To the rest of the U.S. from Louisiana: SOS

I just got my first notice to grab my shrimper boots and head south from GRIT. Here are some of the latest updates on the Gulf Oil Spill.

The current NOAA trajectory maps predict the movement of oil along the Louisiana coast to the Atchafalaya Bay over the next 72 hours. These trajectories are based on weather patterns and gulf currents. This trajectory could impact some of our beloved barrier islands and thousands of more acres of wetlands. Working with BP, GRIT has identified sites that would be safe and accessible for clean-up prior to the impact of oil. Debris and trash that collects on our shorelines can potentially get covered in oil and make the clean-up of these natural areas even more complicated.

The news from our part of the world is not good. I just read this update from the National Geographic Daily News. I think I would call today’s headline a conversation stopper. It reads ” Gulf Oil Leaks Could Gush for Years: “We don’t have any idea how to stop this,” expert says. ” Here are some of the highlights of the article.

If efforts fail to cap the leaking Deepwater Horizon wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico (map), oil could gush for years—poisoning coastal habitats for decades, experts say.

…

If the oil can’t be stopped, the underground reservoir may continue bleeding until it’s dry, Simmons suggested.

The most recent estimates are that the leaking wellhead has been spewing 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons, or 795,000 liters) of oil a day.

And the oil is still flowing robustly, which suggests that the reserve “would take years to deplete,” said David Rensink, incoming president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

“You’re talking about a reservoir that could have tens of millions of barrels in it.”

National Geographic–known for its excellent indepth coverage and wonderful photos–is at its best with its coverage of this spill. Please spend some time on the site.

Meanwhile, we’re finding just how complicit our own government has been with the oil profiteers.

The federal Minerals Management Service gave permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from another agency that assesses threats to endangered species — and despite strong warnings from that agency about the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf.

Those approvals, federal records show, include one for the well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and resulting in thousands of barrels of oil spilling into the gulf each day.

The Minerals Management Service, or M.M.S., also routinely overruled its staff biologists and engineers who raised concerns about the safety and the environmental impact of certain drilling proposals in the gulf and in Alaska, according to a half-dozen current and former agency scientists.

Those scientists said they were also regularly pressured by agency officials to change the findings of their internal studies if they predicted that an accident was likely to occur or if wildlife might be harmed.

NPR reports that the government may be under reporting the gusher.

The amount of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico may be at least 10 times the size of official estimates, according to an exclusive analysis conducted for NPR.

At NPR’s request, experts examined video that BP released Wednesday. Their findings suggest the BP spill is already far larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska, which spilled at least 250,000 barrels of oil.

BP has said repeatedly that there is no reliable way to measure the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico by looking at the oil gushing out of the pipe. But scientists say there are actually many proven techniques for doing just that.

Steven Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, analyzed videotape of the seafloor gusher using a technique called particle image velocimetry.

Given how little environmental impact studies were done on this site, do you think we really have a handle on what the potential hazard this will be to the wildlife, plantlife, and people down here on the Gulf? I’m torn between anger and panic.