CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – Flint Hills Resources (FHR) received approval from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Texas General Land Office to remove all remaining boom from the waters of Corpus Christi and Nueces Bays following shoreline assessments conducted in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard, the Texas General Land Office, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Accordingly, all boom was removed from North Beach, the Lexington, and the Aquarium. As of yesterday, the 600 feet of boom that remained in a portion of Nueces Bay near the Joe Fulton Corridor was removed. All boom is now removed from Nueces Bay.

The City of Corpus Christi will stop its daily press releases on the oil spill clean-up efforts as of today. However, the City will provide future press releases and other forms of communications to the public if necessary to inform them of incidences of spilled oil occurring and when investigatory updates are received from FHR and the other agencies involved.

It is an anticipated that FHR and their contracted clean-up teams will be on-call for up to six months or longer, if needed, to respond to any remaining materials from this oil spill that might be sighted.

Although no significant material or sheen has been confirmed in the last 10 days, rapid response teams remain in place to respond to resident concerns. Observations can be reported to the Flint Hills Resources Ingleside Response Center at 361-396-2831. The following phone number has been established to receive claims for any damages sustained that are associated with this incident: 1-800-254-1122.

FHR will continue working with marine and wildlife experts as the number of deceased birds is at 13. One turtle was treated for potential exposure.

Flint Hills Resources continues to work in full cooperation, oversight, and coordination with local, state, and federal authorities.

The cause of the incident is still under investigation.

Since the spill on Saturday, December 24, all area beaches have remained open, and no swimming or fishing bans were put in place. Over 3,000 absorbent pads and 60,000 feet of boom were used in the cleanup efforts for the following areas:

-Near Dock 5 at the Flint Hills Resources Ingleside Crude Oil Terminal

-The Ship Channel

-North Beach

-Indian Point

-Nueces Bay

-The Rookery Island

-Dredge Material Placement Area (DMPA10)

-Corpus Christi Marina

-University Beach at TAMU-CC

Below is a timeline of events and milestones since the oil spill occurred on Saturday, December 24.

December 24 – Emergency personnel began skimming and boom operations in the late night of Christmas Eve.

December 25 – Flint Hills Resources began sending out media releases and handling all media calls directly; The Port of Corpus Christi was closed to traffic on Christmas day leaving as many as 20 ships waiting for clearance to enter the ship channel.

December 26 – The Port of Corpus Christi was reopened to ship traffic.

January 3 – FHR, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Texas General Land Office, and Texas Parks & Wildlife report seeing less and less oil material as cleanup efforts continued.

January 6 – FHR received approval to remove all boom from North Beach, the U.S.S. Lexington, the Texas State Aquarium.

January 10 – During the City Manager’s Report portion of yesterday’s City Council Meeting, the City Manager, with Flint Hills Resources representatives in attendance, provided the City Council with a briefing displaying a timeline of events and the progress of clean-up and recovery efforts.

January 11 – FHR removed the remaining 600 feet of boom located on the backside of Nueces Bay near the Joe Fulton Corridor.

Although not every date in-between December 24 and today is shown in the timeline, media releases and other forms of communication were issued by the Incident Command Team on a daily basis starting on December 25 through today, January 12