Six months ago, BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, killing eleven men and beginning an ecological catastrophe that flooded the Gulf of Mexico with approximately five million barrels of oil over the ensuing months. The effort to assess the damage continues, as does the tortuous claims process for the thousands of affected residents.
Following news headlines that the oil had “largely disappeared” by August, nearly all of the Gulf waters closed to fishing have been reopened, and the Coast Guard has declared “very little recoverable oil” remains. However, as Brad Johnson explains the disaster is not over:
Just three days after the U.S. Coast Guard admiral in charge of the BP oil spill cleanup declared little recoverable surface oil remained in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana fishers Friday found miles-long strings of weathered oil floating toward fragile marshes on the Mississippi River delta.
New Orleans Times-Picayune photojournalist Matt Hinton confirmed the sightings in an overflight of Louisiana’s West Bay:
Because of the disaster, BP’s third quarter profit was only $4.6 billion.
– Brad Johnson, in a ThinkProgress cross-post.
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Perhaps you mean 5 million barrels, rather than 5 million gallons? One widely accepted estimate is 185 million gallons of crude from this spill. 5 million gallons is certainly too low. Valdez was 11 million gallons.
[JR: Good catch.]
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/10/coast_guard_says_substance_fou.html
Chase says (#1): ” …Valdez was 11 million gallons.”
11 million gallons is the watered down, officially accepted estimate of the Exxon Valdez spill. A more realistic estimate is 30-35 million gallons. More details at these links:
http://www.adn.com/2010/06/05/1309722/size-of-exxon-spill-remains-disputed.html
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/06/18/01
Just a quick reminder that Frontline will air an investigation into the BP oil spill tommorow night (Tuesday) at 8 p.m. Central. For more information:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-spill/
The ongoing bad news from the Gulf has placed Big Oil in an increasingly desperate fight for its life in the 21st Century. Lawyers are swarming the courts like fire ants in these parts. Whether or not their clients have enough favors to call in remains to be seen. However, the way the Koch boys are openly greasing Scalia and Thomas’ palms makes one wonder. (It also casts a interesting light on Congressman DeFazio’s announced intentions to present impeachment articles against Chief Justice Roberts for perjury.) It’s my understanding that The Hague is leaning in as well. In the meantime our local highways are slowly but surely being taken over by American-made electric, hybrid and economy automobiles.
Jumping Jehosaphat, Joseph, get with the program. Uncle Thaddeus et al refer to this as dirty water. Referring to as oil implies that the job is not done.