DOOOM!!!!Louisiana oil spill from Horizon Deepwater explosion expected to dwarf Exxon Valdez disaster

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Louisiana oil spill from Horizon Deepwater explosion expected to dwarf Exxon Valdez disaster

BY Helen Kennedy
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Originally Published:Thursday, April 29th 2010, 2:42 PM
Updated: Thursday, April 29th 2010, 3:27 PM


President Obama is considering sending in the military to deal with the Louisiana oil spill that turns out to be five times worse than expected and will make landfall as early as Friday.

"This is a spill of national significance," Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano said at the White House, before heading to the Gulf Coast to oversee the crisis response.

"We are being very aggressive, and we are prepared for the worst case," said Coast Guard Rear Adm. Sally Brice-O'Hara.

British Petroleum, which will foot the bill, said it had no objection.

"We'll take help from anyone," BP's CEO for exploration, Doug Suttles, told NBC.

About 210,000 gallons of oil per day has been leaking since the BP rig caught fire and sank last week 50 miles off the coast of Venice, La., about 75 miles south of New Orleans, killing 11 roughnecks.

The Coast Guard said the growing slick is 45 miles wide at its broadest point and 100 miles long - about the length of New Jersey's coastline.

It was heading for Louisiana's fragile coastal wetlands - and $3 billion seafood industry - just as the shrimping season is set to begin.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency to allow federal resources to be deployed.

BP is drilling a "relief well" to divert the oil, but it would take three months to complete, Suttles said.

By then, the undersea gusher of crude will have topped the 1989 Exxon Valdez calamity, which destroyed Alaska's Prince William Sound.

The entire Gulf Coast could be in danger.

"It may be two or three months before they can stop the discharge. The magnitude of this thing gives me concerns," said Michael Sole, chief of Florida's Environmental Protection Department.

TV weather maps showing the huge oil slick being blown toward New Orleans echoed TV images of Hurricane Katrina five years ago.

The Obama White House staged a show of force Thursday, assembling top officials from Homeland Security, the Coast Guard, the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency and announcing an aggressive effort to fight the spill.

"My administration will continue to use every single resource at our disposal," the President said.

Obama spoke with the five Gulf state governors.

Brice-O'Hara said the government's priority was to help BP deploy booms, skimmers and chemical dispersants to block the slick from reaching shore.

The massive oil slick floating on the Gulf of Mexico was set afire Wednesday, and it successfully burned off some of the oil, but high winds made another burn impossible Thursday.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that laws passed after the Exxon Valdez spill require BP, as the responsible oil company, to fund the cleanup. "And they are doing so," he said.

From whales to crabs to songbirds, as many as 400 species in the Gulf of Mexico are vulnerable, experts say.

Shorebirds are currently nesting on barrier islands, beaches and marshes directly in the path of the slick, which was just 12 miles off shore Thursday afternoon.

Fishermen were struggling to get as much seafood out of the water as possible before the slick arrived.

"We're fighting a losing effort. We've got an extreme amount of product in the water," Plaquemines Parish oysterman Mitch Jurasich told the Associated Press from his boat, where he was working around the clock.

Politically, the spill is likely to quash enthusiasm for off-shore drilling, just as the "Drill Baby Drill" advocates had convinced Obama to allow limited coastal exploration.

"Obviously, what's occurring now will also be taken into consideration as the administration looks to how to advance that plan," said White House energy and climate advisor Carol Browner.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said he's called the heads of Exxon Mobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron to testify at a hearing on the spill.

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