VENICE, Louisiana – Oil from BPs out-of-control Gulf of Mexico oil spill could threaten the Mississippi and Alabama coasts this week, US forecasters said yesterday.
As public anger grew over the nation’s worst environmental disaster, US government and BP officials are warning that the oil gush may not be shut off until August
The warning came as the company begins preparations on a new but uncertain attempt to contain the leaking crude.
The disaster, in its 43rd day, is already the largest oil spill in US history and officials are treating it it as the country’s biggest environmental catastrophe.
Although Louisiana’s wetlands and fishing grounds have been the worst hit so far by the spill, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)said moderate southerly and southwesterly winds this week may start moving oil closer to the Mississippi Delta.
“Model results indicate that oil may move north to threaten the barrier islands off Mississippi and Alabama later in the forecast period,” the NOAA said in its 72-hour prediction on the expected trajectory of the huge oil slick.
But the NOAA forecast was a sober reminder that oil from the unchecked spill, broken up and carried by winds and ocean currents, could threaten a vast area of the US Gulf Coast, including tourism centre Florida, as well as Cuba and Mexico.
Following the failure this weekend of BP’s attempt to plug the leaking 1.6km-deep (one mile) well, public anger over the spill and how it occurred is growing.
A group calling itself Seize BP, which has already staged anti-BP protests, said it would organise demonstrations in more than 50 US cities from Thursday to Saturday to protest at the damage from the leaking oil.
The group demands that BP’s assets be immediately seized and held in trust to pay compensation for the spill triggered by the April 20th explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig.
“The greatest environmental disaster with no end in sight! Eleven workers dead. Millions of gallons of oil gushing for months (and possibly years) to come. Jobs vanishing. Creatures dying. A pristine environment destroyed for generations. A mega-corporation that has lied and continues to lie, and a government that refuses to protect the people,” Seize BP said in a statement.
The public anger and frustration over the spill poses a major domestic challenge for President Barack Obama, who has been forced to admit publicly that the US government and military do not have the technology to plug the leaking well and must leave this to BP and its private industry partners.
President Obama, who made his second visit to the Gulf disaster zone on Friday, is sending three of his top energy and environmental officials back there this week. – (Reuters)