La. gov declares state of emergency as oil from massive Gulf spill; could reach shore Thursday

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Gulf oil spill could reach shore Thursday night

NEW ORLEANS — The edge of a massive oil spill that’s become far worse than initially thought in the Gulf of Mexico was expected to reach the Louisiana shore by Thursday night while officials, the oil company, fishermen and others try to protect the fragile marshlands from an ecological disaster.

As of late Thursday morning, part of the slick was about 3 miles from the Mississippi River delta, said National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration spokesman Charles Henry said. A blown-out well a mile underwater is leaking in three places, spewing 5,000 barrels a day into the gulf, five times more than originally thought. The leaks started after a drilling rig that BP PLC was operating exploded and sank last week 50 miles off the Louisiana coast.

Those who count on the Gulf for their livelihoods fretted about the oozing oil that’s heading to the coast. In Empire, La., Frank and Mitch Jurisich could smell the oil coming from just beyond the murky water where their family has harvested oysters for three generations.

“About 30 minutes ago we started smelling it,” Mitch Jurisich said. “That’s when you know it’s getting close and it hits you right here.”

It might be too late to stop the spill from reaching shore, but BP PLC said it might try a new technique that uses chemicals to break up the oil spewing from a blown-out well a mile underwater.

The company also has asked the Department of Defense if it can provide better underwater equipment than is available commercially, said chief operating officer Doug Suttles.

The request comes just as President Barack Obama dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson to help with the spill. The president said his administration will use “every single available resource at our disposal” to respond.

Obama directed officials to aggressively confront the spill, but the cost of the cleanup will fall on BP, spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

The company is trying several approaches simultaneously as it scrambles to stop the flow of oil from the sunken rig. One, if approved, would use chemicals to break up the oil underwater, which has been done before, but never at these depths. If approved, it could start overnight.

U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry called the idea “a novel, absolutely novel idea.”

Burning the oil on the surface, booming off the spill to keep it contained and drilling a relief well that could help get the leak under control are all ideas the company have tried or plan to try. Suttles said the company expects to start drilling the relief well within 48 hours, but it could take some time to complete.

“We want to pursue every technique we can find,” he said.

If the well cannot be closed, almost 100,000 barrels of oil, or 4.2 million gallons, could spill into the Gulf before crews can drill a relief well to alleviate the pressure. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez, the worst oil spill in U.S. history, leaked 11 million gallons into Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989.

Meanwhile, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency and announced that BP had agreed to allow local fishermen to assist in the expected cleanup. Under the agreement, shrimpers and fishermen could be contracted by BP to help. Jindal said the state was also training prison inmates to help clean up wildlife harmed by oil slicks moving toward shore.

The federal government sent in skimmers and booms Thursday.

BP was operating the Deepwater Horizon when it exploded last week. Of the 126 crew members aboard, 11 are missing and presumed dead.

Suttles had initially disputed the government’s estimate of how much was leaking, and that the company was unable to handle the operation to contain it.

But early Thursday, he acknowledged on “Today” that the leak may be as bad as the government says. He said there was no way to measure the flow at the seabed and estimates have to come from how much oil makes it to the surface.

As dawn broke Thursday in the oil industry hub of Venice, about 75 miles from New Orleans and not far from the mouth of the Mississippi River, crews loaded an orange oil boom aboard a supply boat at Bud’s Boat Launch. There, local officials expressed frustration with the pace of the government’s response and the communication they were getting from the Coast Guard and BP officials.

“We’re not doing everything we can do,” said Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, which straddles the Mississippi River at the tip of Louisiana.

There’s a growing tension in towns like Port Sulphur and Empire along Louisiana 23, which runs south of New Orleans along the Mississippi River into prime oyster and shrimping waters.

Companies like Chevron and ConocoPhillips have facilities nearby, and some are hesitant to criticize BP or the federal government, knowing the oil industry is as much a staple here as the fishermen.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of blame going around here, people are just concerned about their livelihoods,” said Sullivan Vullo, who owns La Casa Cafe in Port Sulphur.

Associated Press writers Janet McConnaughey, Kevin McGill Michael Kunzelman and Brett Martel in New Orleans, Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge and Holbrook Mohr in Empire contributed to this report.