Oil spill five times as large as earlier thought

Oil spill five times as large as earlier thought

Another leak has been found near the site where a drilling rig sank last week. Louisiana fishermen fear the effects on their livelihoods.


By Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times

April 28, 2010 | 10:56 p.m.


Reporting from Venice, La.


The amount of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from an oil rig disaster is five times as large as had been believed, the Coast Guard said Wednesday night.

Another leak has been found near the site where the British Petroleum rig exploded and sank last week, Coast Guard Petty Officer Erik Swanson said. The total amount of oil leaking into the gulf is 5,000 barrels a day — not the 1,000 barrels that had been estimated earlier, he said.

"We discovered it and we are going to attack it as much as possible now that we know that it's there," he said.

But Doug Suttles, a BP chief operating officer, disputed the larger estimate, the Associated Press reported.

Rear Adm. Mary Landry told the Associated Press that President Obama has been briefed about the larger estimate and she said that the government has offered to have the Department of Defense help contain the spill from the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead in the incident.

Officials predict the oil could reach the Louisiana coast by Friday, somewhere near the Mississippi Delta.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-20100429,0,1103849.story

c'mon - everyone together - DRILL BABY DRILL!!

I don't but wonder; had to take them a bit of time to get all that equipment out there and the operation in place. I can hope that lessons will be learned from this massive failure.

It became my mantra everytime it was brought up. Ok, so I'm home alone and no one hears me.

I imagine this operation was out in the gulf long before Obama even took office, but have fun.

"However, NOAA is telling me now they prefer we use 5,000 barrels a day as an estimate for what's actually leaked from this well and will continue to leak until BP secures the source."

Complicating matters for BP and the clean-up crews is that previously it was thought there were two leaks - now there are reports of a third.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/29/2886287.htm?section=world