Environmental Assessment for Emergency Action to Close Portions of Federal Waters in the Southeastern United States to Prohibit Fishing in Waters in Response to the Deepwater Horizon MC252 Oil Spill

摘要

On April 20, 2010, an incident involving a deepwater drilling platfonn occurred approximately 50 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana. An explosion and subsequent fire damaged the rig which capsized and sank. Oil continues to flow into the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) at an estimated 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) per day from three leaks in damaged piping on the sea floor from the Deepwater Horizon incident recently declared a Spill of National Significance (SONS) on April 29,2010. A SONS is defined as 'a spill that, due to its severity, size, location, actual or potential impact on public health and welfare or the environment, or necessary response effort, is so complex that it requires extraordinary coordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up the discharge' and allows greater federal involvement. The marine response teams are using various techniques to contain the oil spill. NOAA is assisting the Unified Command in evaluating a new technique to apply dispersants to oil at the source - 5000 feet below the surface, if successful this could keep plumes and sheens from fonning. Drilling of a relief or cut-off well is still planned - one drilling rig is on site and one should arrive this weekend, but the process will not be complete for several months. Aircraft have applied over 141,000 gallons of dispersant and will continue as conditions allow. In addition, test bums are being conducted to address the surface oil sheens. Aerial surveys and satellite imagery are being used to map the spatial extent of the oil spill. Daily updates provide forecasts for the trajectory of the oil plumes based on the NOAA Gulf of Mexico, Texas A&M/GLO, and NAVO models using the overflight data.