Oil Spill Officials Try to Blunt Fears of All-Out Ecological Disaster

U.S. and BP officials sought to quell fears of an unmanageable eco-nightmare in the Gulf Coast on Sunday, after the hyped containment dome failed to stop any oil from gushing out of the energy giant's wrecked Deepwater Horizon rig.

The difficulties in deploying the undersea device were anticipated, and the experiment can still be carried out successfully, said the Unified Command Center, which is coordinating the spill response.

"The containment dome does present some challenges, but that was expected with this operation as it has never been tried at this depth before. However, work does continue on it," said Lt. Commander J.R. Hoeft, a spokesman for the Unified Command, which is being run by the Coast Guard, BP and various U.S. agencies.

On Friday, the four-story, 98-ton concrete and steel vault was submerged almost 5,000 feet below the water's surface in an attempt to cover the leak. The chamber was seen as the best quick-fix to suck up the rushing oil—until it broke down. 

A buildup of methane-hydrate crystals choked the top of the funnel-like dome and forced an almost immediate end to the operation.

The massive containment structure now lays idle on the ocean floor as worries grow.

On Monday, BP's CEO Tony Hayward told reporters the company is now planning to deploy a much smaller containment box, the size of a barrel of oil, which would sit over the leak. The "top hat," as it is called, would be deployed within 72 hours. However, it would not contain the full leak and is hardly a silver bullet.

Hayward said that development of solutions to stop the spill is still a matter of trial and error, stressing that this is first time the deep-sea industry has faced an incident of this magnitude.

"There is an enormous amount of learning going on here because we are doing it for real for the first time," Hayward said. "There is every major science and technology organization...working on this problem. The learning from this will be very extensive, and they will inform what needs to happen in the future."  

In the meantime, oil has been bursting out of the blown-out well at a rate of at least 5,000 barrels a day since the platform sunk on April 22. As of Sunday, over 80,000 barrels were estimated to be floating around the sea across a 2,000-square mile area—about a third of the total crude that was emptied out in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

According to unofficial estimates, the BP spill could become the nation's worst environmental disaster.

"We're dealing with a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster," Pres. Obama had already said last week, during a first-hand Gulf Coast update.

Experts warn that both the spill's oily goo and the unprecedented amount of toxic "dispersant" being used to contain it are threatening wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico, and could do undue harm to Louisiana's $3 billion-a-year fishing industry.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said it was working with governors to determine whether to declare a national fisheries disaster.

Golf ball-sized tarballs landed on the sensitive shorelines of Dauphin Island, a bird sanctuary south of Mobile, Ala., the Unified Command Center confirmed on Sunday, adding to fears of uncontrollable pollution. Officials blasted rumors, however, that chunks of condensed crude had reach Grand Isle, about 60 miles south of New Orleans.

"That is not correct. It was algae. Algae can look similar to oil," said Hoeft.

NOAA announced on Sunday that the oil slick is now heading westward toward the Mississippi Delta and could reach as far west as Point Au Fer Island by Wednesday, just south of Baton Rouge.

As alarm heightens, the response effort continues to swell.