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Progress Reported in Efforts to Contain Massive BP Oil Spill

   VOA News 08 June 2010
   U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen (file photo)

Photo: AP

   U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen (file photo)

   The Obama administration says efforts to contain the massive oil spill
   in the Gulf of Mexico are making progress, with more oil captured each
   day.
   Speaking  to reporters in Washington Tuesday, Coast Guard Admiral Thad
   Allen  said almost 15,000 barrels of oil were contained in the past 24
   hours, up from about 11,000 barrels the previous day. Â
   Allen leads the government's response to the crisis.  He says vessels
   on  the  surface  collecting  the  oil have yet to reach their maximum
   capacity.
   Oil  continues to escape from the leaking well, and Allen says experts
   led  by  the U.S. Geological Survey are working on finding an accurate
   flow-rate  estimate  to  determine how much oil has been released into
   the Gulf.
   Allen  says the oil company BP has closed one of four vents on the cap
   over  the  leaking  well, but that oil is continuing to escape through
   the remaining three vents.
   At  the  same  news briefing Tuesday, the head of the National Oceanic
   and  Atmospheric  Administration,  Jane  Lubchenco, said water samples
   taken  by NOAA scientists have confirmed the presence of oil suspended
   below the surface of the Gulf.
   Subsurface  oil  was  found  in  low  concentrations  in several areas
   hundreds  of  kilometers  from  the  leak.  Lubchenco said additional
   research is being done to determine the impact of the subsurface oil.
   Earlier,  in  an  interview  broadcast  on  U.S. television, President
   Barack  Obama  said  he  was speaking with fishermen in the region and
   experts  to  determine who needs to be punished for the spill - or, as
   he  put it, "whose ass to kick."Â  He took a strong stance against the
   head  of  oil  giant  BP,  Tony  Hayward,  who  has made controversial
   statements  minimizing  the  impact  of  the spill.  Hayward also has
   expressed  frustration about the glare of p[ublic attention on the oil
   spill,  saying  at one point that he "wants his life back," but he has
   since apologized for those remarks.
   Mr.  Obama  said  any government official who had made such statements
   would "not be working for me." Â
   The  president  has  said  the  economic  impact  of the spill will be
   "substantial."Â   The  spill  has coated marshes and wildlife in black
   ooze  and is threatening the livelihoods of the region's fishermen and
   other business owners.

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