Last night, Coast Guard officials officials said the leak was five times as great as was earlier estimated—210,000 gallons a day are leaking into the Gulf. The oil slick is expected to touch the southern tip of Louisiana as early as Friday afternoon. If it hits Alabama, it will likely do so over the weekend….Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key aren’t far behind.
Coast Guard officials also reported a new leak was discovered at the site where an oil platform exploded and sank in the Gulf.
SkyTruth released an estimate that 1.5 million to 6 million gallons of oil have been released in the last week. See satellite images.
The Gulf fishing industry could be devastated by this spill. Scientists are very concerned about oil reaching the Gulf Coast’s marshes, which supply over 90 percent of the Gulf of Mexico’s seafood.