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NOAA official: Roughly three-quarters of spilled oil still in Gulf
Roughly three-quarters of the oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s ruptured well is still in the environment, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official told a House panel Thursday.
The estimate contrasts previous pronouncements by administration officials that only about a quarter of the oil remains to be addressed.
Federal officials used a different estimate of how much oil leaked from the well — 4.9 million barrels — in preparing a report this month saying that only about 25 percent is still left to be recovered in the water. But critics say using that higher baseline skewed the numbers.
Lehr said the 4.1 million barrel figure is more accurate, as others outside the administration have also pointed out, because it takes into account 800,000 barrels that were captured directly from the BP well and did not leak.
Lehr’s estimate that roughly three-quarters of the oil remains in the environment — which would take into account oil that has evaporated and otherwise dispersed, and therefore cannot be recovered — appears to be merely an educated guess.
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who chairs the Energy and Environment Subcommittee that held the hearing, said the administration’s initial report this month — and the trumpeting of it — gave people a "false sense of confidence" about the environmental risks that remain.
“Intended or not, I think the reaction to the oil budget report that was released … is one of relief,” Markey said. “People want to believe that everything is OK. I think this report and the way it is being discussed is giving many people a false sense of confidence regarding the state of the Gulf. Overconfidence breeds complacency and complacency is what got us into this situation in the first place.”
Lehr did not have an estimate on the percentage of oil recovered to date from the shoreline and beaches, as that oil has had to be separated from debris.
“That’s not a simple process,” he said.
Lehr told Markey he would have to get back to him on an estimate for the amount recovered from the coastline — beyond the 10 percent burned or skimmed.
“In my mind, that is not a passing grade,” Markey responded, regarding the amount of oil left in the environment since the April 20 explosion of the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig.
Markey said the amount of unaccounted-for oil is five times the total amount spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, which, until the Gulf spill, was the largest in U.S. history.
Lehr also said it would take another two months for administration officials to release their full report on the BP spill.
“That’s not timely enough, doctor,” Markey told him. “Because if your numbers are wrong, two months from now could be too late.”
Said Lehr: "I will do whatever I can to speed up the report. We want to make sure it's done right."
Markey asked Lehr in the meantime to release data used to put together the initial oil budget calculation the administration released this month so it could be subjected to independent scientific review.
“You don’t want to make the models and data available, but you've given us conclusions from the data," Markey said.
Markey also chastised Lehr for the administration prematurely releasing that report.
“If you’re not confident that it is right, then it shouldn’t have been released,” Markey said. Gulf residents don’t want the risks “to be downplayed, or low-balled,” he said.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Committee, vowed to press the White House on the release of the oil report.
“This is yet another in a long line of examples where the White House’s pre-occupation with the public relations of the oil spill has superseded the realities on the ground,” he said in a statement. “It is deeply troubling that White House officials apparently preempted the completion and review of a scientific study on the oil spill by NOAA scientists in order to tout conclusions that many experts believe may be deeply flawed.
“I will certainly be demanding the White House name those responsible for releasing this report, why it was released before it was complete, and whether its controversial conclusions have led to changes in Gulf clean-up efforts,” Issa said.
This post was last updated at 3:16 p.m.
