British Petroleum (BP) said on Wednesday that owing to favorable weather conditions a controlled burn would be undertaken today, May 5th.
A statement released from the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center, said that controlled burns remove oil from the open water in an effort to protect shoreline and wildlife and are used in combination with other tactics above water, below water, offshore and close to coastal areas.
“No populated areas are expected to be affected by the controlled burn operations and there are no anticipated impacts to marine mammals and sea turtles,” the statement said.
A controlled burn was last undertaken was on April 28th.  It lasted 28 minutes and removed thousands of gallons of oil.
Meanwhile, as BP struggles to find ways to stop the continuous spewing of oil into the Gulf, a “concrete and steel dome” which will be lowered some 5,000 feet under water is being prepared for hook up over the course of Friday and through the week-end.  BP’s chief executive Tony Haywood said that while the industry uses similar devices all the time in waters of 300-400 feet, such an operation has never been conducted in waters of this depth and so, one should not expect it to go perfectly.
Experts say that a worse case scenario would be for 2.5 millions gallons of oil per day to pour into the Gulf.
In separate developments, representatives from BP, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) met to plan a multi-agency response.
In meetings over the last couple days, the Coast Guard and Florida DEP have spoken with trustees from various national and state wildlife refugee areas, along with every county emergency management office on the West Coast of Florida.
The agencies also met with over 30 members of non-governmental environmental organizations including Tampa Bay Watch, Save our Seabirds, Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, Sierra Club, etc.
The latest predictions from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), indicate no impact to the western coast of Florida, from Taylor County to Collier County within the next 72 hours.
Top administration officials, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano, Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco and EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe will travel to the Gulf Coast this week to meet with federal, state and local officials, as well as local business leaders, as part of their continued oversight of BP’s efforts to plug the leak and contain the spill, and their ongoing emphasis on interagency coordination in response to the event.
