ORANGE BEACH, Ala. (AP) - The Coast Guard has demanded that BP
step up its efforts to contain the oil gushing into the Gulf of
Mexico by the end of the weekend, telling the British oil giant
that its slow pace in stopping the spill is becoming increasingly
alarming as the disaster fouled the coastline in ugly new ways
Saturday.
The Coast Guard sent a testy letter to BP's chief operating
officer that said the company urgently needs to pick up the pace
and present a better plan to contain the spill by the time
President Barack Obama arrives on Monday for his fourth visit to
the beleaguered coast. The letter, released Saturday, follows
nearly two months of tense relations between BP and the government
and reflects the growing frustration over the company's inability
to stop the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.
The dispute escalated on the same day that ominous new signs of
the tragedy emerged on the beaches of Alabama. Waves of unsightly
brown surf hit the shores in Orange Beach, leaving stinking, dark
piles of oil that dried in the hot sun and extended up to 12 feet
from the water's edge for as far as the eye could see.
It was the worst hit yet to Alabama beaches. Tar-like globs have
washed up periodically throughout the disaster, but Saturday's
pollution was significantly worse.
"This is awful," said Shelley Booker of Shreveport, La., who
was staying in a condominium with her teenage daughter and her
friends near the deserted beach about 100 miles from the site of
the spill.
Scientists have estimated that anywhere between about 40 million
gallons to 109 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf
since a drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. The
latest cap installed on the blown-out well is capturing about
650,000 gallons of oil a day, but large quantities are still
spilling into the sea.
The Coast Guard initially sent a letter to BP on Wednesday
asking for more details on its plans to contain the oil. BP
responded, saying a new system to trap much more oil should be
complete by mid-July. That system's new design is meant to better
withstand the force of hurricanes and could capture about 2 million
gallons of oil daily when finished, the company said.
But Coast Guard Rear Adm. James A. Watson said in a follow-up
letter Friday he was concerned that BP's plans were inadequate,
especially in light of revised estimates this week that indicated
the size of the spill could be up to twice as large as previously
thought.
"BP must identify in the next 48 hours additional leak
containment capacity that could be operationalized and expedited to
avoid the continued discharge of oil ... Recognizing the complexity
of this challenge, every effort must be expended to speed up the
process," Watson said in the letter addressed to chief operating
officer Doug Suttles.
Suttles said the company will respond to the letter by Sunday
night.
"We've got a team of people looking to see, can we accelerate
some items that are in that plan and is it possible to do more,"
Suttles said as he spoke to workers at a command center where he
thanked BP employees and contractors for their work in cleaning up
the spill. "There are some real challenges to do that, including
safety."
The letter and deadline come just before Obama is set to visit
the Gulf Coast on Monday and Tuesday. On Saturday, Obama reassured
British Prime Minister David Cameron that his frustration over the
oil spill in the Gulf was not an attack on Britain.
The two leaders spoke by phone for 30 minutes Saturday to soothe
trans-Atlantic tensions over the spill. Cameron also has been under
pressure to get Obama to tone down the criticism, fearing it will
hurt the millions of British retirees holding BP stock that has
taken a beating in recent weeks.
Cameron's office said the prime minister told Obama of his
sadness at the disaster, while Obama said he recognized that BP was
a multinational company and that his frustration "had nothing to
do with national identity."
BP is hard at work trying to find new ways to capture more oil,
but officials say the only way to permanently stop the spill is a
relief well that will drill sideways into the broken well and plug
it with cement.
Right now, a containment cap sitting over a well pipe is
siphoning off around 653,100 gallons of oil to a ship the ocean
surface. That oil is then unloaded to tankers and taken ashore.
To boost its capacity, BP also plans to trap oil using lines
that earlier shot heavy drilling mud deep into the well during a
failed attempt to stop the flow. This time, those lines will work
in reverse. Oil and gas from the well will flow up to a
semi-submersible drilling rig where it will be burned in a
specialized boom that BP estimates can vaporize a maximum 420,000
gallons of oil daily. Another ship should be in place by mid-July
to process even more oil.
News that the federal government had given BP until the end of
the weekend to speed up the oil containment was met with raised
eyebrows and long sighs as locals gathered to barbecue, drink
Budweiser and listen to classic rock at a fishing benefit in Pointe
a la Hache, La.
"I'll believe it when I see it," said Dominic Bazile, a
firefighter.
Meanwhile, Gulf states affected by the disaster are putting the
squeeze on BP, seeking to protect their interests amid talk of the
possibility that BP may eventually file for bankruptcy.
The attorney general in Florida and the state treasurer in
Louisiana want BP to put a total of $7.5 billion in escrow accounts
to compensate the states and their residents for damages now and in
the future. Alabama doesn't plan to take such action, while
Mississippi and Texas haven't said what they will do.
As of the end of March, BP had only $6.8 billion in cash and
cash equivalents available.

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