The numbers don’t lie: two weeks ago, skimmers picked up about 25,000 barrels of oily water. Last Thursday, they gathered just 200 barrels.
Still, it doesn’t mean that all the oil that gushed for weeks is gone. Thousands of small oil patches remain below the surface, but experts say an astonishing amount has disappeared, reabsorbed into the environment.
“[It's] mother nature doing her job,” said Ed Overton, a professor of environmental studies at Louisiana State University.
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Clean-up crews having trouble finding oil in the Gulf
Obama issues new moratorium to override court’s rejection
The Obama administration took another crack today at imposing a moratorium on deep water oil drilling in the Gulf Coast, saying it remains concerned about safety in the wake of the BP oil spill.
“The president has and continues to believe that we have to be careful with what we’re doing, given the uncertainty about what happened 84 days ago,” said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, referring to the ongoing Gulf Coast oil spill.
A federal judge struck down a previous moratorium, and an appeals court rejected the administration’s request to reinstate it. Gibbs said the new moratorium will address the legal concerns raised by the courts, including new evidence of potential safety problems.
Coast guard delays cleanup barges
ABC News, “BP Oil Spill: Against Gov. Jindal’s Wishes, Crude-Sucking Barges Stopped by Coast Guard”
by David Muir and Bradley Blackburn
“The Coast Guard came and shut them down,” Jindal said. “You got men on the barges in the oil, and they have been told by the Coast Guard, ‘Cease and desist. Stop sucking up that oil.’”
A Coast Guard representative told ABC News that it shares the same goal as the governor.
“We are all in this together. The enemy is the oil,” said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dan Lauer.
But the Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges.
ABC News article continues here.
Jindal takes matters into own hands: Orders barrier wall to be built
ABC News, “Gov. Bobby Jindal Orders National Guard to Build Barrier Wall Off Louisiana Shore”
by David Muir
Eight weeks into the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of the Mexico, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has told the National Guard that there’s no time left to wait for BP, so they’re taking matters into their own hands.
In Fort Jackson, La., Jindal has ordered the Guard to start building barrier walls right in the middle of the ocean. The barriers, built nine miles off shore, are intended to keep the oil from reaching the coast by filling the gaps between barrier islands.
Watch ‘World News’ for more on this story tonight on your ABC station.
ABC News article continues here.
BP announces failure of ‘Top Kill’ procedure
Fox News, “BP Announces Failure of ‘Top Kill’ Procedure to Stop Oil Gusher”
BP admitted defeat Saturday in its attempt to plug the Gulf of Mexico oil leak by pumping mud into a busted well, but is readying yet another approach after repeated failures to stop the crude that’s fouling marshland and beaches.
BP PLC Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the company determined the “top kill” had failed after it spent three days pumping heavy drilling mud into the crippled well 5,000 feet underwater. More than 1.2 million gallons of mud was used, but most of it escaped out of the damaged riser.
In the six weeks since the spill began, the company has failed in each attempt to stop the gusher, as estimates of how much oil is leaking grow more dire. The spill is the worst in U.S. history — exceeding even the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster — and dumping between 18 million and 40 million gallons into the Gulf, according to government estimates.
Fox News article continues here.
BP tube getting 1/5 of gushing oil
Fox News, “BP Tube Getting Over One-Fifth of Gushing Oil, Executives Say”
BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said a mile-long tube has been collecting more than one-fifth of the oil that’s spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from a blown-out well.
Speaking Monday on NBC’s “Today” show, Suttles said the tube has been siphoning more than 1,000 barrels a day, or 42,000 gallons. BP has estimated about 5,000 barrels a day, or 210,000 gallons a day, has been leaking out.
He said they hope to be able to collect more oil as they ramp up the effort but they won’t be able to get all of it.
Fox News article continues here.
BP caps one of the three oil leaks
Fox News, “British Petroleum Caps One of Three Gulf Oil Leaks”
British Petroleum was able to cap one of the three Gulf of Mexico oil leaks on the Deepwater Horizon overnight, officials confirmed to New Orleans’ Fox 8 on Wednesday, but the oil giant will still move ahead with a specially built giant concrete-and-steel box designed to siphon the oil away.
Spokesman Curtis Thomas said that the new cap does not necessarily lessen the amount of oil coming out but will help when trying to cap the other two leaks.
A new valve was put on the leak Tuesday night to stop the flow. However, Thomas said 5,000 barrels of oil were still leaking into the Gulf Of Mexico.
“It doesn’t lessen the flow, it just simplifies the number of leak points they have to address,” Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class David Mosley said.
Fox News article continues here.
Crews to deploy oil dome to cap spill
Fox News (AP), “Crews Prepare to Deploy Oil Dome, but Will It Work?”
The best short-term solution to bottling up a disastrous oil spill threatening sea life and livelihoods along the Gulf Coast should be arriving on Wednesday in the form of a specially built giant concrete-and-steel box designed to siphon the oil away.
Crews for contractor Wild Well Control were putting the finishing touches Tuesday on the 100-ton containment dome. A barge at about midday would haul the contraption to the spot 50 miles offshore where a mile-deep gusher from a blown-out undersea well has been spewing at least 210,000 gallons of crude a day into the Gulf for two weeks. BP spokesman John Curry said it would be deployed on the seabed by Thursday.
It’s the latest idea that engineers from oil giant BP PLC were trying since an oil rig the company was operating exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers. It sank two days later, when the oil started pouring into the Gulf. BP is in charge of the cleanup and President Obama and many others say the company also is responsible for the costs.
Fox News (AP) article continues here.
Gulf oil spill could reach shore tonight
Yahoo! News (AP), “Gulf oil spill could reach shore Thursday night”
by Cain Burdeau
The edge of a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was expected to reach the Mississippi River delta by Thursday night and a new technique to break up the oil a mile underwater could be tried, officials said.
As of this morning, part of the slick was about 3 miles from the Louisiana shore, said National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration spokesman Charles Henry said. It’s too late to stop some of the spill from reaching the coast, but BP PLC said it might attempt to break up some of the oil spewing from a blown-out a mile under water.
The company also has asked the Department of Defense if it can help with better underwater equipment than is available commercially, said BP PLC chief operating officer Doug Suttles.
Yahoo! News (AP) article continues here.
Coast Guard to burn Gulf oil slick
MSNBC (AP), “Coast Guard to burn Gulf oil slick”
Crews geared up to set fire to oil leaking from the site of an exploded drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, a last-ditch effort to get rid of it before it reaches environmentally sensitive marshlands on the coast.
A 500-foot boom will be used to corral several thousand gallons of the thickest oil on the surface, which will then be towed to a more remote area, set on fire, and allowed to burn for about an hour, the Coast Guard said. Such burns will continue throughout the day if they are working.
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad hereIt was unclear what would be used to set the oil on fire and how far from shore it would burn. The slick was about 20 miles east of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
MSNBC (AP) article continues here.