As the oil rig blowout near Western Australia enters its 19th day of uncontrolled release of oil into the sea, the extent of the spill is now the size of the State of Connecticut, at approximately 5,800 square miles and growing.
A NASA satellite image of the Timor Sea taken on September 3 reveals the area of slicks and sheen more than doubled in size in just 4 days, from 2,500 sq miles on Aug. 30 to 5,800 sq miles on Sept. 3. Dramatic remote-sensing photographs provided by NASA and other federal agencies are available to view online at http://blog.skytruth.org/.
The Australian government also announced yesterday that it has launched a major investigation into the cause of the blowout and resulting spill.
The West Atlas drilling rig involved in this offshore blowout was built in 2007. The Montara oil platform was constructed in 2008.
Controlling the flow of oil from this rig blowout is expected to take at least seven weeks. Officials estimate that until the spill can be brought under control, between 300 and 400 barrels of oil continue to spill into the ocean each day.
"This so-called modern offshore drilling operation has allowed a tragic oil spill in Australian waters. Even industry's best available technology cannot stop it for weeks," said Richard Charter, Co-Chair of the National Outer Continental Shelf Coalition.
"Offshore drilling is risky business. This spill shows what could happen if we open more of America's coasts to drilling," said Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope.
Last year, the nearly 30-year-old congressional and Presidential ban on offshore drilling in the lower 48 states was lifted. In November 2008, the Bush Administration designated a 2.9 million acre area off the Virginia coast (Lease Sale 220) for oil and gas drilling.
"The scale and duration of this huge spill should be an ongoing lesson to which we in Virginia pay close attention," said Eileen Levandoski, Hampton Roads organizer with the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. "For despite new drilling technology, the risk of spills still exists and even just one spill would levy disastrous impacts on our Virginia coastal economies and environment."
"The whole world is watching," said Charter. "We face votes very soon in the Florida and California legislatures, as well as the U.S. Senate, that will determine whether or not this same type of drilling rig will be allowed to operate in long-protected coastal waters here." |
