Oil well sealed, but Gulf mayors say disaster's conclusion still to come
Solid cement now seals the broken Gulf of Mexico well, BP PLC said Sunday, but the disaster's true conclusion is still to come, and no one knows when, according to mayors along the coast.
"When is it going to be over? You know, we don't know if we're going to continue to have things wash up from time to time," said Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier, whose island has been battered with oil, tarballs and oil-slathered debris for months.
At this point, Collier said, he's willing to take BP's word that the company will continue cleanup and recovery efforts until Gulf environments and economies are fully restored.
Not everyone feels that way.
"I have no confidence in them at all," said Tony Kennon, mayor of Orange Beach. "I can only base my beliefs on what I've seen, and in the claims process, I have not seen them honor their word."
Kris Sliger, BP's deputy incident commander for the state of Alabama, said the company is working to fix all the damage done by the oil spill, but he said what Kennon wants is "instantaneous gratification."
"We have never said that we would make people whole instantaneously," Sliger said. Still, he complimented Kennon's dedication to the community and said the demand for quick action is "not an unreasonable expectation."
After the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11, oil flowed into the Gulf at a rate of 2.2 million gallons per day, according to a U.S. government estimate. In total, 172.2 million gallons of crude gushed into the water, the government said.
Three days after engineers finished pumping cement down the gusher, pressure tests showed Sunday that it has hardened, according to the company, and work crews can resume drilling the relief well meant to guarantee that no more oil leaks out.
Officials said they hope to complete drilling the final 100 feet of the relief well by next weekend, intersecting the shaft of the broken well deep under the ocean floor. Once that happens, engineers plan to pump in more mud and cement.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration continued to report no surface oil throughout the Gulf of Mexico, and the Press-Register received no reports of oil sightings locally Sunday.
Meanwhile, cleanup officials said that an oil slick, 2 miles long and 6 to 12 inches wide, skimmed late last week from the waters off of Bayou La Batre was not related to the leak from BP's well.
"It was refined product that was black in color," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Shorey. In contrast, oil from the leaking well has been reddish-orange, he said. "This was not that type of product."
Cortnee Ferguson, a spokeswoman for the Mobile Joint Incident Command center, said the source of the oil has not been determined.
Even though it appears not to have come from the company's well, "BP did help respond to it and did clean that up," she added.
BP's delay in putting money into a $20 billion fund to pay for spill-related damage claims has soured Kennon's view of the company, he said.
The company agreed in June, at President Barack Obama's insistence, to set aside the money but has yet to make its first deposit.
Kennon said he believes the only way BP will fulfill its obligations is if the company is under "constant pressure" from state and federal officials.
Sliger said BP welcomes Kennon's criticism, adding that the company has maintained a "very, very good dialogue" with the city.
"We will be here until this incident is finished," Sliger said.
While much emphasis has been placed on the economic repercussions of the spill, Collier said economic recovery ultimately depends on ecological recovery.
"Paramount to me is the environment," Collier said. "That has impacts across the board."
Oil has been reported bubbling up from more than a foot below the sand on Mississippi's Horn Island, and Kennon said crude is similarly buried under Orange Beach sands.
"Anywhere that oil washed up on our beach, some has made it down below the surface," Kennon said. He added that he thinks the underground oil stretches along most of the city's beaches, so most of the shoreline sand will need to be dug up.
Sliger disagreed, saying the buried oil is only sporadic.
"For most of the beaches, there is not any buried oil," he said. "In some locations -- those that we have marked -- we know that there is what we call tarmats."
Sliger said those would be cleaned and the Gulf Coast restored to conditions "equal to or better than" those that existed prior to the spill. That does not mean an oil-free Gulf, he noted.
"Oil is a natural part of the environment here," Sliger said. "You will find tarballs almost anywhere that you traverse in the Gulf of Mexico."
