Obama administration officials stepped up their criticism of BP for the massive Gulf oil spill on Sunday, saying if it cannot clean up the mess they might push away the company, which leased the rig and is responsible for the cleanup.
US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he was “not completely” confident that BP knows what it’s doing.
“If we find they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, we’ll push them out of the way appropriately,” Salazar said.
PHOTO: AFP
However, federal officials have acknowledged that BP has expertise that they lack in stopping the deep-water leak.
Salazar and US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano were to lead a Senate delegation to the region yesterday to fly over affected areas and keep an eye on the response.
The well has spewed untold millions of liters of oil since an offshore rig exploded more than a month ago. The leak may not be completely stopped until a relief well is dug, a project that could take months. Another effort that BP said will begin today at the earliest will shoot heavy mud, and then cement, into the blown well, but that method has never been attempted before 1.6km-deep water and engineers are not sure it will work.
“As we talk, a total of more than 65 miles [100km] of our shoreline now has been oiled,” said Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who announced new efforts to keep the spill from spreading.
A 1.6km-long tube operating for about a week has siphoned off more than 1.9 million liters in the past week, but it began sucking up oil at a slower rate over the weekend. Even at its best the effort did not capture all the oil leaking, and the next attempt to stanch the flow won’t be put into action until at least today.
With oil pushing at least 19km into Louisiana’s marshes and two major pelican rookeries now coated in crude, Jindal said the state has begun work on chain of berms, reinforced with containment booms, that would skirt the state’s coastline.
Jindal, who visited one of the affected nesting grounds on Sunday, said the berms would close the door on oil still pouring from a gusher about 80km out in the Gulf. The berms would be made with sandbags and sand hauled in; the US Army Corps of Engineers also is considering a broader plan that would use dredging to build sand berms across more of the barrier islands.
At least 22.7 million liters of crude have spewed into the Gulf, though some scientists have said they believe the spill already surpasses the 41.64 million liter 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska as the worst in US history.
In Barataria Bay, orange oil had made its way a good 15cm onto the shore, coating grasses and the nests of brown pelicans in mangrove trees. Just six months ago, the birds had been removed from the federal endangered species list.
Wildlife officials tried to rescue oil-soaked pelicans on Sunday, but they suspended their efforts after spooking the birds. They weren’t sure whether they would try again. US Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Stacy Shelton said it is sometimes better to leave the animals alone than to disturb their colony.
Pelicans are especially vulnerable to oil. Not only could they eat tainted fish and feed it to their young, but they could die of hypothermia or drowning if they’re soaked in oil.
Globs of oil have soaked through containment booms set up in the area. Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said BP needed to send more booms. He said it would be up to federal wildlife authorities to decide whether to try to clean the oil that has already washed ashore.
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