New cap may help with containing oil spill

By July 15, a new, better cap might replace the present leaky cap on the broken well -- in theory picking up all or nearly all of the spewing oil, at least on an interim basis, he said.

Second, the relief well that officials are counting on to permanently seal the oil leak is seven to eight days ahead of its early-August schedule, although Allen wouldn't promise it would beat that schedule.

If the new cap works, it could in theory capture up to 80,000 barrels of oil a day. Current estimates of the spewing oil are 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day, so it all might be contained, Allen said.

The new system would involve cutting away the current cap on the well, which is poorly fitted and uses a rubber seal that lets thousands of gallons a day of oil spew into the Gulf. It would be replaced by a thick steel cap that would be bolted on. It would connect to four riser pipes that would go up to four containment vessels on the surface.

A decision about whether to go ahead with the new cap will be made in about a week, Allen said. One consideration is to compute how much longer it might take to disconnect such a complex new system if a hurricane approaches, he said. With the current setup, oil containment must be suspended 120 hours before gale force winds arrive.

BP spokesman Robert Wine confirmed that the new collection cap, if successful, might temporarily stop the entire flow of oil. "We had been asked to come up with a plan to create extra capacity and duplication so that if something happened to one (surface collecting) vessel, we could keep producing," he said.

Allen also said BP's efforts to drill a relief well to permanently close the leaking well are seven or eight days ahead of their August schedule, and within about 600 feet of the well at 11,817 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. Workers are drilling about 15 feet at a time, then backing off the drill to take new readings to make sure they are on target.

A second relief well is at 7,775 feet.

"I am reluctant to tell you it will be done before the middle of August because I think everything associated with this spill and response recovery suggests that we should under-promise and over-deliver," the admiral said.

Once drillers reach the pipe in the blown-out well, they will need two to five days to bore into it, pump in enough heavy mud to overpower the upward pressure of the spewing oil, then pump in concrete to seal it permanently, Allen said.

Also on Friday, NOAA released a "Long-Term Oil Threat" model that shows a 61 to 80 percent probability that oil will reach beaches in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and the Florida Keys if the spill goes on for 90 days. The potential is largely because of the Loop Current that runs from the Gulf of Mexico through the keys past South Florida. Probabilities for other areas include:

— Zero to 20 percent for the west coast of Florida and from eastern central Florida up the Eastern Seaboard. "Potential impacts become increasingly unlikely north of North Carolina as the Gulf Stream moves away from the continental U.S.," it says.

—81 to 100 percent from the Mississippi River Delta to the western panhandle of Florida.

Meanwhile in the Gulf, weather forecasters predicted three-to-four-foot seas to return by Saturday, letting cleanup efforts resume.

With the Fourth of July, one of the Florida Panhandle's biggest tourism weekends, approaching, tourist officials there fretted and waited to see if visitors would come.

In Pensacola's Escambia County, tourism held up well through May — before the oil arrived — but dropped by 20 percent in June. And advanced bookings for July were down by 50 to 75 percent, said Ed Schroeder, director of the area's tourism bureau, Visit Pensacola.

"The next two weekends are our biggest weekends of the year. We can use your prayers," he said.

Still, the county is fighting back. Its Visitpensacola.com website tells prospective tourists that, while health advisories have been issued for Gulf waters west of the Pensacola Beach Fishing Pier, the beaches east of the pier are open without restrictions. The site has a webcam showing pristine beaches, but also some tar balls.

And for the entire coastline, the Escambia Health Department's website has a big, orange notice: "The beaches are open and ready for business!"

Even with the rough seas, BP reported collecting 7,400 barrels of oil on Thursday, and said it flared 4,085 barrels of oil and 28.5 million cubic feet of natural gas.

And the EPA released a study that said the dispersant being used by BP to break up oil before it reaches the surface is not dangerously toxic to fish and shrimp. Some environmentalists had charged that Corexit 9500, the dispersant, might be more toxic to marine life and the environment than the oil itself.

New EPA tests found that Corexit and seven other dispersants showed roughly the same effects, but JD-2000 and Corexit were least toxic to small fish, and JD-2000 and SAF-RON GOLD wee least toxic to mysid shrimp.

The EPA stood by its May 26 order that BP should decrease its use of any dispersant by 75 percent. BP, which had argued it couldn't find a less-toxic dispersant than Corexit, has reduced its use by 68 percent.

Also on Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and two other federal safety agencies issued guidelines that say most oil spill cleanup workers don't need to wear respirators unless they are burning oil or if on-site air monitoring indicates a hazard. Even then, it said, employers may permit their use if employees ask for them.

And in Washington, a six-member bipartisan group headed by Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., on Friday announced a package of tax breaks to help those hurt by the oil spill. They include:

— Tax deferral for small business reimbursements that are reinvested into an oil-spill-area business.

—Hardship access to retirement savings.

—Job creation tax credits in oil spill areas.

—A Gulf Coast hotel tax holiday on hotels and car rentals.

"The Deepwater Horizon oil spill gives us great concern for the future of our state economies," they wrote in a letter to the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.