\nlarge chunk of the Gulf of Mexico to fishing, while fears grew that a giant oil
\nslick could be swept to Florida’s beaches and coral reefs<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The cautionary closure,
\ntotaling 45,728 square miles—around 19 percent of the Gulf’s federal waters—was announced as politicians in Washington raged over the apparent lax
\nenforcement of safety standards and grilled government officials over what went
\nwrong.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The chief of the
\nU.S. agency monitoring the spill warned that the “unprecedented and
\ndynamic” slick was on course to sweep along the region’s coastline.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“The
\nproximity of the southeast tendril of oil to the loop current indicates that
\noil is increasingly likely to become entrained in the loop current if it is not
\nalready,” Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
\nAdministration, told a press conference. “When that occurs, oil could
\nreach the Florida Strait in eight to 10 days,” she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Experts are
\nanalyzing at least 20 tar stains found on several beaches on Florida’s southern
\nKeys to determine if they were from the spill.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sen. Bill Nelson
\n(D-Fla.), meanwhile, speaking before a congressional hearing on the disaster,
\ndescribed the prospect of oil hitting his state of Florida and heading up the
\nU.S. eastern seaboard as his “worst nightmare.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The bleak
\nwarnings obscured BP’s positive reports Tuesday of progress in its month-long
\neffort to contain the leak: a tube inserted into a gushing oil pipe is now
\nsucking up about 40 percent of the crude, twice as much as a day earlier. The
\ncompany said its “riser insertion tube tool” is carrying about 2,000
\nbarrels a day of oil up to the Discoverer Enterprise drill ship on the surface
\nvia a mile-long pipe.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
BP reckons about <\/p>\n In Washington, <\/p>\n Worries over the <\/p>\n With hugely <\/p>\n “I think <\/p>\n There are also <\/p>\n An expert from <\/p>\n “Normally, <\/p>\n Louisiana’s <\/p>\n Salazar, in <\/p>\n “The <\/p>\n Salazar said the <\/p>\n Congressional Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n David Brooks to old folks: cities are better now<\/a><\/p>\n Obama’s ocean chief dismisses loop current threat: ‘Very little tarballs!’<\/a><\/p>\n A new oil rush endangers the Gulf of Mexico and the planet<\/a><\/p>\n
\n5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, of crude is spewing each day from the
\nwreckage of the Deepwater Horizon rig, although analysis from independent
\nexperts suggests the flow rate could be many times that<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nthe political firestorm was raging over accounts of lax enforcement of safety
\nstandards and other regulation for offshore drilling, with Interior Secretary
\nKen Salazar pledging to revamp his agency’s Minerals and Management Service<\/a> with “more tools, more resources,
\nmore independence.” In that effort, Salazar also said there was a
\n“need to clean up that house,” amid scathing criticism of the body.<\/p>\n
\necological impact of the huge oil spill, and even the efforts to contain it,
\nare growing with worries focused on the Florida Keys.<\/p>\n
\npopular tourist beaches and fragile coral reefs around the southern tip of the
\npeninsula, the loop current has the potential to take the economic and
\nenvironmental impact of the spill to a whole new level.<\/p>\n
\nthe threat to South Florida is real and we should get ready,” said Igor
\nKamenkovich, a scientist at the University of Miami. “It’s hard to predict
\nbut … if it does happen, it is bad news for us.”<\/p>\n
\nconcerns that huge underwater plumes of crude<\/a> could be starving the Gulf of oxygen, meaning the slick is having a
\nfar greater impact on the marine environment than previously thought.<\/p>\n
\nthe Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies told AFP that deepwater
\nspills posed greater risks due to these plumes, which some experts have warned
\nmay be linked to dispersants<\/a> that
\nstop the oil from rising.<\/p>\n
\nin a shallow spill, everything pretty much shoots up to the surface and the
\nimpacts are primarily to surface organisms like turtles, dolphins, whales, and
\nbirds,” explained Paul Montagna. However, “under this really cold, high-pressure environment, the
\noil is getting dispersed through the water column.”<\/p>\n
\nDepartment of Wildlife and Fisheries on Tuesday requested data from BP on the
\nuse of dispersants, with agency chief Robert Barham complaining that
\n“little or no substantive data has been provided … concerning the
\nefficacy and risks associated with deep injection of dispersants.”<\/p>\n
\ntestimony to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he
\nexpected BP to attempt a “dynamic kill” to further contain the oil
\nspewing from the well.<\/p>\n
\nexpectation is that this Saturday or this Sunday the triggers will be pulled
\nfor a dynamic kill of the well,” he said, explaining this would involve
\ninjection of fluids and other materials to stem the flow.<\/p>\n
\nmaligned MMS would be reconfigured in order to tighten regulation and promised
\nto work with the White House and lawmakers on broader reforms, based on input
\nfrom a national commission probing the spill<\/a> to be named by President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
\nhearings have revealed multiple warning signs that were overlooked before the
\nApril 20 blast on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 people and touched off the catastrophe.<\/p>\n
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