There were no immediate reports of any mass die-offs of wildlife or large numbers of creatures wriggling in oil, as seen after the Exxon Valdez disaster, but that was the fear.
Billy Nungesser, president of Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish, toured the oil-fouled marshes Wednesday and said: “Had you fallen off that boat yesterday and come up breathing that stuff, you probably wouldn’t be here.’’
A live video feed of the underwater gusher, posted online yesterday after lawmakers exerted pressure on BP, is sure to stoke the anger. The link is globalwarming.house.gov/spillcam.
It shows what appears to be a large plume of oil and gas still spewing into the water next to the stopper-and-tube combination that BP inserted to carry some of the crude to the surface. The House committee website where the video was posted promptly crashed because so many people were trying to view it.
“These videos stand as a scalding, blistering indictment of BP’s inattention to the scope and size of the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of the United States,’’ said Representative Edward J. Markey, Democratic of Malden.
At least 6 million gallons have gushed into the Gulf — more than half the amount the Exxon Valdez tanker spilled in Alaska in 1989 — since the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded 50 miles off the coast April 20. Eleven workers were killed.
The slow-motion disaster could become far wider. Government scientists said a small portion of the slick had entered the so-called loop current, a stream of fast-moving water that could carry the mess into the Florida Keys and up the state’s Atlantic Coast, damaging coral reefs and fouling beaches.
“It’s anger that the people who are supposed to be driving the ship don’t have any idea what’s going on,’’ E.J. Boles, a musician from Big Pine Key, Fla., said of both BP and the government. “Why wouldn’t they have any contingency plan? I’m not a genius, and even I would have thought of that.’’
