Thick black oil hung in the water and stained the bases of the roseau cane at Pass a L’Outre, a shrinking patch of Louisiana’s fragile wetlands where crude from the BP spill first hit land and began seeping deep into the fragile marshes. Three rows of boom laid in front of the marshes appeared to serve little purpose, and if anything were corralling the oil up against the wetlands’ plants, not keeping it away.
Coastal scientist Angelina Freeman dipped an amber-coloured jar into the oily water to take a sample.
An estimated 29.5 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico in the five weeks since a ruptured pipe a mile below the surface began gushing crude after an explosion on board BP’s Deepwater Horizon toppled the offshore rig, killing 11 workers and sending the platform sinking to the sea floor. In the emotionless way of a scientist, Ms Freeman described the oil inside the jar — “very black, sort of chocolate-syrupy, really thick” —but also uttered a few “wows” of disbelief. She put the sample of thick goo into a box containing other sample jars, each filled with water that she had collected at several different points between Venice Marina and Pass a L’Outre, leaning over the side of Shane Mayfield’s powerboat and dipping her rubber-gloved hand into the water. Ms Freeman was distressed by what she saw, by what she smelled, by the sight of men in hazmat suits skimming thick oil off the surface of the water.
She was upset at seeing no sign of life at Pass a L’Outre. —AFP