with a massive, deep-sea cap.
CAP ON
The federal government's point man for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill says he authorized BP to keep the cap on its busted well for another 24 hours after the company pledged to closely monitor the seafloor for signs of a new leak. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen says federal scientists got answers they wanted about how BP is monitoring the seabed for leaks, in a conference call Sunday night with BP representatives. Earlier Sunday, he had demanded BP step up monitoring because a seep had been detected a distance from the well. On Monday, Allen said the cap may remain only if BP keeps careful watch for signs that it could possibly worsen the situation.
SEEP
The concern all along — since pressure readings on the cap weren't as high as expected — was a leak elsewhere in the wellbore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix. When asked about the seep and the monitoring, BP spokesman Mark Salt would only say that "we continue to work very closely with all government scientists on this."
COST
BP said Monday that the cost of dealing with the oil spill has now reached nearly $4 billion. The company said it has made payments totaling $207 million to settle individual claims for damages from the spill along the southern coast of the United States. To date, almost 116,000 claims have been submitted and more than 67,500 payments have been made, totaling $207 million.
DISAGREEMENT
With the newly installed cap keeping oil from BP's busted well out of the Gulf during a trial run, this weekend offered a chance for the oil company and government to gloat over their shared success — the first real victory in fighting the spill. Instead, they spent two days disagreeing over what to with the undersea machinery holding back the gusher. The apparent disagreement began to sprout Saturday, when Allen said the giant stopper would eventually be hooked up to a mile-long pipe to pump the crude to ships on the surface. But early the next day, BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said the cap should shut the oil in until relief wells are finished.
RICO
Using a law originally enacted to combat the Mafia, attorneys are filing lawsuits accusing BP PLC and Transocean Ltd. of committing a longterm series of crimes by concealing flaws in deepwater drilling plans and lacking safeguards to contain a catastrophic Gulf of Mexico spill. BP has been named in at least three lawsuits brought under the federal law known as RICO, for Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. Transocean, which leased the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon drilling rig to BP, has been named in two. The lawsuits accuse both companies of committing wire and mail fraud over a number of years by filing false documents with the U.S. government, and by misleading investors through other documents and falsehoods. They also allege an overall oil and gas industry effort to "infiltrate" federal regulators through favors such as alcohol and drugs, sex, golf and ski trips, concert and sports tickets.
FORECASTERS
Call it cloudy with a chance of tar balls. TV forecasters along the Gulf Coast have been trying to predict the path of oil spewing from the Deepwater Horizon rig. But that's proving more difficult than predicting sunshine or showers. Forecasters began adding the slick to the outlook soon after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April, but their initial success was spotty. The oil didn't move as quickly as meteorologists predicted, and residents in some areas like the Florida Panhandle spent days anticipating oil before it appeared. Even though BP PLC cut off the oil flow for the first time last week, forecasting oil's landfall will remain a challenge for months as the sticky stuff continues to wash up.
FEEDING FISHERMEN
Grow up on the water, the children of southern Louisiana learn, and you'll never go hungry. As long as you can toss a line, a net or a trap, you can eat — and eat well. Or you could, until now. Millions of gallons of oil from the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig have fouled some of the world's richest fishing grounds from Florida to Texas. Even though BP stopped the leak for the first time Thursday, more than a third of the Gulf of Mexico remains closed. For thousands who feed their families from the water, what once seemed like a never-ending, free buffet of high-protein, low-fat shrimp, crabs, oysters and fish is off limits. It's not that people are starving. With compensation checks from BP and the help of charities such as Second Harvest Food Bank, they're able to stock their pantries with staples — rice and beans, grits and cereal, peanut butter and jelly. But they're forced to pay for protein they used to get for free. And not the kind they want.
