BP Begins Continuously Spraying Oil Dispersants
A BP official is telling The Associated Press that the company has received federal approval to continuously spray chemicals underwater on the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP PLC spokesman Mark Proegler said the company received Environmental Protection Agency approval and began pumping dispersant on the site starting at 4:30 a.m. Monday. The company plans to continue spraying and taking tests.
The dispersants had never been tried at such depths before this spill and officials have been worried about the effect on the environment.
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Officials with BP have been encouraged by the underwater spraying, saying it prevents some of the oil from reaching the surface.
An EPA spokeswoman didn't immediately return a telephone call or e-mail.
Icy slush had foiled plans to use a giant box to contain the gusher leaving BP pondering alternate solutions at sea, while on land, helicopters were expected to drop sandbags in Louisiana to guard against thick blobs of crude that began washing up on beaches Monday.
On Sunday, in a waterfront yard in Port Fourchon, La., a tractor-trailer dumped a load of sand, which workers planned to pack into 5-cubic-yard bags. Once the bags are ready, the Army National Guard will airlift them on Monday to five spots along a four-mile stretch of coastline between Port Fourchon and the Jefferson Parish line, said Lafourche Parish compliance officer Robert Passman.
BP said Monday that the oil spill has cost the company $350 million so far. The tally included the cost of the immediate response, containment, relief well drilling, commitments to the Gulf Coast states, and settlements and federal costs.
The company did not speculate on the final bill, which most analysts expect to run into tens of billions of dollars.
With crippled equipment littering the ocean floor, engineers from the oil company - which is responsible for the cleanup - scrambled to devise a fresh method to cap the ruptured well. Their previous best hope for containing the leak quickly, a four-story containment box, became encrusted with deep-sea crystals Saturday and had to be cast aside.
CBS News correspondent Don Teague reports that BP is also considering using deep sea dredges to try and pile up sand near the coastline to build artificial barrier islands. The hope is that the new islands might absorb much of the crude before it can impact the sensitive marshlands on southern fringe of the Gulf states.
The engineers appear to be "trying anything people can think of" to stop the leak, said Ed Overton, a LSU professor of environmental studies.
An estimated 3.5 million gallons of oil have spilled since an explosion on April 20 on the drilling rig, the Deepwater Horizon, 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. At that pace, the spill would surpass the 11 million gallons spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster by next month. BP is drilling a relief well that is considered a permanent fix, but that could take months to complete.