Gulf Coast Oil Spill Much Larger Than First Thought
The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is five times larger than originally thought, the Coast Guard reported on Thursday, and it could spell disaster for the fragile wetlands along the U.S. coast.
During a Wednesday evening press conference, Rear Admiral Mary Landry told reporters the drilling rig that had exploded and sank in the waters near Louisiana on April 20 was leaking 5,000 barrels of crude oil a day, not the 1,000 barrels that Coast Guard officials had previously thought. She also confirmed that a third leak on the rig had been discovered.
Mike Miller, chief of a Canadian oil-well fire-fighting group known as Safety Boss, said this could wind up becoming "biggest oil spill in the world," telling the BBC News, "Probably the only thing comparable to this is the Kuwait fires [after the 1991 Gulf War]“¦ The Exxon Valdez [tanker disaster off Alaska in 1989] is going to pale in comparison to this as it goes on."
The revelation that the slick is larger than expected, coupled with the fact that there is no current timetable when crews might be able to stop the leaking, has environmental groups growing increasingly concerned. The spill is nearing the wetlands habitat, where it could mean "a slow and painful death" for local wildlife, according to Allen Johnson of the AFP.
"High tides and winds can push the oil deep into the marshes," Johnson says in an April 28 article. "Just getting to the slick could take hours–and once there, there’s nothing to stand on, let alone anywhere to set up a command center”¦ The initial toll on wildlife is likely to be high. The final tally could be devastating," wiping out large numbers of birds, mammals, and marine animals.
The Coast Guard successfully managed to burn off parts of the slick on Wednesday, and that successful experiment could lead to a greater push to set daytime fires in order to prevent the oil from washing ashore. Despite the success of the controlled burn, however, Miller told the BBC that it was not a long-term solution to the problem and that the goal was still to cut off the crude oil flow.
Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead as a result of last week’s explosion.
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Image Caption: NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of the Gulf of Mexico on April 25, 2010 using its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. With the Mississippi Delta on the left, the silvery swirling oil slick from the April 20 explosion and subsequent sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform is highly visible. The rig was located roughly 50 miles southeast of the coast of Louisiana. The oil slick may be particularly obvious because it is occurring in the sunglint area, where the mirror-like reflection of the Sun off the water gives the Gulf of Mexico a washed-out look. Oil slicks are notoriously difficult to spot in natural-color (photo-like) satellite imagery because a thin sheen of oil only slightly darkens the already dark blue background of the ocean. Under unique viewing conditions, oil slicks can become visible in photo-like images, but usually, radar imagery is needed to clearly see a spill from space. Image Credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response Team
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