UPDATE:U.S. Coast Guard Says Oil Spill is Worse Than They Thought
Almost a week ago, I brought you the awful story of an crude oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico - just off the Louisiana coast, less than 40 miles southeast of Venice, La. An underwater pipeline owned by LLOG Exploration burst - releasing hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf.
Initially, officials estimated that between 300,000 and 400,000 gallons were released before the flow could be shut off and diverted. Earlier this week, the Coast Guard and Federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) revised those estimates to reflect a more accurate assumption off the leaked pollutant, and the numbers a much higher.
According to a report from ABC News, officials believe the amount of leaked crude is twice the original estimates. The Coast Guard and the BSEE are now saying as much as 675,000 gallons of crude may have leaked into Louisiana's coastal waters.
Through a partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), experts have projected that the spill will likely move in a southwesterly direction and will probably not affect the shore like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 did. That spill pumped more than 200 million gallons of crude into the gulf and notoriously left "tar balls" strewn across beaches from Texas to Florida.