British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon oil spill location and description

British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon oil spill location
Originally uploaded by trudeau

One official source of news of the oil spill is at the BP Spill Response site.
Background, based upon the NY Times, National Public Radio and the BP Spill site:
- Off-shore well platform exploded, killing 11.
- The shut-off valve that was supposed to keep the ocean safe from an oil spill after an explosion did not work.
- Because the well is 5000 ft under water, evaluating the spill has been difficult.
- The well is about 50 miles SE of the Mississippi River delta.
- At risk is Louisiana's a) marsh lands b) fish, animals and birds that spawn and inhabit the marshes c) the fishermen who bring the coastal shrimp, fish and oysters to market.
- the oil slick is also moving toward the coast of Alabama (Mobile Bay, Gulf Shores, Dauphin Island, etc) and Florida (Pensacola, Destin, Seaside, etc).
- British Petroleum (BP) is trying a) put a steel & concrete cap on the well b) drill an adjacent well which would control the broken well.
- BP has hired fishermen to use their vessels in oil clean-up operations.
- Gulf currents are such ( see the Gulf Stream) that the spill may drift eastward - bringing more petroleum pollution to the coast of Florida.