BP Gulf Oil Spill Worst In U.S. History
Even by the U.S. Coast Guard and BP’s won conservative estimates, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is officially the worst in the history of the United States. The estimates have the leak releasing 19 million gallons of oil into the Gulf. That total is 8 million more gallons than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
The USGS teams have discovered that instead of the suspected 200,000 gallons per day, there are from 500,000 to 1 million gallons leaking into the Gulf each day. And, as if that’s not bad enough, another federal agency, the United States Geological Survey, conducted their own independent study and found that the total is much more.
However, both BP and the Coast Guard have stated that an untested method of stopping the leak seems to be working. Scientists who have been trying to figure out how much oil has been leaking since the Deepwater Horizon exploded on Arpil 20 and sank on the 22nd, said that rate is at least twice and maybe five times as much as previously estimated.