(Source: NOAA) Thursday the Deepwater Horizon incident was declared a Spill of National Significance (SONS). A SONS is defined as, "a spill that, due to its severity, size, location, actual or potential impact on the public health and welfare or the environment, or the necessary response effort, is so complex that it requires extraordinary coordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up the discharge and allows greater federal involvement. Estimates of the release rate increased to 210,000 gallons per day based on surface observations and reports of a newly discovered leak in the damaged piping on the sea floor.
NOAA is assisting the Unified Command in evaluating a new technique to apply dispersant to oil at the source - 5000 feet below the surface. If successful, it would keep plumes and sheens from forming. Work has finished on a collection dome that will be deployed at the sea floor, and the piping portion of this project continues. This will bring oil to tankers on the surface. This technique has never been tried at 5000 feet. Drilling of a relief or cut-off well is still planned, but wouldn't be complete for several months.
Dispersant is still being aggressively applied. Over 100,000 gallons have been applied. The test burn late Wednesday was successful with approximately 100 barrels of oil burned in about 45 minutes. Additional efforts are planned based on weather conditions.
With shore impacts eminent, sensitive shorelines are being pre-boomed. Nearly 200,000 feet of boom have been deployed, and another 300,000 feet are ready.
Forecasts indicate persistent winds from the southeast through the weekend which will push surface oil towards shore. The State of Louisiana allowed shrimpers to start an early season Thursday to get ahead of oil impacts. NOAA’s Assessment and Restoration Division (ARD) is evaluating concerns about potential injuries of oil and dispersant to fishes, human use of fisheries, marine mammals, turtles, and sensitive resources. ARD is coordinating with Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to evaluate plankton and trawl sampling efforts. Aerial surveys to assess marine life were conducted Thursday with personnel from NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and will continue on a needed basis.

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