Incident News

Initial Report: On August 22, 2025, at 1:13 pm CT, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was notified by the Louisiana State Police (LSP) of an explosion and fire from above-ground storage tanks at the Smitty’s Supply Inc. facility located in the Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana. According to the LSP, the cause of the explosion is currently unknown. There are several residential properties near the facility, and an evacuation order within a 1-mile radius of the facility has been activated. Within hours of the notification, EPA deployed an EPA on-scene coordinator and technical assistance contractor (START) personnel to the response command post in Roseland to conduct community air monitoring and document the facility’s efforts to secure the release. There are currently 18 EPA employees and contractor staff providing support to the response effort. In addition, EPA's Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology (ASPECT) aircraft has been activated and is performing wide-area air screening to support on-the-ground monitoring efforts. EPA is coordinating with multiple agencies and participating in Unified Command with Tangipahoa Parish, the Louisiana State Police, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security, the Louisiana Department on Environmental Quality, and the National Weather Service (NWS). RRT 6 was activated on August 26 for technical support after EPA Region 6 assumed lead for response. An ISRT call was conducted on 26 Aug 26 and was attended by NOAA RRT 6 Rep and alternate. No specific requests for support from NOAA OR&R at this time. Impacts are currently restricted to EPA AOR, but waterway (Tangipahoa River) discharges into lake Pontchartrain. Site profile: https://response.epa.gov/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=17038

Initial Report: On 8/18/2025, a discharge from a heating oil tank in the basement of Point Higgins Elementary School, Ketchikan, Alaska was discovered. On 8/21/2025, the discharge volume was upgraded from 200 up to 2,750 gallons. The basement did not contain the spill and fuel is ponding in the surrounding woods and reached the adjacent marine waters (Clover Pass, West Behm Canal).

Initial Report: At 6:30 pm on 30 July, 2025, U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Northern Great Lakes notified the NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator (SSC) about a 30 gallon release of hydraulic fluid from the Barge PRESQUE ISLE. Release occurred at 9:45 pm (local time) on 29 July. USCG requesting trajectory.