Gulf oil spill now largest in U.S. history as BP continues plug effort
Rick Jervis
USA Today
05/27/2010
NEW ORLEANS — The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has spewed more oil than originally estimated, surpassing the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in 1989 in Alaska to become the biggest oil disaster in U.S. history, federal scientists said Thursday.
As the oil spill reached that milestone, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, national incident commander over the spill clean-up operation, said during a news conference Thursday afternoon that mud being shot into the blown-up well 5,000 feet underwater was stopping some oil and gas. But Allen also said that BP, the British energy giant that leased the rig where an April 20 explosion set off the oil spill, was still pumping mud in.
Allen also said he was looking into reports of illness among workers helping with the clean-up efforts, and said in response to a reporter's question that he was not sure if oil dispersants contributed to the dizziness, headaches and nausea reported by seven workers taken to West Jefferson Medical Center in New Orleans. Doctors at the hospital believe the workers were sickened by chemical irritation and dehydration from working in the heat, hospital spokeswoman Taslin Alfonzo said earlier.
Scientists, meanwhile, reported Thursday the discovery of a new plume of what they believe to be oil beneath the Gulf of Mexico, stretching 22 miles from the leaking wellhead toward Mobile Bay, Ala. The plume was detected just below the surface, down to about 3,300 feet and is more than 6 miles wide, said David Hollander, associate professor of chemical oceanography at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science.
Meantime, President Obama issued tough words during a news conference, also on Thursday. He addressed questions by critics as to why the United States did not play a stronger role in facilitating an end to the spill.
"From the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort," Obama told reporters at the White House. "As far as I'm concerned, BP is responsible for this horrific disaster."
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He added that Allen, who is playing a lead role in the efforts to stop the spill, has four decades of experience. More than 1,300 vessels are assisting with containment and cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico, he added. Officials also are relying on a team of scientists and engineers operating out of the country's national laboratories and led by Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Obama said. That group is being aided by scientists and engineers from around the world in figuring out a solution, the president said.
"We will continue to do whatever is necessary to protect and restore the Gulf Coast," Obama said, adding, later, "I realize that this entire response effort will continue to be filtered through the prism of politics ... but that's not what I care about right now."
The president also said he is suspending drilling operations on oil wells and widening a moratorium on new drilling. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar already has been putting changes in place to the agencies that oversee drilling.
When questioned about Thursday's resignation of Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore drilling, Obama said he did not know of the circumstances surrounding Birnbaum's departure.
Obama's words came as patience grew thin among officials in the Gulf Coast and elsewhere about the plumes of oil gushing into the Gulf, threatening wildlife and the environment.
Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday that the well has gushed 500,000 to 1 million gallons a day — greater than the original estimate of 210,000 gallons a day offered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration several weeks ago.
At that pace, at least 17 million gallons and possibly as much as 39 million gallons have spilled into the Gulf in the five weeks since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank 50 miles off Louisiana's coast, killing 11 crew workers and unleashing an ecological emergency. Exxon Valdez spilled about 11 million gallons into Alaska's Prince William Sound.
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BP leased the rig from Transocean and leads the cleanup efforts.
Thursday, BP engineers continued to pump hundreds of thousands of gallons of heavy mud into a massive device atop the runaway well in the latest attempt to stem the flow. The procedure — known as a "top kill" — started Wednesday afternoon and continued through the night, BP spokesman Graham MacEwen said.
"The operation is continuing as planned," he said.
BP and federal officials have come under increased pressure for failing to plug the gushing well and keep oil out of coastal marshes and beaches. The oil has impacted more than 100 miles of Louisiana's coast, including 35 acres of fragile marshland, said Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer.
Suttles said BP officials will monitor the top kill operation for at least 24 hours, gauging pressure coming from the well. More than 7,000 barrels — or 294,000 gallons — of the heavy drilling mud has been jammed into the damaged blowout preventer, he said. About 50,000 barrels of the mud sits on a supply vessel on the surface, ready to be pumped into the device.
