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Britain: BP oil spill's effects likely to linger for decades: NOAA chief

https://www.chemnet.com   Aug 06,2010
BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico "will likely have considerable impacts for years and decades to come," Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday at a White House briefing.


The impact would not be as great as it could have been, she said, because much of the oil has been removed or has degraded. But so much oil was released that "the common view of most of the scientists inside and outside of government is that the effects of the spill will linger for decades,"
Lubchenco said.


Research efforts will continue to get a better handle on the impacts,"but [they are] not easy to determine," Lubchenco said. For example, the full impact on fish populations that spawn in the water column contaminated with oil won't be known for a number of years, she said.


Lubchenco's comments came after NOAA and the Department of Interior released a report that said the vast majority of oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico from BP's Macondo well has evaporated, been burned, skimmed from the surface or recovered from the wellhead.


The government report estimated that 4.9 million barrels were released from the spill, which began April 20 when the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and caught fire. The well was temporarily capped on July 15 and BP early Wednesday reported initial success in its efforts to begin to seal the well permanently through its static-kill procedure.


The study estimated that about 75% of the oil is no longer in the water.Much of the remaining 25% of the spilled oil is either on or just below the surface in the form of a light sheen or weathered tar balls, has washed ashore or been collected from shore or is buried in sand and sediments, the report said. Oil on or near the surface of the water is dispersed and in the process of being naturally degraded. Some of the oil remains deep in the water column, the study added.
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