Gulf oil spill: ‘Everybody’s lost hope’ — ‘We will die a slow death’
By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY
1 June 2010 NEW ORLEANS — Anger and frustration surged across the Gulf Coast on Monday as residents learned that the latest attempt to cap a renegade underwater well had failed and that oil may keep gushing into the Gulf of Mexico until at least August, when relief wells are scheduled to be finished.
As they entered the 42nd day of the crisis Monday, officials with oil company BP said that over the weekend they had abandoned the so-called “top kill” maneuver to jam drilling mud into the well to stop its flow and were trying a new technique. “Everybody’s lost hope,” said councilman Jay LaFont of Grand Isle, La., where beaches and its fishing industry were closed because of the spill. “As long as you have something to look forward to, a little glimmer of hope, you can move on. But this just drained everything out of us.” Up to 800,000 gallons of crude a day has spewed from a well 5,000 feet underwater since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 crewmembers, and sank two days later, unleashing the greatest oil disaster in U.S. history. The well has spilled at least 20 million gallons of crude — surpassing the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska that dumped 11 million. … Scientists discovered a new plume of oil — a dense, black cloud about 1,000 feet underwater stretching 6 miles from the well, said Mandy Joye, a University of Georgia scientist leading the research. “We will die a slow death over the next two years as this oil creeps ashore,” Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said.
