A new phase for oil-spill cleanup

BILOXI, Miss. - BP's new boss says it's time for a "scaleback" in cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Federal officials say there is no way the crude could reach the East Coast. And fishing areas are starting to reopen.

There were several signs Friday that the era of thousands of oil-skimming boats and hazardous-materials-suited beach crews was giving way to long-term efforts to clean up and compensate people for their losses. But local fishermen say oil remains a bigger problem than BP and the government are letting on.

Other people contend that the impact of the spill has been overblown, given that little oil remains on the gulf surface, but Bob Dudley, who heads BP's oil-spill recovery and will take over as its chief executive in October, rejected those assertions.

"Anyone who thinks this wasn't a catastrophe must be far away from it," he said in Biloxi, where he announced that former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief James Lee Witt would help with BP's gulf restoration work.

After the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers, BP's blown-out well gushed 94 million to 184 million gallons of oil before a temporary cap stopped it July 15. Efforts to permanently plug the gusher had been expected to begin as early as Sunday, but the government's point man for the spill said Friday that those plans had hit a snag.

Crews found debris in the bottom of the relief well that ultimately will be used to plug the leak for good, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said. The debris must be fished out before crews can begin the "static kill" procedure that officials hope will make the rest of the job easier.

"It's not a huge problem, but it has to be removed before we can put the pipe casing down," Allen said.

The sediment settled in the relief well last week when crews popped in a plug to keep it safe ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie. Removing it will take 24 to 36 hours and likely push the kill back to Tuesday, Allen said.

Once the relief well is ready, crews can begin the static kill, in which mud and possibly cement are pumped in through the temporary cap.

The better that procedure seals the blown-out well, the easier it will be to plug it forever by pumping in cement from below using the relief well. The blown-out well could be killed for good by late August, though a tropical storm could set the timetable back.

As the work of plugging the well appears to reach the homestretch, so does much of the cleanup work. Relatively little oil remains on the surface of the gulf, officials say, leaving less for thousands of oil skimmers to do.

It's "not too soon for a scaleback" in the cleanup, Dudley said, and in areas where there is no oil, "you probably don't need to see people in hazmat suits on the beach." But he said there was "no pullback" in BP's commitment to clean up the spill.

There had been fears that the spill could reach South Florida and the East Coast through a strong loop current, but federal officials said Friday that earlier reports of some oil reaching the current were wrong.

A new analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed that most surface oil in the gulf had degraded to a thin sheen. What remained on the surface and below was hundreds of miles from the loop current.

NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said a strong eddy was preventing oil from reaching the current.

Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle will most likely be spared an additional major beach oiling, though tar balls could wash ashore, NOAA said.

Lubchenco cautioned that scientists would continue studying the potential effects of the subsurface crude.

"Diluted and out of sight does not mean benign," she said, and scientists still do not know the oil's environmental effect underwater.

For help with long-term recovery, BP has hired Witt and his public-safety and crisis-management consulting firm. Witt, who ran FEMA under President Bill Clinton, said he wanted to set up teams along the gulf to work with BP to address long-term restoration and people's needs. "Our hope is that we can do it as fast as we can," Witt said.

Commercial fishermen were allowed back on a section of Louisiana waters east of the Mississippi River on Friday after federal authorities said samples of finfish and shrimp were safe to eat.

About 70 percent of Louisiana waters are now open to some kind of commercial fishing, but state waters in Mississippi and Alabama remain closed, as do nearly a quarter of federal waters in the gulf.

Rusty Graybill, a boat captain from Yscloskey, La., called the reopening "a joke" as he made a 2-inch circle with his thumb and finger. "I'm still finding tar balls this big out there," he said.

China's worst known oil spill is dozens of times larger than its government has reported - bigger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill - and some of the oil was deliberately dumped to avoid further disaster, an American expert said Friday.

China's government has said that 1,500 tons (461,790 gallons) of oil spilled after a pipeline exploded July 16 near the city of Dalian, sending 100-foot-high flames raging for hours near one of China's key strategic oil reserves.

Rick Steiner, a former University of Alaska marine conservation specialist, said 60,000 tons (18.47 million gallons) to 90,000 tons (27.70 million gallons) of oil actually spilled into the Yellow Sea.

The spill has caused at least one death, of a cleanup worker who drowned, and thousands of Dalian residents have used everything from their bare hands to chopsticks to pick the goo from the sea.

Steiner, who worked on the Exxon Valdez spill, announced the China estimates after touring the area as a consultant for Greenpeace China.

- Associated Press

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