Gulf Oil Spill likened to crime scene, environmental impact widening

In prepared testimony for a congressional committee, National Wildlife Federation President Larry Schweiger said BP had failed to disclose results from its tests of chemical dispersants used on the spill. He also said it had tried to withhold video showing the true magnitude of the leak.

(image: Greenpeace Senior Campaigner Lindsey Allen walks through a patch of oil from the Deepwater Horizon on the breakwater in the mouth of the Mississippi River where it meets the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, May 18, 2010. Credit: REUTERS/Sean Gardner/Greenpeace/Handout)

"The federal government should immediately take over all environmental monitoring, testing, and public safety protection from BP," he said. "The Gulf of Mexico is a crime scene and the perpetrator cannot be left in charge of assessing the damage."

The Washington-based Center for American Progress published comments by its health experts Lesley Russell and Ellen-Marie Whelan saying the huge spill, and the dispersants being used against it, posed "insidious and unknown" human risks.

Noting the federal government had allowed BP to test the undersea use of dispersants, they added, "But are we letting the fox guard the hen house by letting the oil companies determine the safety of these cleaning agents?"

(image: Greenpeace volunteer Lauren Valle walks along a sandy beach on the east bank of the Mississippi River where it meets the Gulf of Mexico as globs of oil wash up on shore in Louisiana May 17, 2010. Credit: REUTERS/Hans Deryk)


In a sign of the widening environmental impact, the United States nearly doubled a no-fishing zone to 19 percent of U.S. waters in the Gulf seen affected by the spill.

The spill has forced Obama to put a hold on plans to expand offshore oil drilling and has raised concerns about planned oil operations in other areas like the Arctic.
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