Oil washing up in La. closes public beach; anger grows over response to massive spill

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Public beach in La. closed as oil washes up

GRAND ISLE, La. — Officials closed the public beach here Friday as thick gobs of oil resembling melted chocolate washed up, a very visible reminder of the blown-out well that has been spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico for a month.

Up to now, only tar balls and a light sheen had come ashore. But oil was starting to hit the beach at this island resort community in various forms — light sheens, orange-colored splotches and heavier brown sheets — said Chris Roberts, a local official who surveyed the area Friday morning.

“It’s difficult to clean up when you haven’t stopped the source,” said Roberts, a councilman for Jefferson Parish, which stretches from the New Orleans metropolitan area to the coast. “You can scrape it off the beach but it’s coming right back.”

BP PLC was leasing the Deepwater Horizon rig when it exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and triggering the massive spill. The company conceded Thursday what some scientists have been saying for weeks: More oil is flowing from the leak than BP and the Coast Guard had previously estimated.

There has been frustration with the pace of efforts to stop the oil, and BP said Friday that it will likely be at least Tuesday before crews can begin a process known as a “top kill” that would stop the flow by shooting heavy drilling mud into the well.

Brown and vivid orange globs and sheets of foul-smelling oil the consistency of latex paint have also begun coating the reeds and grasses of Louisiana’s wetlands, home to rare birds, mammals and a rich variety of marine life.

A deep, stagnant ooze sat in the middle of a particularly devastated marsh off the Louisiana coast where Emily Guidry Schatzel of the National Wildlife Federation was examining stained reeds.

“This is just heartbreaking,” she said with a sigh. “I can’t believe it.”

Ralph Morgenweck of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said countless animals could be feeling the effects of the spill, though workers have found only a handful hurt or injured.

The BP executive in charge of fighting the spill, Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles, said he understands the public is frustrated with the response. He told the CBS “Early Show” on Friday that in the worst case scenario, the gusher could continue until early August, when a new well being drilled to cap the flow permanently could be finished.

But Suttles said he believes the rich Gulf environment will recover, in part because it is a large body of water and has withstood other oil spills.

“I’m optimistic, I’m very optimistic that the Gulf will fully recover,” Suttles said on CBS.

A live video feed of the underwater gusher, posted online after lawmakers exerted pressure on BP, shows what appears to be a large plume of oil and gas still spewing into the water next to the stopper-and-tube combination that BP inserted to carry some of the crude to the surface. The House committee website where the video was posted promptly crashed because so many people were trying to view it.

At least 6 million gallons have gushed into the Gulf since the explosion, more than half of what the Exxon Valdez tanker spilled in Alaska in 1989. A growing number of scientists believe it’s more.

BP spokesman Mark Proegler told The Associated Press on Thursday that the mile-long tube inserted into a leaking pipe over the weekend was at one point capturing 210,000 gallons of oil a day — the total amount the company and the Coast Guard have estimated is gushing into the sea — but some was still escaping. He would not say how much.

Suttles said Friday that the pipe is capturing an average of about 84,000 gallons a day, though the amount varies depending on what’s happening on the seafloor.

Washington, meanwhile, has turned up the pressure on BP.

The Obama administration asked the company to be more open with the public by sharing such information as measurements of the leak and the trajectory of the spill. BP has been accused of covering up the magnitude of the disaster.

Also, the Environmental Protection Agency directed BP to employ a less toxic form of the chemical dispersants it has been using to break up the oil and keep it from reaching the surface.

BP is marshaling equipment to try the “top kill,” which involves pumping heavy mud into the top of the blown-out well to try to plug the gusher.

If it doesn’t work, the backup plans include a “junk shot” — shooting golf balls, shredded tires, knotted rope and other material into the well to clog it up.

“We’re now looking at a scenario where response plans include lighting the ocean on fire, pouring potent chemicals into the water, and using trash and human hair to stop the flow of oil,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, in a letter to President Barack Obama calling for a formal moratorium on new offshore drilling permits. “If this is the backup plan, we need to rethink taking the risk in the first place.”

Patience was wearing thin among state and local officials who called on Obama to take a larger role in the fight against oil invading the Louisiana coast.

“We’ve given BP enough time,” said Jefferson Parish Councilman John Young.

Bluestein reported from Robert, La. Associated Press writers Mike Kunzelman and Janet McConnaughey in Louisiana, Ben Evans in Washington, Holbrook Mohr in Mississippi and Matt Sedensky in Florida contributed to this report.

Online:

globalwarming.house.gov/spillcam