incident remains under investigation.

Read the previous report of the discharge here.



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Coast Guard responds to oil discharge near Pointe à la Hache
Nov 23rd, 2017 · Comments Off on Coast Guard responds to oil discharge near Pointe à la Hache

NEW ORLEANS – The Coast Guard is responding to a report of an approximately 504-gallon oil discharge from a hole in a pipeline in a marsh area near Pointe à la Hache, Louisiana, Wednesday.



The source of the discharge is secured.

Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector New Orleans received the report of the discharge at 2:40 p.m.

OMI Environmental Solutions, an oil spill response organization, is on scene in response to the incident.

Members from Sector New Orleans Incident Management Division are en route to the scene to investigate the discharge.

The pipeline is owned by XTO Energy.

There are no reported injuries, or waterway restrictions due to the incident.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.

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Spilled pipeline oil in lower Plaquemines is burned, site to be evaluated Tuesday
Updated Dec 2, 10:02 PM; Posted Dec 2, 10:01 PM
A controlled burn is seen in the distance to remove oil spilled after a pipeline leak near Pointe a la Hache in lower Plaquemines Parish on Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, the Coast Guard said. (U.S. Coast Guard)



By Manuel Torres

mtorres@nola.com,

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

A controlled burn to remove oil spilled after a pipeline leak near Pointe a la Hache in lower Plaquemines Parish went on as planned and air monitoring afterward showed no troubling results, the Coast Guard said Saturday (Dec. 2).

The pipeline owned by XTO Energy was reported to be leaking to the Coast Guard at 2:40 p.m. Thursday. As of Thursday night, officials said, they'd removed 1,260 gallons of "product" using absorbent materials. The agency, in a press release, said fire was used to burn spilled oil in the marsh on Friday, from 12 p.m. to 3:40 p.m.

"Air monitoring was conducted and the results showed no level of concern," the agency said.

The press notice doesn't indicate how much oil was removed in total. Coast Guard and other officials plan to return to the site Tuesday to see if additional measures are needed.

Contractors Teichman Group LLC and OMI Environmental Solutions, as well as several agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinators Office, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, and Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries are involved in the effort.

The Coast Guard said the pipeline is secured and there are no reported injuries or waterway restrictions. The cause of the spill is under investigation.

A female contract worker Yesenia Espinoza, 31, employed by Echo Maintenance LLC, died when a pipe fell and struck her on the head at ExxonMobil Corp’s refinery in Beaumont, Texas

A female contract worker Yesenia Espinoza, 31, employed by Echo Maintenance LLC, died when a pipe fell and struck her on the head at ExxonMobil Corp’s refinery in Beaumont, Texas

The worker killed on a construction project at the Exxon Mobil refinery in Beaumont died after she was hit by a piece of piping, according to a suit filed by her family Monday.

Yesenia Espinoza, 31, was working for Echo Maintenance on a construction project.

In the suit, filed in Jefferson County, Houston attorney Mynor "Eddie" Rodriguez alleges that Exxon Mobil, Bechtel and Echo Maintenance were negligent and caused Espinoza's wrongful death.

>> Read the suit here.

The petition alleges that the piping that hit Espinoza was "improperly rigged and handled" by the companies.

Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Ashley Alemayehu said today that the incident is still under investigation.

Judge Donald Floyd signed a temporary order Tuesday, prohibiting the companies from modifying, altering or disposing of "the facility or any of its component parts involved in the death of Yesenia Espinoza."

The order prevents the companies from moving or transporting any parts of the facility without permission from the Court, and protects tools, machinery or clothing involved in her death, as well as records or photographs related to the incident.

The order is in place until Dec. 13, when Floyd will hold a hearing and decide whether to issue a temporary injunction extending the order.

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Contract worker dies in accident at Exxon's Beaumont refinery


(Reuters) - A female contract worker was fatally injured on Friday while working on a construction project at ExxonMobil Corp’s refinery in Beaumont, Texas, a company spokeswoman said.


ExxonMobil spokeswoman Charlotte Huffaker said the woman was employed by Echo Maintenance LLC, which does construction for refineries and chemical plants.

Sources familiar with plant operations said the worker died when a pipe fell and struck her on the head.

Production was not affected by Friday’s accident, the sources said. The refinery is already operating at 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) below its 362,300 bpd capacity because the smaller of two crude distillation units (CDUs) remains shut following a Tuesday fire.

The 110,000 bpd CDU sustained heavy damage in the Tuesday morning blaze that caused no injuries.

A spokeswoman at Echo’s Port Arthur, Texas, headquarters said the company had no immediate comment.

The woman was working a project to build a SCANfinig unit, which removes sulfur from gasoline to comply ultra-low sulfur gasoline standards, the sources said. SCAN stands for Selective Cat Naphtha hydrofining.

The worker was 31 years old, according to the sources. She was struck by a 24-inch (61-cm) pipe.

In May 2016, a contract worker was struck in the head by a pipe on a construction project at the Beaumont refinery and died. 

Echo Maintenance is a full-service industrial general contractor providing diverse support for maintenance, capital projects and turnarounds to petrochemical and chemical refineries in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico.
Whether we're working independently or together with our affiliated companies, we provide a comprehensive range of cohesive services, delivered seamlessly.

• Pipe, structural and sheet
  metal fabrication
• Special insulation
• Project management
• Vessel and tower
  fabrication
• Machine shop
• Blinds
• Civil and foundation
  installation
• Industrial sandblasting and
  painting
• Plate rolling
• Scaffolding

ECHO is one of the largest direct-hire merit shop contractors in Southeast Texas.

Muslim truck driver Mohamed Yussuf Jama, 53, of Greeley, Colo., smashed his semi-trailer truck into seven cars at highway speed, killing two Staunton sisters (Hailey Bertels, 20, and Madisen Bertels,17,) their friend (Tori Carroll, 20, of Alhambra) and another student on I-55 in Illinois

There is new information about the crash that killed four people on Interstate 55 near Hamel, Ill.

Illinois State Police said Mohamed Yussuf Jama, 53, of Colorado was the driver of a truck that crashed into several vehicles.

Police said he was driving the tractor-trailer when it crashed into vehicles that had slowed for a construction zone last week.

Four young women died from their injuries in the crash: Hailey Bertels, 20, and Madisen Bertels,17, of Staunton and Tori Carroll, 20, of Alhambra and Vivian Vu, 19, of Joplin.

The investigation is ongoing.



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Police release identity of trucker in crash that killed 4 near Hamel

By Denise Hollinshed St. Louis Post-Dispatch



MADISON COUNTY, IL--

Police on Saturday said a Greeley, Colo., man was the driver of a semi-tractor trailer that plowed into seven vehicles on Interstate 55 on Nov. 21, killing four people.

The truck driver was identified as Mohamed Yussuf Jama, 53, according to Trooper Calvin Dye Jr., a spokesman for the Illinois State Police.

Dye said the investigation is continuing and no charges have been filed yet.

The crash killed Tori Carroll, 20, of Alhambra, who was a front-seat passenger in a 2010 Kia with sisters Hailey Joann Bertels, 20, and Madisen Bertels, 17, of Staunton, and Vivian Vu, of Joplin, Mo., who was in a different vehicle.



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Police identify truck driver in Illinois crash that killed four
Posted 4:48 pm, December 2, 2017, by Associated Press





HAMEL, Ill. – Illinois State Police say a Colorado man was the driver of a truck that crashed into several vehicles on Interstate 55 in southwestern Illinois, killing four people.

Police spokesman Calvin Dye Jr. says 53-year-old Mohamed Yussuf Jama of Greeley was driving the tractor-trailer when it crashed into vehicles that had slowed or stopped in a construction zone near Hamel on Nov. 21.

Dye told the Belleville News-Democrat that no citations had been issued to Jama as of Saturday. An investigation was continuing.

The crash killed 20-year-old Tori Carroll of Alhambra; 20-year-old Hailey Bertels and her 17-year-old sister, Madisen Bertels, of Staunton; and 19-year-old Vivian Vu of Joplin, Missouri.

Hamel is about 30 miles northeast of St. Louis.



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Police Release Name of Muslim Semi Truck Driver in Mysterious Crash on 1-55 That Killed 4 Women



Illinois State Police on Saturday released the name of the driver who was behind the wheel of a semi that smashed into seven cars at highway speed, killing two Staunton sisters, their friend and another student.

Mohamed Yussuf Jama, 53, of Greeley, Colo., was the truck driver, according to Illinois State Police spokesman Calvin Dye Jr.


Citations - Jama - Saturday No citations had been issued to Jama as of Saturday.

State Police investigators are reviewing Jama’s medical records, toxicology, commercial driver log books and the truck, Dye said.


Jama - Freightliner - Cascadia - Cars - Interstate Jama’s 2016 Freightliner Cascadia slammed into cars on Interstate 55 with no attempt to slow down.

Wake up folks, these m..f..ing Muslims continue to kill our people on a drip, drip, drip basis.

Bay Bridge toll collector Si Si Han, 46, was killed and Daniel Berk, 32, the driver of a Monarch rental truck, arrested Saturday on suspsicion of DUI after his box truck slammed into a line of vehicles, then crashed into the toll plaza

Si Han is seen in this undated image with her mother in Yosemite National Park. (Courtesy of ABC7 News)

OAKLAND, CA — A Bay Bridge toll collector was killed and the driver of a truck arrested Saturday after his box truck slammed into a line of vehicles, then crashed into the toll plaza, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The multi-vehicle wreck caused massive traffic delays throughout the day. Si Si Han is seen in this undated image with her mother in Yosemite National Park. (Courtesy of ABC7 News)

Daniel Berk, 32, of Foster City, who was ejected and seriously injured from the crash, was subsequently arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and manslaughter, according to the CHP.

A statement by Gov. Jerry Brown identified the toll taker as Si Si Han, 46. Her city of residence was not released, but a public records search indicated that she lived in San Lorenzo.


Han was a California Department of Transportation employee for more than a decade and is survived by her husband, Ryan, and their 10-year-old daughter, Ashly, according to the governor’s statement.

Berk and his passenger were thrown from the truck when the box truck from Monarch Truck Rentals struck and demolished the No. 14 toll booth. Berk suffered serious injuries; the extent of the passenger’s injuries was not immediately known, CHP Officer Vu Williams said. The two people from the truck and four people from other vehicles were taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland, he said.

“Investigators were able to determine there were signs of impairment,” Williams said of the driver. “They obtained a warrant for a blood draw.”

The wreck occurred in the westbound lanes of Interstate 80 at the toll plaza about 5:15 a.m. and resulted in several other, non-life-threatening injuries, Williams said. The truck, described as a medium-sized rental box truck, slammed into the back of at least one line of vehicles waiting at the toll plaza, causing a chain reaction, Williams said. The truck then continued toward the toll plaza and destroyed the booth. Six vehicles, including the truck, were involved in the wreck.

“Based on the damage, it wasn’t a low-speed collision,” Williams said.

Immediately after the crash, toll lanes 14 to 17 were blocked, the CHP said. Ultimately, the toll plaza’s 10 rightmost lanes — six cash/FasTrak lanes, two FasTrak lanes and two bus lanes — were closed, Williams said. In addition, access from northbound Interstate 880 to the bridge was limited. The lanes were eventually opened late Saturday, according to the CHP.

The cause of the wreck was under investigation. As of midday, officers had not spoken to the driver of the truck, Williams said.

Despite a number of recent attacks using box trucks to strike pedestrians, authorities do not believe this was an intentional act, Williams said. “We haven’t developed any indication of that.”

A receptionist at Monarch said she was not allowed to talk to the media about the incident and took a message for her supervisor.

Berk’s Facebook page claimed that he was a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 134 out of Santa Clara County. He posted numerous concert and music jobs he worked.

Capitol Corridor bus service from Emeryville to San Francisco was also suspended because of the crash, the agency said on Twitter.

Gov. Brown said flags at the Capitol will be flown at half-staff in Han’s honor.



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A 32-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular manslaughter Saturday after crashing a rented box truck into a Bay Bridge tollbooth, killing the attendant inside, the California Highway Patrol said.

The driver was identified as Daniel Berk, 32, of Foster City. He was badly hurt in the crash and was being treated at Highland Hospital in Oakland, along with a passenger and occupants of five cars that were hit before the truck demolished a tollbooth on the north side of the plaza at 5:11 a.m.

The tollbooth attendant, 46-year-old Caltrans employee Si Si Han, was killed. Berk and his passenger were ejected as the truck was split apart, and debris was strewn across the north side of the toll plaza.

CHP Officer Vu Williams said the truck was filled with what he described as lighting or sound equipment. After hitting the five other vehicles, it plowed through the barrier in front of Lane 15 and hit the tollbooth.

The damage was substantial. “I’ve never seen this,” Williams said. “I’ve seen them damage the booth before. Never to this extent.” Williams said that this is the first fatality involving a toll plaza worker in his nine years with the CHP.

He said he did not have an estimate of how fast the truck was driving when the collision occurred. But “it wasn’t slow speed,” Williams said.

The CHP did not immediately say whether the substance Berk was suspected of using was alcohol or drugs.

Berk, according to LinkedIn, works as a stage tech engineer. On Facebook, he lists himself as a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 16 in San Francisco.

A person who answered a phone that belongs to a relative of Berk’s said, “I’m sorry, we’re not going to be giving any comment at this time.”

The truck had been rented from Monarch Truck Center in San Jose, said Steve Russler, an employee with the company. He declined to give any other information.

Gov. Jerry Brown released a statement saying he and his wife, Anne Gust Brown, “are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of Caltrans toll collector Si Si Han, who died today while serving the traveling public. On behalf of all Californians, we extend our condolences to her family, co-workers and friends.”

Han worked as a Caltrans toll taker for a decade, said agency spokesman Bob Haus. She is survived by her husband, Ryan Saw, and a 10-year-old daughter, Ashly.

Six toll lanes heading westbound — Nos. 12 through 17 — and the northern FasTrak and bus lanes were closed into the evening. The northbound Interstate 880 connector to westbound Interstate 80 was also shut down. All lanes were reopened by Saturday night, said Caltrans spokesman Bob Haus. By Monday morning, officials hoped to reopen three of the four damaged tollbooths, but the remaining booth that was completely wiped out by the crash will take much longer to repair, Haus said.