Gulf braced for disaster as oil slick nears coast
Wind and waves calmed as masses of the oil lurked off the beaches and bayous.
So far only oil sheens have reached into some coastal waters in the south-eastern US, and the oil’s slow progress was allowing crews and volunteers to lay booms in front of shorelines.
“You mentally want to push it back to the west, and then you feel guilty for doing so,” said Jan Grant, manager at the island-based St George Inn in Florida.
BP has been unable to shut off the undersea well spewing 200,000 gallons a day, but crews have reported progress with a new method for cutting the amount of oil that reaches the surface.
They are using a remotely operated underwater vehicle to pump chemicals called dispersants into the oil as it pours from the well, to break it up before it rises. Results were encouraging but the approach was still being evaluated.
Several river boat pilots said the edge of the oil slick was 15 to 20 miles off the Southwest Pass, where ships headed to New Orleans enter the Mississippi River.
Fishing has been stopped in federal waters from the Mississippi River to north-western Florida, leaving boats idle in the middle of the prime spring season. A special shrimping season closed last evening.
Inns and restaurants that count on tourists attracted to the beautiful blue-green waters and sandy white beaches already are getting calls about the spill.
Engineers from BP have failed to halt the leak that has been spewing into the sea since an offshore drilling platform blew up and sank on April 20 and killed 11 workers. BP operated the rig that was owned by Transocean.
