Oil Slick Reaches US Coast

On April 20, an explosion ripped off and sunk drill rig Deepwater Horizon, and resulted in 11 missing men, who are presumed dead. Now as a result of this disaster, an oil slick that is 120 miles in size, has moved towards the Louisiana coast, just a few miles off the mouth of the Mississippi river. Latest reports indicated that the slick was just a couple of miles away from the shores of Louisiana.

As a preventive measure to contain the spill, authorities have strung miles and miles of foam barriers along the shoreline. President Barack Obama is sending his top officials to the area on Friday to inspect overall efforts to contain the slick. Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana has declared a state of emergency. Ten wildlife refuges located in Louisiana and Mississippi are in the path of the oil slick. Wildlife conservation groups have said that this oil slick has the potential to be a disaster for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Nearly 200,000 feet or 35+ miles of floating booms have been deployed at the leading edges of the coastline, with another half a million being made ready soon. 100,000 gallons of dispersant has been deployed which breaks up oil, and thus 18,000 barrels of oil-water mix has been recovered as of now. The damaged oil well has been leaking 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the sea.

Doug Suttles, chief operating officer of BP said, "An effort to burn off part of the oil slick on Wednesday destroyed about 100 barrels. But the technique clearly worked, and larger burns are planned when weather conditions make them possible. BP is attempting to deploy collection domes over the leak points to collect oil as it escapes, but getting that system in place could take weeks as well." Tony Hayward, BP group CEO blamed Transocean Ltd., the rig operator for the disaster, saying that the well's blowout preventer (the ultimate fail-safe mechanism) has failed to shut down the well as designed. There has however been no response from Transocean to BP's comments. The well is now leaking from 3 places and BP will be required to pay the expenses for the cleanup.

But whatever takes place ahead, this disaster spells doom for numerous birds and marine life.