5,000 barrels per day leaking from oil rig site (from LBN, 5x early estimates):

NEW ORLEANS – A massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is even worse than believed and as the government grows concerned that the rig's operator is ill-equipped to contain it, officials are offering a military response to try to avert a massive environmental disaster along the ecologically fragile U.S. coastline.

But time may be running out. Not only was a third leak discovered — which government officials said is spewing five times as much oil into the water than originally estimated — but it might be closer to shore than previously known, and could have oil washing up on shore by Friday.

At the same time, there appeared to be a growing rift developing between BP PLC, the operator of the oil rig that exploded last week in the deep waters of the Gulf, and the Coast Guard, which is overseeing the increasingly desperate operation to contain the spill and clean it up.

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry was emphatic at a hastily called news conference late Wednesday that the new leak was discharging 5,000 barrels a day of sweet crude, not the 1,000 barrels officials had estimated for days since the Deepwater Horizons drilling rig exploded and sank 50 miles off the Louisiana Coast.

But appearing at the same news conference, BP's Chief Operating Office Doug Suttles was just as emphatic that he didn't believe the amount of oil spilling into the water had ballooned — or at the company wasn't able to handle the ongoing operation to contain it.