ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — The Coast Guard has demanded that BP step up its efforts to contain the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico by the end of the weekend, telling the British oil giant that its slow pace in stopping the spill is becoming increasingly alarming as the disaster fouled the coastline in ugly new ways Saturday.
The Coast Guard sent a testy letter to BP’s chief operating officer that said the company urgently needs to pick up the pace and present a better plan to contain the spill by the time President Barack Obama arrives Monday for his fourth visit to the beleaguered coast.
The letter, released Saturday, follows nearly two months of tense relations between BP and the government and reflects the growing frustration over the company’s inability to stop the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.
The dispute escalated on the same day that ominous new signs of the tragedy emerged on the beaches of Alabama. Waves of unsightly brown surf hit the shores in Orange Beach, leaving stinking, dark piles of oil that dried in the hot sun and extended up to 12 feet from the water’s edge for as far as the eye could see.
Tar-like globs have washed up periodically throughout the disaster, but the pollution Saturday was significantly worse.
“This is awful,” said Shelley Booker of Shreveport, La., who was staying in a condominium with her teenage daughter and her friends near the deserted beach, about 100 miles from the site of the spill.
Scientists have estimated that anywhere between about 40 million gallons to more than 100 million gallons of oil have spewed into the gulf since a drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. The latest cap installed on the blown-out well is capturing about 650,000 gallons of oil a day, but large quantities are still spilling into the sea.
The Coast Guard initially sent a letter to BP on Wednesday asking for more details on its plans to contain the oil. BP responded, saying a new system to trap much more oil should be complete by mid-July. That system’s new design is meant to better withstand the force of hurricanes and could capture about 2 million gallons of oil daily when finished, the company said.
But Coast Guard Rear Adm. James A. Watson said in a follow-up letter Friday he was concerned that BP’s plans were inadequate, especially in light of revised estimates this week that indicated the size of the spill could be up to twice as large as previously thought.
“BP must identify in the next 48 hours additional leak containment capacity that could be operationalized and expedited to avoid the continued discharge of oil . . . Recognizing the complexity of this challenge, every effort must be expended to speed up the process,” Watson said in the letter addressed to chief operating officer Doug Suttles.
Suttles said the company will respond to the letter by tonight.
Suttles also acknowledged that “there’s big frustrations out there.”
Obama reassures British premier:
President Barack Obama reassured British Prime Minister David Cameron that his frustration over the oil spill is not an attack on Britain as the two leaders tried to soothe transatlantic tensions over the disaster. Cameron’s office said the two leaders held a “warm and constructive” telephone conversation for more than 30 minutes.
Cameron’s office said the prime minister “expressed his sadness at the ongoing human and environmental catastrophe” but stressed BP’s economic importance. Obama recognized “that frustrations about the oil spill had nothing to do with national identity.”
Wreckage washes up:
A piece of wreckage from the Deepwater Horizon rig has washed up on a beach in Panama City Beach, Fla., about 190 miles from the site of the disaster.
Shrimpers raise price:
U.S. shrimpers who comb seas unaffected by the oil-slickened gulf are raising prices as demand for their catch rises, bringing a potential respite from some tough years. Fishermen in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Texas, whose waters have not been affected by oil, say prices for their shrimp have gone up as processing plants that normally buy gulf seafood turn to other docks for their supply. The Associated Press
