Nearly three weeks after an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that claimed 11 lives and set off a panic about a major environmental disaster, there still appear to be few definitive answers about the extend of the disaster or its impact on the human and wildlife inhabitants that call the region home.

 

The April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon set off a chain of events that led to the daily release of hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into one of the economically important and ecologically fragile swaths of coastal U.S. land.

  

In an effort to curtail further damage to the Gulf Coast, British Petroleum brought in a huge box made of concrete and steel that is designed to contain oil spillage and prevent further contamination of the Gulf of Mexico.  

 

“We haven’t done this before. It’s very complex and we can’t guarantee it,” BP spokesman David Nicholas warned.

 

The 100-ton containment vessel is designed to collect as much as 85 percent of the oil spewing into the Gulf and funnel it up to a tanker. It was expected to take several hours to lower it into place by crane, after which a steel pipe would be installed between the top of the box and the tanker. Officials said it was possible to have the whole structure in place and operating by Sunday, May 9.

 

If the box works, a second one now being built may be used to deal with a second, smaller leak from the sea floor.

 

“Hopefully, it will work better than they expect,” first mate Douglas Peake told The Associated Press aboard the ship that brought the box to the site. The AP is the only news organization on board the vessel.

 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday predicted improving conditions at Southwest Pass – the main shipping channel into the Mississippi River – over the next 72 hours.

 

There were no restrictions on the Mississippi River Thursday afternoon and there were no indications from any agency there would be.

 

“We are continuing to coordinate efforts with the Coast Guard, pilots and all maritime stakeholders to ensure there will be no disruption to commerce on the Mississippi River,” said Port President and CEO Gary LaGrange.      

 

“Conversations are ongoing with all of our customers and no one has indicated intentions of diverting ships away from the Port of New Orleans. We have every confidence in the Coast Guard, NOAA, pilots and all involved that commerce will continue uninterrupted on the Lower Mississippi River.”

 

Officials said ships would be inspected upon arrival at Southwest Pass to determine if they need to be cleaned. The Coast Guard said last week that ships moving at a safe pace through light oil sheen may not require cleaning.

 

To date, there have been no reports of oil on commercial cargo vessels entering the Mississippi River or along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

 

As a precaution, two cleaning stations have been established on the Mississippi River in order to better facilitate the flow of maritime commerce. The cleaning stations are now located at Boothville and at Burrwood.

 

In the instance of a heavily oiled ship, it will be cleaned at Boothville, where it can anchor. Booms will be placed around the ship before it is pressure washed. The Burrwood location is for ships with light oil sheen and the ships to be cleaned while in motion. The Burrwood location is in Southwest Pass, about 15 miles below Head of Passes.

 

On Thursday, oil reached several barrier islands off the Louisiana coast, many of them fragile animal habitats. Several birds were spotted diving into the oily, pinkish-brown water, and dead jellyfish washed up on the uninhabited islands.

 

“It’s all over the place. We hope to get it cleaned up before it moves up the west side of the river,” Dustin Chauvin, a 20-year-old shrimp boat captain from Terrebonne Parish, La., told The Associated Press “That’s our whole fishing ground. That’s our livelihood.”

 

During a visit to Biloxi, Miss., Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said of the containment vessel: “I hope it works. But we are still proceeding as if it won’t. If it does, of course, that will be a major positive development.”

 

“We are facing an evolving situation,” she told The Associated Press. “The possibility remains that the BP oil spill could turn into an unprecedented environmental disaster. The possibility remains that it will be somewhat less.”

 

Meanwhile, a six-member board composed of representatives of the Coast Guard and the federal Minerals Management Service is slated to begin investigating the accident this week.

 

On Wednesday, Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao, R-La, appeared on C-SPAN to discuss the BP oil spill, telling Washington Journal host Paul Orgel he was “worried” and “angry” yesterday when BP officials described for members of Congress a “worst case scenario” in which leaks from a sea floor well could grow in volume to 60,000 barrels a day--a 12-fold increase from the current estimate of 5,000 barrels a day.

 

“My first reaction was worry,” Cao said. “I worry for the seafood industry of Louisiana. I worry for the small businesses of Louisiana that will be impacted. And I worry for the many fishermen whose livelihood will be affected. And after the initial feeling of worry, obviously, the second feeling was anger. Anger that we’re not doing enough to address this oil spill. That from the very beginning there has been a lack of comprehensive plan to address the spill and address the cleanup.”

 

Cao said the disaster underscores the need for Louisiana to start sharing in royalties currently received by the federal government from the oil and gas industry on drilling in U.S. waters off its coast. “Traditionally, Louisiana has not received any revenue sharing, and we’ve been the hub of the oil and gas industry,” Cao said. “Our coast has been devastated, but at the same time we’re not receiving the necessary money to restore our coast.”

 

In a letter to Louisiana elected officials last week, Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell wrote, “I invite my fellow Louisiana politicians to join me in calling for oil companies to pay fair royalties to the taxpayers and accept responsibility for damaging our coastline. When scientists say a third or up to half of the damage to the coast is due to oil exploration, how can our leaders remain silent? When oil companies do environmental harm on land, as in the Haynesville Shale in north Louisiana, they are held liable.      

 

Why should it be any different in our coastal areas?

 

“When it comes to the BP oil spill of 2010, talk is cheap. If Louisiana, ‘the Oil State,’ leads the charge to restore federal oil royalties and reforms state oil and gas taxation, it will tell the nation that we truly want to free our politics from oil-industry domination. The now-retired Mr. Tauzin, in particular, can play a leadership role in fixing what he did in 1995. He has vowed to spend his remaining years helping south Louisiana fight off global warming. This would be a good place to start.”

 

The United Fisherman’s Association and its President George Barisich are seeking a Temporary Restraining Order from the U.S. District Court, Eastern District, requiring that BP take responsibility for hazardous chemical exposure safety oversight for all commercial fishermen employed in cleanup and mitigation services related to the DEEPWATER HORIZON/British Petroleum crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, said attorneys for the Gulf Oil Disaster Recovery Group.

 

British Petroleum is employing fisherman through an agreement known as the Master Vessel Charter Agreement or MVCA. Certain sections of the MVCA, which required fishermen to waive their legal and other constitutional rights in order to be employed, were declared void by the U.S. District Court early last week because of emergency legal actions taken by Mr. Barisich and his attorneys.

  

The MVCA puts the responsibility for compliance with highly technical safety laws relating to work with hazardous substances on the fisherman, said Lead Counsel Stuart Smith.    Thus, the fishermen are requesting a supplemental emergency motion for temporary restraining, and requests that the same Court enter a temporary injunction requiring BP to assume safety oversight for these workers. In support of their filing, the commercial fishermen have tendered to the Court the expert opinions of Cmdr. David E. Cole USCG (ret.) and Dr. Vernon Rose, a multi-certified Industrial Hygenist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama (Birming­ham) School of Public Health.

 

“Since BP has caused this environmental disaster, it is ultimately responsible for all aspects of the cleanup, including Mr. Barisich’s safety,” said Lead Counsel Smith. “If the motion is denied, Mr. Barisich and others like him face immediate and irreparable harm. On the other hand, if a TRO is issued, BP will be no worse off and the public interest in promoting worker safety and expediting the clean-up of the environmental disaster will be served.

 

“Most vessel owners participating in the cleanup are probably completely unaware that specific safety schemes even exist,” Smith said. “Because of the threat to their very livelihood caused by BP’s catastrophic oil discharge that fishermen are responding to, and because of the expedited nature of the training provided by BP, we’re asking the Court, acting as an admiralty court, to provide special protection to those commercial fishermen.”

 

Co-counsel Kelly Bilek said, “Our focus since the beginning of this case has been protecting the health and safety of all responders, protecting the responders’ legal rights, and finally protecting our natural resources and environment,” co-counsel Kelly Bilek added.

 

While officials continued to work on cleaning up and containing the oil spill, the grueling, spiraling ordeal has taken a major toll — on nerves and wallets.

 

Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board (LSPMB) representatives and Gulf Oyster Industry Council (GOIC) representatives traveled to Washington, D.C. last week to meet with Gulf Coast delegates and officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on the current state of the Louisiana seafood industry.

 

Harlon Pearce, chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, said Wednesday that he hopes that Louisiana’s congressional leaders will be able to assist Louisiana seafood fishermen by educating national seafood suppliers, restaurants and their constituents that Louisiana seafood is available and is safe. 

 

“The Department of Health and Hospitals, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and other state agencies have closed areas that might be impacted by this spill as a precaution,” said Pearce, “so consumers can be confident that the Louisiana seafood on the market is coming from the state waters that have not been affected by the spill and is fresh, quality Louisiana seafood.”

 

“It’s aggravating, to a point,” Frank Besson, 61, owner of Nez Coupe Souvenir & Tackle, told The Associated Press. “You got people canceling out, thinking we’ve got oil on the beaches, and it’s not even at the mouth of the Mississippi.”

 

A federal judicial panel in Washington has been asked to consolidate at least 65 potential class-action lawsuits claiming economic damage from the spill. Commercial fishermen, business and resort owners, charter boat captains, even would-be vacationers have sued from Texas to Florida, seeking damages that could reach into the billions.

 

“It’s just going to kill us. It’s going to destroy us,” said Dodie Vegas, who owns a motel and cabins in Grand Isle, La., and has seen 10 guests cancel, told The Associated Press.

 

“The waiting is the hardest part,” Vegas, 44, said.”The not knowing.”