BP exec: Time cleanup abated

Witt hired for long-term effort

BP’s Bob Dudley (left) and James Lee Witt arrive Friday in Biloxi, Miss., where it was announced that Witt will advise BP in its long-term oil-spill response.
BP’s Bob Dudley (left) and James Lee Witt arrive Friday in Biloxi, Miss., where it was announced that Witt will advise BP in its long-term oil-spill response.

— BP’s new incoming boss said Friday that it’s time for a “scale-back” in cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill but stressed that the commitment to make things right is the same as ever.

Bob Dudley, who heads BP’s oil-spill recovery and will take over as the company’s CEO in October, rejected claims that the impact of the spill has been overblown given that little oil remains on the surface of Gulf waters.

“Anyone who thinks this wasn’t a catastrophe must be far away from it,” he said in Biloxi, where he announced that Arkansas native and former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief James Lee Witt will be supporting BP’s Gulf restoration work.

There were several signs Friday that the use of thousands of oil-skimming boats and beach crews wearing hazardous-materials suits was giving way to long-term efforts to clean up, compensate people for their losses and understand the big-picture damage.


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Local fishermen were skeptical and said oil remains a bigger problem than BP and the federal government are letting on.

After an April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers, BP’s blown-out well gushed an estimated 2.2 million barrels to 4.4 million barrels of oil before a temporary cap stopped it July 15. A barrel equals 42 gallons.

Efforts to permanently plug the gusher had been expected to begin as early as Sunday, but the government’s point man for the spill said Friday that those plans hit a snag.

Crews found debris in the bottom of the relief well that ultimately will be used to plug the leak for good, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said. The debris must be fished out before crews can begin a procedure known as a static kill that officials hope will make the rest of the job easier.

The sediment settled in the relief well last week when crews popped in a plug to keep it safe ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie. Removing it will take 24-36 hours and will likely push the kill back to Tuesday, Allen said.

Once the relief well is ready, crews can begin the static kill, in which mud and possibly cement, will be pumped in through the temporary cap.The better that procedure seals the blown-out well, the easier it will be to plug it forever by pumping in cement from below using the relief well. The blown-out well could be killed for good by late August, sources say, though a tropical storm could set the timetable back.

Relatively little oil remains on the surface of the Gulf, leaving less for the thousands of oil skimmers to do.

Dudley said it’s “not too soon for a scale-back” in the cleanup, and in areas where there is no oil, “you probably don’t need to see people in hazmat suits on the beach.”

He added, however, that there is “no pullback” in BP’s commitment to clean up the spill.

“BP intends to be active in the restoration of the Gulf Coast for the long-term,” said Scott Dean, a BP spokesman.

“But,” Dean added, “there is going to be a natural transition from a short-term emergency response, skimming and cleaning up beaches, over time to a long-term recovery and restoration organization.”

Allen acknowledged that transition but struck a note of caution in a briefing later Friday.

“We should not be writing any obituary for this event until the well is completely sealed, until we have no more oil on the surface of the water, until we understand where all the oil has gone to, until the beaches are cleaned, until the local - federal, state and local - officials agree that the beaches are clean,” he said.

There had been fears that the spill could reach South Florida and the East Coast through a powerful loop current, but federal officials said Friday that earlier reports that some oil had reached the current were wrong.

A new analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed that most surface oil in the Gulf had degraded to a thin sheen. What remained on the surface and below was hundreds of miles from the loop current.

NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said a strong eddy is preventing oil from reaching the current.

“So there’s no mechanism for oil to get from where it is now at the surface to the Keys, Miami-Dade, to any place along the East Coast,” Lubchenco said.

Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle will likely be spared any additional major oil concentrations reaching beaches, although tar balls could wash ashore, the agency said. Louisiana’s coast was the most likely place where oil could still make landfall.

For help with the long-term recovery, BP has hired Witt and his public-safety and crisis management consulting firm. Witt, who was FEMA director under President Bill Clinton, said he wants to set up teams along the Gulf to work with BP to address long-term restoration and people’s needs.

Witt said he’s approaching the oil-spill recovery the same as he has for floods, earthquakes, the Oklahoma City bombing and hurricanes. “I’ve seen the anguish and pain that people have suffered after disastrous events. I’ve seen the frustration,” he said. “I’ve seen communities come back stronger and better than ever before. I know that’s what Bob [Dudley] is trying to do here and is willing to make a commitment for [the] long-term to make that happen. And we’re going to be at their side and at your side to make this work.”

BP and Witt’s firm declined to say how much he will be paid for his work.

Commercial fishermen, meanwhile, were allowed back in a section of Louisiana waters east of the Mississippi River on Friday after federal authorities said samples of finfish and shrimp taken from the areas were safe to eat.

About 70 percent of Louisiana waters are now open to some kind of commercial fishing, but state waters in Mississippi and Alabama remain closed and so do nearly a quarter of federal waters in the Gulf.

Reinforcing the state’s declaration that Louisiana seafood is safe to eat was U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. At a news conference in New Orleans, she said fish showed levels of contaminants that were “extremely low, significantly below the threshold of concern.”

Hamburg stressed that testing will continue because of the large volume of oil spilled and the large amount of dispersants used to break it up.

Seafood-industry representatives hailed the reopening, but Rusty Graybill, a boat captain from Yscloskey, La., who fishes for crab, oysters and shrimp, said “it’s a joke.”

“I’m pretty sure I’ll go out, and I’ll get oil-covered shrimp. They capped this well, and now they’re trying to say it’s OK,” he said.

Louisiana fisherman Pete Gerica also couldn’t work up much enthusiasm. He noted that it doesn’t include crabs or oysters and that shrimp season in most of the area has yet to open.

A federal moratorium on new deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has also hit oilrig workers hard. Those workers will be getting $100 million in aid that BP said Friday it will distribute through a Louisiana charity.

There is no official estimate of how many people have been out of work since the Interior Department imposed the moratorium in June. Drilling has since been suspended on 33 exploratory wells.

The fund is aimed at people who worked on the rigs drilling those wells, not people who provided support services, such as ferrying supplies to them, said Mukul Verma, a foundation spokesman. Those people might get money if there is any left over after grants are provided to rigworkers, BP spokesman Tom Mueller said.

Information for this article was contributed by Harry R. Weber, Greg Bluestein, Jason Dearen, Kevin McGill and Brian Skoloff of The Associated Press, by Campbell Robertson and Clifford Krauss of The New York Times and by Donna Melton of The Sun Herald.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/31/2010

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