And they haven't been reporting it as required by law.
After reviewing four years of testing, purchasing, and engineering documents, I've concluded the Corps of Engineers has been spilling oil into the waters of Lake Pontchartrain - 40 spills totalling between 2000 and 6000 gallons, at least - and not reporting it to the Coast Guard as required by federal law. The federal penalties for failure to report an oil spill include imprisonment up to five years and fines up to $50,000 per day the spill went unreported.
Mostly, the oil has been spilling out of the troubled hydraulic pumps first installed by the Corps post-Katrina in 2006, and then heavily modified continually repaired for a year after they were found to be defective. Poor engineering choices made months after the original installation left the pumps corroding to bits since 2007. In some cases, hydraulic oil has been pouring out of hand-sized holes in pipes, hundreds of gallons at a time.
The Corps' response has been a years-late, completely unpublicized, lackadaisical program of overhauls that still leaves three quarters of the hydraulic pumps rusting to failure today. They have not set aside enough funds to complete even half the necessary repairs. Currently the city of New Orleans faces hurricane season with a pumping system that will likely fail when stressed to the most minor degree. In a major storm, stormwater will back up to terrible heights in the city because these pumps - which will not be working - won't be able to evacuate it past the Corps' gates.
And all the while, oil seeps out of the pumps and continues to not get reported to the feds and the state of Louisiana. 29 of the 40 spills I've found were not reported to federal authorities - a stunningly high number that should be zero.
Details are at Fix the Pumps.