US government to get independent check on oil spill

THE US government will independently verify how much oil has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico from a BP-owned undersea well.

“We’re not depending on what BP is telling us,” interior secretary Ken Salazar said yesterday.

Energy giant BP was responsible for damages so getting accurate data was essential, he said. “It’s a grave and a very serious situation and we’re taking nothing for granted.”

BP has scrambled to contain crude from the gushing seabed Macondo well since it blew out after an April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers.

The company said it is siphoning about 3,000 barrels a day of oil, from what it has estimated was 5,000 barrels a day.

With heavy oil washing ashore in fragile Louisiana wetlands, wildlife and environmental groups accused BP of holding back information on the real size and impact of the growing slick, and urged President Barack Obama to order a more direct federal government role in the spill response.

Salazar said the administration had been aggressive in its response but had inherited a regulatory system “that essentially was rubber-stamping whatever it was the oil and gas industry wanted”.

Heavy oil – not just tar balls – came ashore in Louisiana for the first time, threatening its prized marshlands. State governor Bobby Jindal, called it a “day that we have all been fearing”.

The marshes are nurseries for shrimp, oysters, crabs and fish that make Louisiana the leading producer of commercial seafood in the US.

BP said it could begin injecting mud into the well by Sunday in a bid to permanently plug the leak.