Governments Respond to Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico

Washington - Federal, state and local officials are working aggressively to contain a major oil spill from a collapsed deep-water oil rig that is threatening beaches, marshlands and estuaries along the U.S. coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

President Obama traveled to the southeastern Louisiana coast May 2 to reassure residents and fishermen that the federal government was doing all it can to help mitigate the impact of a huge oil spill that is drifting toward the U.S. coastline. The environmental impact is expected to be massive, potentially the most damaging in U.S. history, according to government and environmental experts.

After meeting with state and local officials and receiving an update on the status of the nearly 30-mile-wide (48-kilometer-wide) oil spill, Obama told reporters that "we're dealing with a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster. The oil that is still leaking from the well could seriously damage the economy and the environment of our Gulf states and it could extend for a long time."

BP, the oil giant with 2009 sales of $239 billion, was leasing the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded April 20. The exact cause of the explosion has not been determined. Two days later, the offshore rig collapsed into the Gulf in a section known as the Mississippi Canyon, and oil began leaking from three places. BP has been working with an array of government agencies and private companies, but has been unable to stop the flow of oil from the well. BP leased the oil rig from TransOcean Ltd., a separate company.

"BP is fully committed to taking all possible steps to contain the spread of the oil spill," BP Group Chief Executive Tony Hayward said in a statement.

President Obama said that as soon as the oil rig fire started, federal officials began a coordinated response with state and local officials and officials from BP. An aggressive search-and-rescue mission was undertaken to evacuate the 115 people on the rig and to find 11 crew members who have not yet been found.

"When the drill unit sank on Thursday [April 22], we immediately and intensely investigated by remotely operated vehicles the entire 5,000 feet of pipe that's on the floor of the ocean," Obama told reporters. "In that process, three leaks were identified, the most recent coming just last Wednesday evening [April 28]."

More than 70 vessels and hundreds of thousands of feet of floating barriers have been sent to the Gulf to contain the spill. Local fishermen have also joined in laying the orange spill-containment barriers along the coast.

Admiral Thad Allen, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, told a cable news channel May 3 that it could take as long as three months to halt the spill.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the oil spill appears to be drifting toward the Alabama and Florida coasts in addition to the Louisiana coastline.

"While we have prepared and reacted aggressively, I'm not going to rest ... or be satisfied until the leak is stopped at the source, the oil on the Gulf is contained and cleaned up, and the people of this region are able to go back to their lives and their livelihoods," Obama said.

"The most advanced technology available is being used to try and stop a leak that is more than 5,000 feet under the surface," the president added. "Because this leak is unique and unprecedented, it could take many days to stop."

NOAA issued a precautionary closure of the federal waters off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and part of Florida for 10 days. Local seafood-industry executives offered their support of the temporary halt to fishing in the federal waters in the interests of protecting consumers. The decision does not affect state waters or the remainder of the Gulf.

NOAA indicated May 2 that the oil slick was about nine miles (14.5 kilometers) off the Louisiana coastline, but the movement of the massive slick is not completely predictable because it is controlled by the wind and tides in the Gulf.

While officials at the scene from the Coast Guard, Homeland Security, Department of the Interior, and state agencies briefed the president and consulted on next steps, BP engineers were working to slow the spread of the oil spill while work was beginning on measures to cap the wellhead and halt the three leaks.

Measures include using chemical dispersants, though it is unknown what the impact might be on the deepwater ecology; placing huge orange booms closer to land to block the oil slick; and training volunteers on how best to minimize the impact of oil as it reaches beaches along the coast. BP engineers are working on plans to cap one of the three leaks with a shut-off valve and lower containment domes over the other two. All of these measures could be put in place over the next week to 10 days using robotic submersibles tied to support ships 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) above on the surface.

BP was also planning to sink two relief wells to help siphon off the oil that is leaking into the Gulf, but that could take several weeks, company officials told the news media.

FUTURE OF OFFSHORE DRILLING

The oil spill comes a month after the president announced that he would not continue a moratorium blocking offshore drilling along the United States coastline. Presidential adviser David Axelrod told ABC Television's Good Morning America on April 30 that no offshore drilling in new areas will be permitted until a full investigation and analysis of the current crisis is completed.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said May 2 that moving ahead on offshore drilling will require a balancing act. "That is a national security concern because we have to do better to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. But it has to be done safely. It can't be done at the risk of having to spend billions of dollars cleaning up these spills," she said on NBC Television's Meet the Press.

Obama ordered Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to conduct a complete investigation of what happened in the Gulf oil spill and report back to him in 30 days, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said as the president was en route to Louisiana.