Global General
BP marks first success in containing oil spill
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-05-17 09:40
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ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Officials have stressed the spill has had minimal impact on the shoreline and wildlife, but oil debris and tar balls were washing up on barrier islands and outlying beaches in at least a dozen places in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
"As nasty as they are, they are more manageable than a slick. They can be collected. They can be cleaned and we have crews doing that," Coast Guard Petty Officer Luke Pinneo said, referring to the latest discovery of tar balls on Grand Isle, Louisiana.
Scientists and residents of the Gulf Coast say a greater concern is the anticipated encroachment of oil into the environmentally fragile bayous and marshes teeming with shrimp, oysters, crabs, fish, birds and other wildlife.
The New York Times and other media reported scientists had detected huge oil plumes -- large columns of concentrated oil moving beneath the ocean surface -- in the Gulf, indicating the leak could be worse than estimates by BP and the government.
Estimates of the rate of escaping oil range widely from the official BP figure of 5,000 barrels per day (210,000 gallons/795,000 liters) , adopted by the government, to 100,000 barrels (4.2 million gallons/15.9 million liters) per day.
BP officials said they did not have confirmation of such plumes and spokesman Andrew Gowers appeared to dismiss the reports as scientifically unlikely.
"It is my observation as a layman that oil is lighter than water and tends to go up," Gowers told reporters.
