VENICE, La. (AP) _ Another week of oil pouring from the seafloor. Concrete and metal boxes are being built to siphon the oil gushing from the blown out well into the Gulf of Mexico. But BP PLC says they won’t be in place for at least six days, and the system has never been tried at such depths.
Dead sea turtles are washing ashore and the massive rust-colored slick continues to swell. More than 6,800 square miles of federal fishing area have been closed, just as the spring season begins.
The rig exploded April 20, killing 11 people. A blowout preventer should have stopped the flow, but the mechanism failed. Chemical dispersants meant to break up the oil have had little success. The oil could keep gushing for months until a second well can be dug to cut off the first.
The slick also was precariously close to a key shipping lane that feeds goods and materials to the interior of the U.S. by the Mississippi River, and shipping could soon be limited.