Gulf ports remain open despite spill

Gulf ports remain open despite spill    Concern grew over the weekend that the oil spill resulting from the fire and collapse the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig is larger than originally thought, but the spill still has not halted traffic to the Mississippi River.
   “We’re dealing with a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster,” said President Obama in a press conference on Sunday. “The oil that is still leaking from the well could seriously damage the economy and the environment of our Gulf states and it could extend for a long time. It could jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who call this place home.”
   He noted three leaks have been discovered along 5,000 feet of pipe on the floor of the ocean.
   “Your government will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to stop this crisis,” he said.
   A company called Wild Well Control is building three rectangular boxes out of concrete and steel that can be lowered onto each of the three leaks. The work is being conducted in Port Fourchon.
   The Associated Press quoted a spokesman for the Port of New Orleans as saying the oil spill was not yet near the Southwest Pass, where ships headed to New Orleans enter the Mississippi River, and that the earliest oil could hit the pass is Tuesday.
   The Alabama State Port Authority and the Harbormaster for the Port of Mobile said Sunday all commercial traffic continues to transit the Port of Mobile, albeit under restrictions.
   'We continue to monitor the oil spill situation offshore and the weather,' stated Jimmy Lyons, director and chief executive for the port authority. 'We are confident that we will not see a change in port operations over the next 24 hours.”
   The Huffington Post quoted Florida State University oceanographer Ian McDonald as saying his analysis of photographs of the Gulf of Mexico lead him to the conclusion the rig is leaking 1 million gallons of oil into the ocean each day. At that rate, the spill may already rival the size of the 11 million-gallon Exxon Valdez catastrophe in 1989.
   But other estimates have pegged the size of the spill as much smaller — 1,000 TO 5,000 barrels or 42,000 to 210,000 gallons per day.
   Eleven persons are missing and assumed dead and another three were critically injured in the explosion on the rig that happened April 20. A slideshow showing historic pictures of the rig as well the inferno that destroyed it can be found here.
   Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen said Saturday there were “fairways” that ships could use to enter the Southwest Pass for the Mississippi River, and ports such as Gulfport, Biloxi, Pascagoula and probably, notably, Mobile after all of those.
   “They’re not marked like highways are, but traffic — shipping traffic adheres to those because it increases safety and security of shipping,” Allen said. “Right now there is no significant impact of the oil on those fairways, but we are watching that.
   “We’re watching it for a couple of reasons. Number one, if we try to do cleanup operations where shipping is trying to move through we’re going to have to come up with a protocol whereby we either stop shipping, or the shipping is allowed to pass through the contaminated area and decontaminated before it moves further on. If there’s going to be an impact on marine transportation we’ll activate what is called a marine transportation recovery unit that will prioritize shipping, deal with the private sector on where product has to be delivered, and the implications of non-delivery.
   “So we’re watching that very closely. There is no impact at this time, but we have a protocol to handle it should it happen,” he said.
   The AP reported cleaning stations have been set up at Boothville and Venice, La. ' Chris Dupin