The New York Times is finally reporting the oil slick that stretches from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico, for 100 miles, affecting our water supply here and sensitive wetlands.
With just 500 people working on cleanup, according the WWL TV, for a slick that stretches 100 miles, I'm concerned that the immediate effects on wildlife are already being downplayed.
From the Times:
A sheen of oil coated the Mississippi River for nearly 100 miles from the center of this city to the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday following the worst oil spill here in nearly a decade. The fuel-laden barge that collided with a heavy tanker on Wednesday was still leaking.
Absorbent barriers floated along the banks of the Mississippi River in New Orleans on Thursday. The pungent oil smell kept tourists in the French Quarter away from a riverside path.
The thick industrial fuel pouring from the barge could be smelled for miles in city neighborhoods up and down the river, even as hundreds of cleanup workers struggled to contain the hundreds of thousands of gallons. Some environmentalists worried about reports of fish and bird kills in sensitive marsh areas downstream, though officials said they had so far heard of only a handful of oil-covered birds. Booms to protect areas richest in wildlife, at the river’s mouth, were being deployed, officials said.
Unfortunately, according to the Coast Guard, this is a nasty product to cleanup. From the same article:
“We’ve had a number of large spills in the New Orleans area, but this is a heavy, nasty product, problematic in the cleanup,” said Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau of the Coast Guard, adding that it is of the sort normally used to fire up boilers at power plants.
Again on WWL TV last night, it was reported that an SPCA group from Houston was setting up a decontamination unit in Venice, Louisiana, for wildlife. With a slick this size, and the barge continues to leak, it will take a good deal more help, I'm afraid.
It was heartbreaking to see on the evening news last night an egret wading through the slick, looking for fish. Please help get the work out on this disaster, as again, we're going to need more help.