User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 

Oil leaked Tuesday from a damaged well on a waterway north of a bay where officials have been fighting the spill from the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Coast Guard said the tow boat Pere Ana C. struck the wellhead near Mud Lake early Tuesday. The boat was moved to LaRose after the incident. No injuries were reported.

The Coast Guard did not know who owns the well or how much oil had leaked. However, a sheen was spotted in the lake. Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts said oil was spewing from the wellhead.

Lt. Brian Sattler said a helicopter was dispatched to survey the area, which is accessible only by boat.

Sattler said state and federal agencies were alerted and authorities were in the process of hiring someone to stop the leak.

Mud Lake is part of a network of bayous and lakes north of Barataria Bay, an ecologically sensitive coastal estuary where authorities have been fighting waves of oil from the Deepwater Horizon accident.