WILLIAMS:
Good evening.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:
We're going to begin here tonight in the
Gulf of Mexico
, specifically with a reality check on just how much of the oil released into the water from that
BP Deepwater Horizon
well is still there. As you may know, the government's been reporting that only about 25 percent of the oil from that spill remains. But is that at all accurate, and, in plane English, did anybody really think 90 days worth of
crude oil
was just somehow slowly vanishing? Our chief environmental affairs correspondent
Anne Thompson
is in
Venice
,
Louisiana
, for us once again tonight.
Anne
, good evening.
ANNE THOMPSON reporting:
Good evening,
Brian
. You know, at the heart this is a numbers game. And all sides on this issue admit no one knows for sure exactly how much oil is left in the
Gulf of Mexico
, but tonight there are clues about where some of it has gone. Pictures of an increasingly blue gulf seem to support this
Obama
administration claim two weeks ago.
Ms. JANE LUBCHENCO (NOAA Administrator):
The vast majority of the oil has either evaporated or been burned, skimmed and recovered from the well head or dispersed.
Mr. CHARLES HOPKINSON (University of Georgia):
And that leaves, you know, 70 to 79 percent.
THOMPSON:
But today, researchers from the
University of Georgia
say their calculations don't support that conclusion, in part because they claim oil doesn't break down that fast.
Mr. HOPKINSON:
The idea that 75 percent of the oil is gone and is of no further concern to the environment is just absolutely incorrect.
THOMPSON:
The
Georgia
group insists more than half the
oil spill
, from 2.9 to 3.2 million barrels, is still in the gulf, far more than the nearly 1.3 million barrels the government estimates. Today in a statement, the government defended its oil budget, saying it was based on, quote, "direct measurements whenever possible, and the best available scientific estimates where direct measurements were not possible." So where is the oil? Researchers from the
University of South Florida
say they found some of it in microscopic droplets, underneath the surface and on the floor of the gulf, in far larger quantities than anticipated and in an area they didn't expect.
Mr. JOHN PAUL (University of South Florida):
We were surprised at how
far east
the oil had gotten, because this was about 40 miles from the
Pensacola
area.
THOMPSON:
Even though you can't see it, the unseen oil is still a threat. Not directly to people, but to the very basic elements of the
food chain
.
Mr. BOB KIBLER:
These are all identified.
THOMPSON:
Researcher
Bob Kibler
found benzine levels of up to 1,000 times higher than allowed in the mud of
Louisiana
's
Four Bayou Pass
, an area that nurtures a variety of living creatures. Things such as?
Mr. KIBLER:
Such as the small plankton, the small bacteria that are taken up by the oysters, that are taken up by the shrimp, and eventually work their way up the
food chain
.
THOMPSON:
And that's what concerns both independent scientists and the government alike, that no matter how you calculate the oil budget, that the true impact of this spill won't be known for years to come.
Brian
:
WILLIAMS:
Anne Thompson
starting us off once again from
Venice
,
Louisiana
, tonight.
Anne
, thanks.
“ ”