Relief well completed, but environmentalists worry about long-term oilspill issues

GHN News Staff - Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commander, announced today
the completion of the relief well, even as Gulf Coast residents continue to experience oil sightings in
areas near land and environmentalists still worry about long term environmental impact.

"After months of extensive operations planning and execution

under the direction and authority of the U.S. government science and
engineering teams, BP has successfully completed the relief well by
intersecting and cementing the well nearly 18,000 feet below the surface, "
reported Allen today.  He went on to say, " With this development,
which has been confirmed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean
Energy Management, we can finally announce that the Macondo 252 well is
effectively dead." 

What's next?  Allen explained, "  Additional
regulatory steps will be undertaken but we can now state, definitively, that
the Macondo well poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico.  From
the beginning, this response has been driven by the best science and engineering
available.  We insisted that BP develop robust redundancy measures to
ensure that each step was part of a deliberate plan, driven by science,
minimizing risk to ensure we did not inflict additional harm in our efforts to
kill the well." 

With these statements, Allen underlined the belief that the oil no
longer presents a hazardous condition for the Gulf Coast. 

In recognition of the difficult work involved in the relief effort
Allen said, " I commend the response personnel, both from the government
and private sectors, for seeing this vital procedure through to the end.
And although the well is now dead, we remain committed to continue aggressive
efforts to clean up any additional oil we may see going forward." 

The Deepwater Unified Command reinforced the completion of the
project and Allen's role now transitioned to official government agencies.
Oversight of the well now transitions from the National Incident Command
to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement under the
process laid out in the National Response Framework.  The Department of
the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and
Enforcement will oversee the continuing decommissioning of the Macondo well and
its associated relief wells. 

BP announced today it " will now proceed to complete the
abandonment of the MC252 well, which includes removing portions of the casing
and setting cement plugs. A similar plugging and abandonment of both relief
wells will occur as well.  It also declared it "will also now begin
the process of dismantling and recovering containment equipment and
decontaminating vessels that were in position at the wellsite." 

The efforts involved in the response effort were summarized by BP
as it completed its announcement of the relief well completion and the
company's promise to make good on its promises to restore the Gulf and
compensate victims.  

BP tells us, "No volumes of oily liquid have been recovered
from the surface of the Gulf of Mexico since July 21 and the last controlled
burn operation occurred on July 20.  BP, as part of Unified Command,
continues to conduct overflights and other reconnaissance to search for oil on
the surface.  At peak, approximately 3.5 million feet of containment boom
was deployed in response to the oil spill. Currently 670,000 feet of
containment boom remains deployed." 

So are all those scientific reports of long-term impact to be
disregarded? 

Greenpeace wrote on April 28,  "And
regardless of how long it takes to staunch the flow of oil, the impacts of the
oil spill on the people, economy and environment of Gulf coast states will
persist for decades." 

Advisors for Greenpeace remain in the Gulf, even as their
personnel had told Green Heritage News in early July that the disaster would
not be ended with the plugging of the well.   

Today the organization reminds the world that the disaster needs a
proper investigation and assessment of continuing potential problems.

"We all need to know the true extent and nature of this oil
catastrophe, as well as the real reasons why this happened so we can make sure

it never happens again." Greenpeace USA Executive Director Philip Radford