By Mary Whitfill
Staff Writer
BP Global announced that it has made $25 million grants to each Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida to help with contingency plans being made due to the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. These grants are intended to local businesses to support clean up relief’s and try to cope with the damage done to the coast.
In a recent press release, BP Group Chief Executive Tony Hayward said “We are continuing to do all we can to stop the flow of oil from the well and also attach and capture the spilled oil off shore.”
On May 5, BP announced that it has stopped the flow of oil from one of three of the existing leak points. Although fixing one leak point will not do much to the flow of the well, it is expected to lessen the complexity of the problem.
Since the initial explosion on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, oil has been pouring into the Gulf at a rate of about 210,000 gallons per day, threatening the U.S. coastline.
Workers have begun lowering a giant concrete and steel box over the blow out oil well at the bottom of the sea. The box is designed to collect as much as 85 percent of the oil spilling into the Gulf and funnel it up into a tanker, but this seemingly simple idea has underlying complexities and has never been done before, leading to unexpected problems.
Skimmer boats have been continuously slurping up oil from the surface of the water and two pairs of boats attached at either end of two lengths of fireproof boom has gathered some of the thickest oil to burn. The Coast Guard has reported that 18 flights have dropped 150,000 gallons of chemical dispersant; crews have skimmed up 588,000 gallons of oily water and conducted five oil burns.
Louisiana’s secretary of wildlife has arranged state veterinarians to help rescue oiled birds and animals from the coast. Vets from Delaware, California and Alaska have already volunteered their services and the state Board of Veterinary Medicine agreed to grant emergency wavers to veterinarians who have experience treating oiled animals.
The Department of Homeland Security warms that the oil spill is a long time event. Secretary Janet Napolitano says she does not think the spill will be over soon and officials are planning for the wost.
