AP reports on oil spill at gulf of mexico

Obama heads to Gulf; govt defends spill operation

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama awaited a firsthand update on the Gulf Coast oil spill as two members of his Cabinet on Sunday outlined the "very grave" environmental impact and sought to counter criticism the government had reacted slowly.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the administration had treated the explosion at the BP rig April 20 as a potential disaster from the beginning.
"The physical response on the ground has been from day one as if this could be a catastrophic failure," she said. "Every possible resource was being lined up on shore."
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said it was uncertain when the oil, spewing from a pipe nearly a mile beneath the water, would be plugged.
"The scenario is a very grave scenario. You're looking at potentially 90 days before you ultimately get to what is the ultimate solution," said Salazar. But then "a lot of oil could spread."
Obama flew to Louisiana for briefings on the underwater spill, which remained unstopped and impossible to measure, raising fears it could be pouring more oil into the Gulf than earlier believed. Traveling with him were White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, homeland security and counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and energy adviser Carol Browner.
The Coast Guard estimated that at least 1.6 million gallons of oil have spilled since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers on an offshore rig. In the Exxon Valdez disaster, an oil tanker spilled 11 million gallons off Alaska's shores in 1989.
Obama has relied on reports from agency chiefs and Coast Guard officials since the magnitude of the spill became clear late Wednesday. Aides report he's been getting regular updates.
Salazar, Napolitano and the administration's point man on the disaster, the commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Thad Allen, made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows to defend the federal response.
Allen said it is impossible to know the eventual size of the spill because that will depend on when BP can stop the flow, a technically challenging effort hampered by the well's depth where everything must be done by remote control.
"On the level of complexity, I'd certainly give it nine," said Allen on "State of the Union" on CNN. "We have to stop this oil where it's emanating on the sea floor."
BC Chairman Lamar McKay said the company is "throwing every resource that we've got" at trying to plug the well, calling that the No. 1 priority. Drilling a relief well is expected to take as long as three months, but McKay said a dome, which would be lowered to the sea floor to cover the leaking wellhead, will be ready to be deployed in six to eight days. Such an approach has been used in other well blowouts, but never at a depth of 5,000 feet.
"We're doing everything possible that we know of,' said McKay on ABC's "This Week."
McKay rejected criticism that his company's safety record played a role in the rig explosion and subsequent massive oil spill. "I believe we've got a failed piece of equipment," he said, referring to the mechanism that was supposed to shut off the well on the sea floor in event of a well blowout.
While no cause has yet been determined for the accident, Salazar also said there "is no doubt at all" that the blowout safeguard mechanism — know as a blowout preventer — was defective. He said the devices are being inspected at other oil rigs in the Gulf.
But Salazar dismissed suggestions that any of the other 30,000 drilling rigs in the Gulf should be shut down because of the issue.
"For us to turn off those spigots would have a very huge impact on America's economy right now," said Salazar on ABC's "This Week." Despite the BP spill, which threatens to grow into one of the country's worst environmental disasters, "this is an industry that can operate safely," he said.
Obama has said no new offshore oil drilling leases will be issued unless rigs have new safeguards to prevent a repeat of the explosion that unleashed the massive spill.
The spill came just weeks after Obama announced plans to open up large areas of the Eastern Seaboard and a part of the Gulf for possible future oil drilling. And it's led to increasing calls to reconsider that initiative by environmentalists and coastal state lawmakers.

EPA ramps up air quality monitoring for oil spill

By JOHN FLESHER (AP)

NEW ORLEANS — The Environmental Protection Agency says it's stepping up air quality monitoring on the Gulf Coast.
There are concerns that vapors from the oil and controlled fires might cause health problems for people living in the region. An oil smell could cause headaches or nausea, but EPA spokesman Dave Bary said Saturday there have been no confirmed reports of such problems.
State health agencies are advising people having such symptoms to stay indoors and ventilate their homes with air conditioning.
Crude oil gives off gaseous vapors. But Jonathan Ward, an environmental toxicology professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, says the vapors likely will be mostly dispersed by brisk sea breezes by the time they reach shore.

CNN report on oil spill at the gulf of mexico

Washington (CNN) -- Top federal officials said Sunday that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is a potential catastrophe and defended the Obama administration's response so far.
Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen warned the leaking oil from a rig explosion could continue for weeks with dire consequences.
"It potentially is catastrophic," Salazar said. "I think we have to prepare for the worst."
Calling the spill "massive," Salazar blamed the explosion that caused it on a failure of technology in the rig intended to prevent so-called blowouts.
"There is no doubt at all here that what has happened is the blowout prevention mechanism at the bottom of the well ... is defective," Salazar said. "While there have been blowouts in the past, we have never seen anything that has been quite of this magnitude."
Allen said it was impossible so far to know how much oil will eventually leak, saying: "We lost a total well head; it could be 100,000 barrels or more a day."
"This spill, at this point in my view, is indeterminate," Allen said. "That makes it asymmetrical, anomalous and one of the most complex things we've ever dealt with."
Capping the leak at its source 5,000 feet beneath the surface is the top priority, Allen said. However, the depth makes it impossible to send human crews, requiring the use of unmanned devices called remote operation vehicles, he said.
"The first place we have to fight it is 5,000 feet down," Allen said. "That's where ultimately this is going to have to be fixed or a relief well ultimately is drilled."

If the leak cannot be capped at the source, he said, the next step is to use dispersants and surface burning offshore, followed by coastal protection efforts such as the hundreds of thousands of feet of oil booms in use.
The final step, if the slick reaches the shore, is a recovery effort in damaged areas, Allen said.
Stopping the oil at the wetlands and other coastal areas was "not where we want to do this," Allen said. "We have to stop this oil where it's emanating on the sea floor."
All three officials repeatedly emphasized that BP, the oil giant that owns the destroyed rig, is legally responsible for the spill and cleanup efforts.
Asked if BP has responded properly, they avoided direct criticism, with Allen noting BP was deploying its top technology, such as the remote operation vehicles, which the government doesn't have.
At the same time, Napolitano and Salazar said the Obama administration had reacted quickly to what they called an escalating situation.
Napolitano noted the incident was first an explosion and fire, with a search-and-rescue effort for missing rig workers. It then worsened when the rig sank two days later, followed by the increasing oil leak, she said.
While BP was the first responder, the Coast Guard reacted right away to the situation and deployed 70 vessels and 1 million feet of boom for possible service, Napolitano said.
"That's exactly why from day one there were already deploying vessels and booms ... in case that scenario should result," Napolitano said.
Salazar noted that the Obama administration has ordered inspections of "blowout preventers" on other Gulf rigs. The government's job was to "keep the boot on the neck of" BP to ensure it meets its obligations in stopping the spill, dealing with the oil slick and paying for all costs and damages.
Also on the CNN program Sunday, Florida's Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio called the oil slick a "crisis" but withheld judgment on the administration's response.
According to Rubio, it appeared that much of the early information provided to the federal government by BP had been "either inaccurate or shortcoming."

In recent days, Rubio said, "we've seen the administration move aggressively and I hope aggressively enough."

CNN's Martina Stewart and Tom Cohen contributed to this story.