New oil spill deepens crisis in Gulf of Mexico Special

While a controlled burn has been taking place to stop the oil from reaching the Louisiana shoreline and spreading to three other states, tonight Admiral Landry of the US Coast Guard announced a new leak spilling additional oil into the Gulf.

U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry spoke to members of the press both this afternoon and again this evening about what is being done to control the spill of 40,000 gallons of oil entering the Gulf of Mexico from an oil rig explosion on April 20. That amount has now been changed to add another 5,000 gallons to the earlier estimates. Admiral Landry was joined by members of Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico Regional Director Lars Herbst and representatives from the Department of Fish and Wildlife, BP, Transocean and the State of Louisiana. A new oil spill from the rig has been discovered, the third to date, which officials say was not known about earlier today. The oil spill threatens Louisiana's coastline and the states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. During the morning conference the response team had said there had been no change in the amount of oil spilling into the ocean. Tonight they say an increase of at least 10 -20 more is occurring, or an additional 5,000 barrels of oil.

Unified Command

The Coast Guard released the following photo to the press yesterday. Since then the oil has moved closer to the shoreline.

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Admiral Landry said today the decision to set up a controlled burn late this morning to control the spread of the oil was done after the response team "worked hard to minimize risks." She said this included monitoring air quality. Landry went on to emphasize, as she has in previous press conferences, "This is a serious crisis, and we are not minimizing it. We are being forward-leaning in our response." Landry went on to tell the media how British Petroleum recognizes the claims that can be made against the company for any damage that occurs from the oil leakage in the Gulf and is using every possible method to try to mitigate these. She declared they have "worked far beyond convention means to control the oil spillage." In the meantime representatives of BP reassured the public they have not curtailed oil and gas production in the Gulf, emphasizing the importance of oil in the Gulf that produces 30% of the domestic energy needs from it. Company officials stressed they are going to "determine the cause of the incident and investigate it thoroughly so we can continue safe drilling in the Gulf." BP explained it is building a collection system of a cylinder-shaped apparatus, but this would take 2 to 4 weeks to put in place. More dispersant is being applied, about at about twice the amount of the past few days. Charles Henry of NOAA discussed the trajectory analysis that has been done of where the oil might land and said within 72 hours of confidence it will reach the coast of Louisiana in the Mississippi delta on Friday. He also said, "We don't see an immediate threat to Alabama now." He said, however, that the success of efforts to contain the spill depends on the winds and the weather near the coast. Southeast winds could cause more oil to spill into the Gulf. Henry also talked about the risks to the wildlife and fisheries and declared wildlife rehabilitation people are working with BP to minimize impact to critical areas. When asked if anything similar to this incident had ever happened in the Gulf, Admiral Landry said, "We are being very transparent about this and are not sugar-coating anything. We believe this is very serious. This is complex and has new dimensions to it." She went on to say they hadn't seen a wall of oil released like this before. Shoreline Impact Statements have not been released to the public, according to media present during the conference today, as they were told this would take time as information progressed. This evening the response team was asked what confidence they have concerning future efforts to control the spill, since the ones made so far have not stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf, which threatens the coastline by Friday. A BP spokesman said, "Until we run out of options, we won't stop.BP is applying every resource right now and reaching across the oil and gas industry for assistance." " Landry went on to say in response to the question about the potential of federal intervention in the crisis, that "if at any time the government requires BP to do more they will do so."