Fuck...By then the Gulf Of Mexico will have nothing but black greasy beaches, dead sea life and a destroyed tourism industry...I won't even talk about the loss to the sea food industry.
Gulf Coast oil spill may take months to contain, officials sayDeepwater Horizon explosion in Gulf of Mexico sends oil slick toward U.S. coastline
Cleanup and containment efforts continue after an oil platform explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil is leaking into the water at a rate of up to 5,000 barrels a day.
Slideshow
Here By Debbi Wilgoren, Joel Achenbach and Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 3, 2010; 2:26 PM
Officials from the Obama administration and oil giant BP say it might take up to three months to seal off a leaking oil well 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico that has created a massive environmental crisis that could affect much of the Gulf Coast.
BP chief executive Tony Hayward said Monday that "the worst-case scenario is that we would need to contain this for two to three months whilst a relief well is drilled."
Speaking on the "Today" show, Hayward said the company is also trying two other ways to deal with the spill: using robotic submarines to seal off the leaks, a process that so far has not succeeded and that he described as "like conducting heart surgery 5,000 feet beneath the sea"; or building containment domes -- akin to the hood over a stovetop -- that can be lowered onto three separate leaks and allow the oil to be captured and pumped to the surface. The 74-ton steel domes are being built and will be in the field within seven to eight days, officials said.
"We are absolutely responsible for the oil, for cleaning it up, and that's what we intend to do," Hayward said.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano are meeting with top BP officials Monday in Washington to discuss the crisis, and Napolitano told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she will press for assurance that the company has set up a clear process for individuals and communities impacted by the spill to file claims.
"They are the responsible party," Napolitano said. "They are going to end up paying for the federal government's cost, for the states' and, most importantly, for the individuals and communities that are going to be most directly impacted."
Napolitano also said she would investigate reports that local residents working on cleanup efforts are being required to sign waivers limiting liability in case of injury, or confidentiality agreements. "I'm looking into that right now. I was just alerted to that," Napolitano said. "And if that, in fact, is the case, that is a practice we want stopped immediately."
As of Sunday, the huge oil slick remained offshore. On a stormy day in the region's beach towns and coastal parishes, people waited and floated more booms to try to block the rogue crude that threatens their fragile economy and delicate marshlands.
The federal government closed commercial and recreational fishing for at least 10 days in federal waters from the mouth of the Mississippi River to near Pensacola, Fla.
President Obama flew in for a briefing about what he called "a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster," and met with a handful of fishermen during his short, rain-drenched tour of the Louisiana coast.
Potential Ways To Stop The Leak
How An Oil Burn Works
Oil Spill Map...What Is At Stake
