WASHINGTON - Now that Hurricane Isaac has relaxed its destructive grip on the Gulf Coast, the damage assessment and recovery phase will begin. Due to worries that 1 million barrels of oil spilled from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster from 2010 still persist in the sediments and elsewhere near the Gulf coast, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) today asked two U.S. government agencies about their plans to detect and clean up BP’s spilled oil.
Rep. Markey’s letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson can be found HERE, and his letter to NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco can be found HERE.
“As the storm passed any oil carried by the winds and storm surge could be pushed deeper into the marshlands and potentially back onto land, re-igniting the potential for this oil to impact the plants and animals that thrive in the swamps and marshes," writes Rep. Markey, the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over offshore oil and natural gas production and national oceans
policies.
