Although still small compared to the worst oil spill in U.S. history, the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989, in which 11 million gallons (42 million liters) were released, concern was high regarding potential impact onshore.
Rear Admiral Mary Landry, commander of the Eighth U.S. Coast Guard District, who is leading the response effort, said state and federal agencies all along the Gulf Coast were on the alert, and Louisiana had already begun to deploy containment boom to protect environmentally sensitive areas. But she said no landfall was expected within the next 72 hours; authorities are hesitant to forecast the direction of the spill beyond that due to changeable wind and weather.
“But our goal is to fight this as far offshore as possible,” she said.
The size of the oil spill appeared to be 600 square miles (1,500 square kilometers) as of Sunday, located 30 miles (48 kilometers) offshore, said Charlie Henry, scientist with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a member of the response team.
Landry said that chemical dispersant also has been applied to the oil spill, and that the team was ready to apply more. She said a third of the world’s oil dispersant supply was available in the Gulf region.
According to the U.S. National Research Council, oil spill dispersants do not actually reduce the total amount of oil enterint the environment. Rather they change the chemical and physical properties of the oil, making it more likely to mix into the water column than to contaminate the shoreline. “Dispersant application thus represents a conscious decision to increase the hydrocarbon load … on one component of the ecosystem… while reducing the load on another,” a 2006 NRC report said.
But both skimming and dispersant operations on the surface were hampered by bad weather Sunday, with sea swells as high as 7 feet (2 meters.) The underwater submarine operations were unaffected by the weather, however, but were expected to take at least a day.
One of the worst oil spills to impact the Gulf was also a well blowout, in the Bay of Campeche off Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico, in June 1979. By the time the well was brought under control nearly nine months later, 140 million gallons ( 530 million liters) of oil had been released into the bay. The spill, which eventually fouled the Texas coast, was the second largest oil disaster of all time—surpassed only the deliberate release of oil in the Gulf War in January 1991.
The well mishap occurred just as the U.S. Senate was prepared to unveil a major proposal to expand offshore oil production—as part of larger legislation aimed to address global warming. At the event, which had been scheduled for Monday, the bill’s sponsors had planned to appear at the podium flanked with industry supporters, including from BP.
But the bill’s advocates have been saved the discomfort of such a joint appearance while the Gulf spill response is underway. Due to a political squabble over immigration reform, the Senate energy and climate change bill is now on hold.
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