JANET SHAMLIAN reporting:
I'm
Janet Shamlian
in
Barataria Bay
. Officials said it would be fixed within a day, but an
abandoned well
hit by a tugboat has now been spewing a toxic mix of
oil and natural gas
into the gulf for almost three days, and the
Coast Guard
says it could be 12 before it's finally capped.
Mr. DEANO BONANO (Jefferson Parish Director of Homeland Security):
It's spewing about 30 barrels of oil a day into the area, the very area that was already impacted by the
BP
oil well
spill. So it's not good news for us.
SHAMLIAN:
What began as a small leak now blankets six square miles, as spools of containment boom wage a
David and Goliath
battle to protect fragile estuaries nearby.
Mr. JAMES PETERS:
I've seen plenty of seen barges hit, you know, different well heads and stuff like that, but I've never seen one spurt like that.
SHAMLIAN:
Charter captain
James Peters
knows wells are sometimes marked with only a sign and small light, or not at all, making them dangerous obstacles. The gulf waters are a minefield of abandoned
oil and gas wells
that, for the most part, go unchecked to see if they're leaking.
Mr. PETERS:
It's amazing. I mean, there wouldn't be enough people in
south Louisiana
to check every one of them every day. I mean, there's more -- there's more well heads in
Louisiana
than there are people.
SHAMLIAN:
The Associated Press
reports as many as 27,000 wells are considered abandoned and says some
gulf state
officials worry many of them are badly sealed.
Mr. PHILIP RADFORD (Greenpeace Executive Director):
It happens a lot. It'll keep happening as this equipment gets older. The only solution is better regulation, make the polluters pay and phase out of this risky business of
oil drilling
.
SHAMLIAN:
For its part, the energy industry defends the integrity of the wells, saying if properly capped they should last forever,
“ ”