[url]http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/04/201043015759452829.html[/url]
[release][img]http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2010/4/30/20104302039629734_3.jpg[/img]
Faint tendrils of oil from a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico have reached US shores.
Officials said the leak, from an oil rig sunk by a massive explosion last week, was five times worse than previously thought, and could trigger a disaster of "national significance" on the Gulf coast.
By sunset on Thursday, the oil had reached the mouth of Mississippi River, lapping at the shoreline in long, thin lines and threatening birds, marine life and some of the country's richest seafood grounds.
The massive slick has prompted the southern US state of Louisiana to declare a state of emergency and the White House to step up its response.
Barack Obama, the US president, said his administration would use every resource at its disposal, including the military, to stop the spill and help alleviate its impact.
"While BP is ultimately responsible for funding the cost of response and cleanup operations, my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal, including potentially the department of defence, to address the incident," Obama said on Thursday.
[B]Military assistance
[/B]
BP, the British energy company responsible for the damage caused by the leak, said it was grateful for the offer of help from the military.
"We'll take help from anyone, I mean we welcome the offer from the department of defence, we're working with the experts across the industry," Doug Suttles, chief operating officer of BP's exploration and production unit, said.
"We're going to do everything we can to minimise the impact of this event."
The oil leak began on April 20 after an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig left 11 workers dead and caused it to sink two days later.
The spill has sparked fears of an environmental disaster along the US Gulf coast, which could threaten wildlife as well as economically important fishing grounds and oyster beds.
Clean-up crews have been struggling to control the slick, with a fleet of vessels dispatched earlier in the week hampered by strong winds and high seas.
Brandon Blackwell, a US coastguard spokesman in Louisiana, told Al Jazeera that the authorities wanted to "fight this spill as far off shore as possible".
"Of course it will hurt the environment, local economies will be impacted," he said.
Blackwell advised people to stay away from coastline threatened by the oil spill, but also to let the authorities know if they see unattended oil.
[B]Aggressive response
[/B]
At a special White House briefing on the slick, the US coast guard said on Thursday that it was being very aggressive in its response to the spill, but admitted at the same time that it was preparing for the worst case scenario of oil reaching shore.
BP engineers working with the coast guard have been testing techniques to set fire to parts of the slick to burn off some of the oil and slow its spread.
Neither the US coast guard nor BP offered any new information on efforts to seal off the underwater well head that has caused the massive oil slick.
Four remote-controlled robotic submarines deployed to the leak site earlier in the week have so far failed to activate a shutoff device, called a "blowout preventer", at the head of the well.
As an emergency back-up, BP engineers are also working to construct a giant dome to place over the leaking well to contain it. Collected oil could then be pumped out of the structure.
Prentice Danner, a spokesman for the US coast guard, said that option will take between two and four weeks, and is so far an untested one.[/release]
Not good. This is what they were trying to prevent.
Exxon Valdez II, anyone?
:ohdear:
Just one spark..one cigarette.
[QUOTE=CabooseRvB;21642927]Just one spark..one cigarette.[/QUOTE]
That's actually one of the methods they use in these situations, is to just burn away parts of it.
I don't know who to blame.
All I know is we need more offshore drilling, I mean what could go wrong?
QUlCK AUSTRALIA, BAN THE OIL BEFORE IT REACHES YOU.
[QUOTE=GunskiMod;21643767]QUlCK AUSTRALIA, BAN THE OIL BEFORE IT REACHES YOU.[/QUOTE]
This is nowhere near Australia.
[QUOTE=helpiminabox;21643803]This is nowhere near Australia.[/QUOTE]
he said "BEFORE IT REACHES YOU"....
[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;21643634]All I know is we need more offshore drilling, I mean what could go wrong?[/QUOTE]
I guess the question is: What's safer? A bunch of stationary rigs, or a bunch of massive moving tankers?
[QUOTE=fsTyle;21643817]he said "BEFORE IT REACHES YOU"....[/QUOTE]
I said "This is nowhere near Australia"....
Thread Music
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amdUfLj7cNY[/media]
[QUOTE=helpiminabox;21643861]I said "This is nowhere near Australia"....[/QUOTE]
And he said "and he said QUICK AUSTRALIA BAN OIL BEFORE IT REACHES YOU"
v:downs:v
Fuckin' Oil. :argh:
Great. I live in Southern Mississippi. I wonder if this will affect my trip to the coast this weekend. :v:
Now their OIL is jumping the border too!
:911:
I think they should build a thin wirepost fence to stop it from coming into the country.
[QUOTE=hypno-toad;21644319]Now their OIL is jumping the border too!
:911:
[/QUOTE]
Made me chuckle.
Is this what caused the swamp zombies?
fucking british first taxation without representation and now this
Grab it up before the companies use this as an excuse to jack gas prices above $4 again
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