Regulators Relax Monitoring Of Decade-old Gulf Oil Leak

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Federal regulators have relaxed a pollution monitoring requirement for a company responsible for a decade-old oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico that could last another century.

In 2008, the Coast Guard ordered Taylor Energy Company to conduct daily flights over the leak site to monitor chronic oil sheens that often stretch for miles off Louisiana's coast.

That requirement remained in effect until December, when the Coast Guard amended the order to reduce the minimum number of required overflights to twice a week.

Regulators didn't announce the change at the time. The Coast Guard confirmed the new order Tuesday in response to an Associated Press inquiry.

Government experts believe oil is still leaking at the site where a Taylor Energy-owned platform toppled during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.