By Kim Chipman and Jim Polson May 14 (Bloomberg) — For Tammy Wolfer of Louisiana, the worst part about the oil slick looming off the Gulf of Mexico coast isn’t that it cut her income from working at a marina and ruined plans to buy a house this year. The worst part is waiting to see where and when the oil will arrive on shore. “The not knowing is what is driving everyone crazy,” Wolfer, 42, who lives in Empire on Louisiana’s eastern coast, said this week. “At least if the oil started coming ashore, we could start cleaning it up and know where we are.” Coastal residents in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama have been bracing for black waves of oil since April 20, when an offshore rig drilling a BP Plc well exploded, triggering a leak that is dumping an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf. U.S. Representative Edward Markey said he’ll launch a probe into whether the well is leaking far more after a media report that it may be spewing as much as 70,000 barrels a day. … “Right now it’s like being a goalie in a soccer game,” said Robert Thomas, professor and director of the Loyola University New Orleans Center for Environmental Communication. “Everyone is the goalie and we are trying to protect everything from every direction.” Local residents and officials say they dread the thought of thick oil coming ashore, where it could destroy fisheries and marshland and cause environmental damage. “Everybody is so anxious,” said Mark Schexnayder, regional coastal adviser for fisheries at Louisiana State University. “They would rather be doing something physical where they can help.” … “They can cap this well tomorrow, but three months from now, a three- or four-category storm could disturb the bottom of the Gulf and that oil will come to the top and it may be worse than it is right now,” said Ted Breaux, who lives near New Orleans and works in coastal Louisiana for Exxon Mobil Corp.
Spill’s ‘Slow-Moving Hurricane’ Leaves Coast Waiting
