ADEM boss says cleanup crews ‘still losing the battle’ against Gulf oil spill

By George Altman, Press-Register
Published: Friday, June 18, 2010, 6:40 AM DAUPHIN ISLAND — More than 2 million gallons of oil are skimmed, burned or collected from the site of BP PLC’s busted well every day, but cleanup crews are “still losing the battle,” according to Bruce Freeman, chief of the office of emergency response at the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. “We’re not collecting or skimming or burning more than is coming out of the well, so the honest truth is, we’re still in a long fight,” Freeman told more than 200 people Thursday evening at a town hall-style meeting on the island. A BP official tried to assure the crowd that the company is responding with a military-grade effort. “Three-quarters of the vessels that are deployed in this incident represent the same amount of volume of ships that were deployed during D-Day,” said Walt Hufford, a geologist working as a BP spokesman. Hufford added that more than 30,000 people are working to fix the spill. “I want to be very clear that BP is committed to remain here, on the ground with you until this incident has been fully addressed. You can take that to the bank,” he said. Some meeting attendees were less than impressed. “It’s not going away for years, and we don’t know what the future impact is going to be,” said Dauphin Island resident Amanda Jones. Jones said she thinks the company and government are genuinely trying to clean up the spill, but the problem will only grow worse as oil continues to leak. “They need to do something out there, where it’s coming from,” she said. …

ADEM boss says cleanup crews ‘still losing the battle’ against Gulf oil spill (with video)