Tar balls now in Texas
July 7, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A BUCKET'S worth of tar balls that hit a Texas beach means that crude oil has now washed up in every US state on the Gulf of Mexico, more than two months after oil gushing from a blown-out well on the ocean floor first reached Louisiana.
The crude is still moving, but the fleet of skimmers tapped to clean the worst-hit areas of the Gulf is not. A string of small storms has made the water too choppy for the boats to operate for more than a week off Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.
The number of tar balls discovered in Texas is tiny compared with what has coated beaches in other Gulf states. Still, it provoked the dispatch of cleaning crews and a vow that oil company BP will pay for the trouble.
"Any Texas shores impacted by the Deepwater spill will be cleaned up quickly and BP will be picking up the tab," Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said.
The oil's arrival in Texas was predicted last week by an analysis from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which gave a 40-percent chance of crude reaching the area.
"It was just a matter of time that some of the oil would find its way to Texas," said Hans Graber, a marine physicist at the University of Miami.
(AP)
The crude is still moving, but the fleet of skimmers tapped to clean the worst-hit areas of the Gulf is not. A string of small storms has made the water too choppy for the boats to operate for more than a week off Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.
The number of tar balls discovered in Texas is tiny compared with what has coated beaches in other Gulf states. Still, it provoked the dispatch of cleaning crews and a vow that oil company BP will pay for the trouble.
"Any Texas shores impacted by the Deepwater spill will be cleaned up quickly and BP will be picking up the tab," Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said.
The oil's arrival in Texas was predicted last week by an analysis from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which gave a 40-percent chance of crude reaching the area.
"It was just a matter of time that some of the oil would find its way to Texas," said Hans Graber, a marine physicist at the University of Miami.
(AP)
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
