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Obama to Evaluate Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico

   VOA News 02 May 2010
   A  dead  sea  turtle  is  seen  along the shoreline in Breton National
   Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana, 1 May 2010

Photo: AP

   A  dead  sea  turtle  is  seen  along the shoreline in Breton National
   Wildlife  Refuge,  Louisiana,  1  May  2010. Wildlife in the region is
   vulnerable  to  the  looming  oil  spill from last week's collapse and
   spill of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

   U.S.  President  Barack  Obama is heading to the state of Louisiana to
   inspect  damage  and  evaluate  the  threat  from  the large oil spill
   spreading from an undersea well.
   Officials say they are concerned about an environmental catastrophe in
   the  Gulf of Mexico, where the oil slick has tripled in size in recent
   days.
   Speaking  in  televised interviews Sunday, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken
   Salazar  said  it could be 90 days before a "relief well" is completed
   to stop the flow of oil into the water.
   However,  the chairman of British Petroleum, the company that owns the
   leaking  well,  told  ABC  News  a system to contain the leak could be
   deployed in six to eight days. Â
   Lamar McKay said the system, which he called a containment dome, is in
   the final engineering phase.
   An  April  20  oil rig explosion killed 11 workers and triggered leaks
   from the sea floor well-head, estimated at 800,000 liters of crude oil
   per day.
   Salazar  said  every  effort is being made to stop the oil source, and
   federal  officials  are  doing  all  they  can  to  protect  the  U.S.
   coastline.
   But  the  interior secretary said the accident could potentially cause
   more  damage than the 39-million liter oil spill from the Exxon Valdez
   tanker ship in Alaska in 1989.
   President  Obama  left Washington aboard Air Force One Sunday, heading
   for the Gulf Coast.
   The  U.S.  Coast  Guard  said Saturday high seas in the Gulf of Mexico
   have frustrated efforts to contain the spreading oil, and strong winds
   are blowing it toward the coast.
   The Coast Guard's Admiral Thad Allen said the depth of the water makes
   it  almost impossible to know exactly how much oil is spewing from the
   well.
   A  scientist at the University of Miami said satellite images show the
   oil slick grew from 2,600 square kilometers to 9,000 square kilometers
   between April 26 and April 29.
   President   Obama   has   halted   new  offshore  oil  drilling  until
   investigators have determined the cause of the accident.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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