BP sprays more chemicals into main Gulf oil leak

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO -- A remote-controlled submarine shot a chemical dispersant into the maw of a massive undersea oil leak Monday, further evidence that authorities expect the gusher to keep erupting into the Gulf of Mexico for weeks or more.

Crews using the deep-sea robot attempted to thin the oil -- which is rushing up from the seabed at a pace of about 210,000 gallons (795,000 liters) per day -- after getting approval from the Environmental Protection Agency, BP spokesman Mark Proegler told The Associated Press.

The agency had halted two previous rounds of the dispersant to test its potential impact on the environment, and approved a third round of spraying that began early Monday, Proegler said. The EPA said in a statment the effects of the chemicals were still widely unknown.

BP engineers, casting about after an ice buildup thwarted their plan to siphon off most of the leak using a 100-ton containment box, pushed ahead with other potential short-term solutions, including using a smaller box and injecting the leak with junk to plug it.

However, none of these have been tried so deep -- about a mile (a kilometer and a half) down.

Workers were simultaneously drilling a relief well, the solution considered most permanent, but that was expected take up to three months.

At least 3.5 million gallons (13.3 million liters) were believed to have leaked since an April 20 drilling rig blast killed 11. If the gusher continues unabated, in about a month it would surpass the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster as the worst U.S. oil spill.

The engineers appear to be "trying anything people can think of" to stop the leak, said Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University professor of environmental studies.

Back on land, National Guard helicopters ferried loads of 1-ton sandbags to plug gaps in barrier islands that have been lapped at by a sheen of oil. The effort to bolster the islands was meant to safeguard the area's vulnerable wetlands. Authorities also planned to use south Louisiana's system of locks and levees to release water to help keep the worst of the oil at sea.

BP -- which is responsible for the cleanup -- said Monday the spill has cost it $350 million so far for immediate response, containment efforts, commitments to the Gulf Coast states, and settlements and federal costs. The company did not speculate on the final bill, which most analysts expect to run into tens of billions of dollars.

Among plans under consideration for the gusher, BP is looking at cutting the riser pipe, which extends from the well, undersea and using larger piping to bring the gushing oil to a drill ship on the surface, a tactic considered difficult and less desirable because it will increase the flow of oil.

Above the oil leak, waves of dark brown and black sludge crashed into the support ship Joe Griffin. The fumes there were so intense that a crew member and an AP photographer on board had to wear respirators while on deck.

Philip Johnson, a petroleum engineering professor at the University of Alabama, said cutting the riser pipe and slipping a larger pipe over the cut end could conceivably divert the flow of oil to the surface.

"That's a very tempting option," he said. "The risk is when you cut the pipe, the flow is going to increase. ... That's a scary option, but there's still a reasonable chance they could pull this off."

Dime- to golfball-sized balls of tar washed up over the weekend on Dauphin Island, three miles (five kilometers) off the Alabama mainland at the mouth of Mobile Bay and much farther east than the thin, rainbow sheens that have arrived sporadically in the Louisiana marshes.

The containment box plan had been designed to divert up to 85 percent of the leaking oil to a tanker at the surface. Icelike hydrates, a slushy mixture of gas and water, clogged the opening in the top of the peaked box like sand in a funnel, only upside-down.

The blowout aboard the rig, which was being leased by BP, was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding, according to interviews with rig workers conducted during BP's internal investigation. Deep sea oil drillers often encounter pockets of methane crystals as they dig into the earth.