From: Depnews [mailto:Depnews@dep.state.fl.us]
Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2010 3:33 PM
Subject: DEEPWATER HORIZON RESPONSE DAY 2
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                   CONTACT: PUBLIC INFORMATION (ESF 14)
SATURDAY, MAY 1, 2010                                                                               (850) 921-0217
              www.FloridaDisaster.org
 
DEEPWATER HORIZON RESPONSE DAY 2
 
TALLAHASSEE- – The State Emergency Response Team in support of the Department of Environmental Protection as the lead response agency for the state of Florida is actively monitoring the Deepwater Horizon response. Currently, there are no projected impacts to the state of Florida through Monday, so residents and visitors may continue with weekend activities as scheduled. However, it is possible that some areas along the coast may see indications of oil residue. Should any resident or visitor experience these impacts, please refer to the recommended actions listed below.
 
Response efforts by the state of Florida to date include:
·         The State Emergency Operations Center has activated to a Level 2 or Partial activation.
·         Governor Charlie Crist has declared a state of emergency for the counties of Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay and Gulf.
·         The State Emergency Response Team has representatives at the Unified Command at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Sector Mobile, helping to coordinate the efforts to protect Florida’s shoreline.
·         The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), county governments, water management districts and several federal agencies are conducting pre-impact assessments, including sampling of water, fish, shellfish, and habitats along the Florida coastline and into the Gulf of Mexico.
 
Recommended environmental actions:
·         There are rapid response teams staged to deploy to shorelines affected by oil to evaluate and determine an appropriate clean-up effort to minimize the impact to the environment. To report any sightings of oil residue, please call BP’s oil report line at (866) 448-5816.
·         If any air quality changes are suspected, residents may report them at http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/.
·         Residents and visitors concerned about Florida’s air quality may view an up-to-date map with pollutant concentrations at www.airnow.gov.
·         Individuals should not attempt to help injured or oiled animals, but to report any sightings to the following toll-free number: (866) 557-1401.
·         Homeowners may be able to help prevent any oil from reaching yards and damaging sensitive vegetation by utilizing sandbags or sorbent booms. To obtain more information on these types of protective measures, please contact BP’s community information line at (866) 448-5816.
 
Recommended health actions:
·         At this time, there are no indications of any health risks to Floridians due to the Deepwater Horizon incident. However, any person who is concerned about change in air quality due to this event should contact their primary health care provider.
·         As with wildfires and other events that increase particulate matter in the air, consider staying inside, in an air-conditioned room and change the air-conditioner filter to ensure peak performance.
·         Avoid strenuous activities outside.
·         Anyone who experiences difficulty breathing, shortness of breath or other serious symptoms should seek immediate medical attention.
·         Should Florida’s coastline become affected by the incident, avoid entering areas where oil can be seen or smelled. If any oil is sighted or smelled, leave the area right away.
·         Avoid direct skin contact with oil, oil-contaminated water and sediments.
·         Do not swim or ski in areas affected by the oil spill, and if traveling through the area by boat, take precautions when hoisting the boat anchor. If oil makes contact with skin, wash it off immediately with soap and water.
·         Do not fish in the oil spill-affected waters.
·         Do not harvest and eat dead fish, fish with oily residue or fish that have a petroleum odor.
·         Avoid boating through oil slicks or sheens.
·         Young children, pregnant women, people with compromised immune systems, and individuals with underlying respiratory conditions should avoid the area.
·         Restrict pets from entering oil-contaminated areas.
 
Recommended volunteer opportunities:
·         For information on volunteer opportunities, please visit www.VolunteerFlorida.org.
·         BP has established a volunteer program and set up a toll-free number for those interested in volunteering.  When calling, interested parties should communicate what they are volunteering for what areas they are available to work in.  In addition, potential volunteers may call this line to learn about the training that is required to work in oil spill clean-up operations.
·         For information on assisting with the response efforts, please contact BP’s community information line at (866) 448-5816.
 
For the most up-to-date information on Florida’s Deepwater Horizon Response, please visit www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon. The following is a link to the State Emergency Response Team Situation Report for Saturday, May 1, 2010: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon/files/situation_report3_050110.pdf
 
###
 
The Department of Environmental Protection values your feedback as a customer. DEP Secretary Michael W. Sole is committed to continuously assessing and improving the level and quality of services provided to you. Please take a few minutes to comment on the quality of service you received. Simply click on this link to the DEP Customer Survey. Thank you in advance for completing the survey.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/gulf-oil-spill-could-be-disastrous-for-florida-653796.html

Yeah, it could impact the economy, but I am more concerned with the environment it is destroying… DeeVon

Palm Beach Post
By JEFF OSTROWSKI
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 9:02 a.m. Saturday, May 1, 2010
Posted: 7:56 p.m. Friday, April 30, 2010
If there’s one thing Florida’s battered economy doesn’t need, it’s a massive oil spill and the threat of tar balls washing up on beaches.

State tourism officials fret that the still-growing slick in the Gulf of Mexico could inflict lasting financial damage.

“This is one thing that could hurt more than a recession, more than four hurricanes coming into Florida in one season,” said Nicki Grossman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau and a member of the board of Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing arm. “This could have lingering, disastrous implications.”

Florida’s tourism industry, built in large part on white-sand beaches and warm water, has never weathered a significant oil spill. It could get worse: Some oceanographers say gulf currents could carry oil to Atlantic beaches in a few weeks.

Gov. Charlie Crist on Friday declared a state of emergency for six Panhandle counties: Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay and Gulf. But even if the damage is contained to that area, hoteliers and restaurateurs from Destin to Amelia Island could suffer, Grossman said.

“To most of our visitors, Florida is Florida,” she said.

Florida’s economy is especially fragile, with unemployment soaring and home sales plummeting in recent years. Tourism has picked up from a year ago but remains well below boom-time levels.

“If we start seeing oil slicks washing up on our beaches, that could have a significant impact on tourism at a time when tourism is pretty weak to begin with,” said Sean Snaith, an economist at the University of Central Florida. “Talk about getting kicked when you’re down.”

Bargain-hunting foreigners have played a key role in tourism spending and real estate investment, but images of an oil spill might frighten them off, Snaith said.

Others are more optimistic. Roger Amidon, executive director of the Palm Beach County Tourist Development Council, said he does not expect oil to reach beaches here.

“Right now it doesn’t seem to be a threat,” he said. “We’re keeping a close eye on it, because we know how much of an impact it could have on tourism if it does hit.”
Attractions such as Walt Disney World and Sea World won’t be affected, said Kathy Torian, spokeswoman for Visit Florida. “There’s still every reason to come to Florida, because we have so much besides beaches,” she said.

Meanwhile, the spill sapped support for offshore drilling. President Obama, who recently lifted a moratorium on drilling in many offshore areas, on Friday directed that no new offshore drilling leases be issued unless rigs have new safeguards to prevent a repeat of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

Gov. Charlie Crist, once a supporter of new drilling, said the oil slick “puts the kibosh” on any more talk of expanded drilling in the gulf.
Crist plans to head to Pensacola this weekend to monitor the situation. In a letter to federal officials, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said the spill could devastate the state’s $65 billion tourism economy, environment and fishing industry.
Staff writer Michael Bender and The Associated Press contributed to this story. Special thanks to  Richard Charter

From:   Joint Information Center [mailto:deepwaterhorizonresponse@hotmail.com]
Sent:   Saturday, May 01, 2010 10:43 AM Eastern Standard Time
Subject:        UPDATE: 14 Deepwater Horizon update

DATE: May 01, 2010 09:39:56 CS
ROBERT, La. – The unified command continues with a comprehensive oil-well intervention and spill-response plan following the April 22 sinking of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig 130 miles southeast of New Orleans.  Nearly 2,000 personnel are involved in the response effort with additional resources being mobilized as needed. The federal government has been fully engaged in the response since the incident occurred April 20.

The Minerals Management Service remains in contact with all oil and gas operators in the sheen area. Two platforms have stopped production and one has been evacuated as a safety measure. Approximately 6.2 million cubic feet of natural gas is shut-in. This is less than one-tenth of a percent of daily gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.
Response crews worked through the night using a ROV to dispense 3,000 gallons of sub-surface dispersant at a rate of nine gallons per minute. BP and NOAA are evaluating the results of the test procedure to determine its feasability for continued use.

Oil Report Line/Volunteer Line – (866)-448-5816

 Rapid response teams are staged to deploy to shorlines affected by oil to evaluate and determine an appropriate clean-up effort to minimize the impact to the environment.

BP has established a volunteer program and set up a toll-free number for people to call.  When calling, people should communicate what they are volunteering for what areas they are available to work in.  In addition, people can call to learn about the training that is required to work in oil spill clean-up operations. 

Claim  Line (800)-440-0858
BP has established a claim system and an 800 number for people to call.  This system will allow people to begin the process to recover lost income or recoup damage related expenses.
To report oiled or injured wildlife, please call 1-800-557-1401.
 Incident Facts:

More than 275,580 feet of boom (barrier) has been assigned to contain the spill.  An additional 316,470 feet is available.

To date, the oil spill response team has recovered 23,968 barrels (1,006,656 gallons) of an oil-water mix.
68 response vessels are being used including skimmers, tugs, barges and recovery vessels.

142,914 gallons of dispersant have been deployed and an additional 68,300 gallons are available.

Six staging areas are in place and ready to protect sensitive shorelines.  These areas include:

Biloxi, Miss., Pensacola, Fla. Venice, La., Pascagoula, Miss., Theodore, Ala., and Port Sulphur, La.

Weather conditions for May 1 – Winds from the southeast at 20 – 25 knots, 6 – 8 foot seas with chance of afternoon showers.
126 people were on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig when the incident occurred. 11 remain unaccounted for; 17 were injured, 3 of them critically.  1 injured person remains in the hospital.

For the latest information visit  www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com or follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/RobertLAJIC or on Facebook at Deepwater Horizon Response.

For media needing more information regarding the Deepwater Horizon incident, contact the joint information center at (985) 902-5231/5240.

To submit alternative response technology, services or products please email horizonsupport@oegllc.com or call (281) 366-5511.

View this document online <https://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/2931/535191/>
Joint Information Center
Gulf of Mexico-Transocean Drilling Incident <https://www.piersystem.com/go/site/2931/>

Visit this link to unsubscribe <http://www.piersystem.com/unsubscribe/13b72f7?email=mbeetham%40defenders.org>

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charlie-cray/time-to-drill-down-into-h_b_559091.html
Huffington Post

Charlie Cray
Director of the Center for Corporate Policy
Posted: April 30, 2010 03:58 PM
Time to Drill Down Into Halliburton’s Role in Big Oil Spill

Under pressure from Congress and an inquiring media, Halliburton began a controlled leak of information about its role in the big gulf oil spill today, but things could get quite explosive if they appear to be hiding something.

The WSJ (Russell Gold and Ben Castleman) reported earlier today that Halliburton “didn’t respond” to questions about its role in the spill. That’s odd, given that, as the Journal reported, an independent expert noted that “the initial likely cause of gas coming to the surface had something to do with the cement,” and the fact that Halliburton “was handling the cementing process on the rig.”

Picking up on the report, Congressman Henry Waxman sent a letter to Halliburton asking the company to start talking and handing over any relevant documentation.

Perhaps knowing that it couldn’t hold out much longer, the firm issued a terse statement this afternoon about the “cementing facts regarding rig incident” , which was hardly illuminating.
The gist:
*Halliburton performed a variety of services on the rig, including cementing.
       
*Halliburton had four employees stationed on the rig at the time of the accident. All four were rescued by the Coast Guard.
       
*Halliburton completed the cementing of the final production casing string 20 hours prior to the incident.     
*The company also claims it tested the production casing string.”
*It also stated that “at the time of the incident, well operations had not yet reached the point requiring the placement of the final cement plug which would enable the planned temporary abandonment of the well, consistent with normal oilfield practice.”

Clearly there is going to have to be some careful examination of the cementing operation and related engineering questions. As Gold and Casselman report, the MMS says “cementing was a factor in 18 of 39 well blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico over a 14-year period….the single largest factor, ahead of equipment failure and pipe failure.”

Moreover, cracks in the integrity of the company’s cementing operations have happened before. The Journal reporters say Halliburton was the cementer on a well that suffered a big blowout last August in the Timor Sea, off Australia, where tens of thousands of barrels of oil were released over 10 weeks before it was shut down.

The investigation into that incident “is continuing; Halliburton declined to comment on it.”

It’s starting to look like the only thing Halliburton can cap tightly is its own mouth.
If they don’t start spilling their guts soon, what is already destined to be an ecological disaster will also be a major PR disaster for a company already saddled with the reputation for being a war profiteer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/26/big-oil-fought-off-new-sa_n_552575.html
Huffington Post

Marcus Baram
Marcus@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting

Big Oil Fought Off New Safety Rules Before Rig Explosion
First Posted: 04-26-10 05:00 PM   |   Updated: 04-26-10 11:50 PM
Scroll down to see the proposed safety regulations and BP’s objection
As families mourn the 11 workers thrown overboard in the worst oil rig disaster in decades and as the resulting spill continues to spread through the Gulf of Mexico, new questions are being raised about the training of the drill operators and about the oil company’s commitment to safety.

Deepwater Horizon, the giant technically-advanced rig which exploded on April 20 and sank two days later, is leaking an estimated 42,000 gallons per day through a pipe about 5,000 feet below the surface. The spill has spread across 1,800 square miles — an area larger than Rhode Island — according to satellite images, oozing its way toward the Louisiana coast and posing a threat to wildlife, including a sperm whale spotted in the oil sheen.

The massive $600 million rig, which holds the record for boring the deepest oil and gas well in the world — at 35,050 feet – had passed three recent federal inspections, the most recent on April 1, since it moved to its current location in January. The cause of the explosion has not been determined.

Yet relatives of workers who are presumed dead claim that the oil behemoth BP and rig owner TransOcean violated “numerous statutes and regulations” issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard, according to a lawsuit filed by Natalie Roshto, whose husband Shane, a deck floor hand, was thrown overboard by the force of the explosion and whose body has not yet been located.

Both companies failed to provide a competent crew, failed to properly supervise its employees and failed to provide Rushto with a safe place to work, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The lawsuit also names oil-services giant Halliburton as a defendant, claiming that the company “prior to the explosion, was engaged in cementing operations of the well and well cap and, upon information and belief, improperly and negligently performed these duties, which was a cause of the explosion.”
BP and TransOcean have also aggressively opposed new safety regulations proposed last year by a federal agency that oversees offshore drilling — which were prompted by a study that found many accidents in the industry.
There were 41 deaths and 302 injuries out of 1,443 incidents from 2001 to 2007, according to the study conducted by the Minerals and Management Service of the Interior Department. In addition, the agency issued 150 reports over incidents of non-compliant production and drilling operations and determined there was “no discernible improvement by industry over the past 7 years.”

As a result, the agency proposed taking a more proactive stance by requiring operators to have their safety program audited at least once every three years — previously, the industry’s self-managed safety program was voluntary for operators. The agency estimated that the proposed rule, which has yet to take effect, would cost operators about $4.59 million in startup costs and $8 million in annual recurring costs.

The industry has launched a coordinated campaign to attack those regulations, with over 100 letters objecting to the regulations — in a September 14, 2009 letter to MMS, BP vice president for Gulf of Mexico production, Richard Morrison, wrote that “we are not supportive of the extensive, prescriptive regulations as proposed in this rule,” arguing that the voluntary programs “have been and continue to be very successful,” along with a list of very specific objections to the wording of the proposed regulations.

The next day, the American Petroleum Institute and the Offshore Operators Committee, in a joint letter to MMS, emphasized their preference for voluntary programs with “enough flexibility to suit the corporate culture of each company.” Both trade groups also claimed that the industry’s safety and environmental record has improved, citing MMS data to show that the number of lost workdays fell “from a 3.39 rate in 1996 to 0.64 in 2008, a reduction of over 80%.”

The Offshore Operators Committee also submitted to MMS a September 2, 2009 PowerPoint presentation asking in bold letters, “What Do HURRICANES and New Rules Have in Common?” against a backdrop of hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico. On the next page, the answer appears: “Both are disruptive to Operations And are costly to Recover From”.

The presentation also included the following statements:

“We are disappointed…
* MMS fails to understand that as operators, we can place expectations on contractors, but we cannot do the planning for them
* MMS adds a lot of prescriptive record keeping and documentation that does
nothing to keep people safe”

In addition, TransOcean accountant George Frazer, without identifying his affiliation with the company, submitted a public comment on the proposed regulations stating, “I strongly disagree that a mandated program as proposed is needed,” arguing that the proposed action “is a major paperwork-intensive, rulemaking that will significantly impact our business, both operationally and financially,” calling it an “unnecessary burden.”

“It does appear to be have been an orchestrated effort among most of major oil companies and drilling operators,” says Defenders of Wildlife senior policy adviser Richard Charter.
“This event has called attention to fact that there is a long-standing safety problem in offshore industry,” he says, noting that he gets phone calls from whistleblowers working on rigs who complain about the work conditions and the environmental damage caused by such operations.”

Brian Beckom, a personal-injury attorney who has sued TransOcean several times on behalf of workers, says that “the industry preaches safety, that’s what comes out of their corporate mouths, but I know for a fact that is not always the way things go,” though he concedes that the company is better than most in the industry, especially some of the smaller “fly-by-night operators”. With newer expensive rigs — BP was paying $500,000 a day to use Deepwater Horizon — Beckom says “there is tremendous pressure to put production first” and safety issues fall by the wayside.

Industry officials seem to be aware of safety concerns — in the minutes of a July 2009 meeting of the Health Safety Environment Committee of the International Association of Drilling Contractors trade group, one section is titled, “Stuck on the Plateau.” At the meeting, members discussed the difficulty of lowering the number of safety incidents, how to “rock over from the incident plateau” especially in light of a shrinking workforce.

In the current case, the spill’s damage has been exacerbated by the depth of the drilling, causing the oil to spread across a wider area and impeding clean-up efforts. On Monday morning, response teams failed to seal off the wellhead with a remote vehicle about a mile under the surface of the water — an effort akin to “putting a lid on a peanut jar from thousands of feet away,” explains Charter.

That threatens to make the spill the most damaging since the Exxon Valdez accident off the coast of Alaska in 1989. It is already the worst oil rig disaster since a blowout on the Union Oil platform off the coast of California in 1969 — the public outrage over that 11-day oil spill helped spawn the modern environmental movement.

BP and TransOcean did not return calls for comment. Halliburton could not be reached for comment on Monday night.

Here is the proposed rule from the Interior Department’s MMS:

MMS-2008-OMM-0003-0001-1

Here is the letter from BP objecting to the proposed rule:

MMS-2008-OMM-0003-0011.1

special thanks to Richard Charter

Per AP:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g5gnWbqZ9SqBHvSYqJeE2AT5KebwD9FD308O0
Oil from massive Gulf spill reaching La. coast

By CAIN BURDEAU and HOLBROOK MOHR (AP) – 15 minutes ago

MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER – Faint fingers of oily sheen have reached the mouth of Mississippi River, the vanguard of a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The slick is making its way toward a delicate environment of birds, marine life and some of the nation’s richest seafood grounds.

By sunset Thursday, the oil had creeped into South Pass of the river and was lapping at the shoreline in long, thin lines.

Booms in place to protect grasslands and sandy beaches are being over topped by 5-foot waves of oily water in choppy seas.

In the distance, the lights of the fleet of boats working to keep more of the crude oil away from the coast were outlined in the dying twilight.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

VENICE, La. (AP) – An oil spill that threatened to eclipse even the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control and drifted inexorably toward the Gulf Coast on Thursday as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes.

The spill was both bigger and closer than imagined – five times larger than first estimated, with the leading edge just three miles from the Louisiana shore. Authorities said it could reach the Mississippi River delta by Thursday night.

“It is of grave concern,” David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press. “I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling.”

The oil slick could become the nation’s worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world’s richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life.

The leak from the ocean floor proved to be far bigger than initially reported, contributing to a growing sense among many in Louisiana that the government failed them again, just as it did during Hurricane Katrina. President Barack Obama dispatched Cabinet officials to deal with the crisis.

Cade Thomas, a fishing guide in Venice, worried that his livelihood will be destroyed. He said he did not know whether to blame the Coast Guard, the federal government or oil company BP PLC.

“They lied to us. They came out and said it was leaking 1,000 barrels when I think they knew it was more. And they weren’t proactive,” he said. “As soon as it blew up, they should have started wrapping it with booms.”

The Coast Guard worked with BP, which operated the oil rig that exploded and sank last week, to deploy floating booms, skimmers and chemical dispersants, and set controlled fires to burn the oil off the water’s surface.

The Coast Guard urged the company to formally request more resources from the Defense Department. A BP executive said the corporation would “take help from anyone.”

Government officials said the blown-out well 40 miles offshore is spewing five times as much oil into the water as originally estimated – about 5,000 barrels, or 200,000 gallons, a day.

At that rate, the spill could easily eclipse the worst oil spill in U.S. history – the 11 million gallons that leaked from the grounded tanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989 – in the three months it could take to drill a relief well and plug the gushing well 5,000 feet underwater on the sea floor.

Ultimately, the spill could grow much larger than the Valdez because Gulf of Mexico wells typically hold many times more oil than a single tanker.

Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for BP Exploration and Production, had initially disputed the government’s larger estimate. But he later acknowledged on NBC’s “Today” show that the leak may be as bad as federal officials say. He said there was no way to measure the flow at the seabed, so estimates have to come from how much oil rises to the surface.

Mike Brewer, 40, who lost his oil spill response company in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina nearly five years ago, said the area was accustomed to the occasional minor spill. But he feared the scale of the escaping oil was beyond the capacity of existing resources.

“You’re pumping out a massive amount of oil. There is no way to stop it,” he said.

An emergency shrimping season was opened to allow shrimpers to scoop up their catch before it is fouled by oil. Cannons were to be used to scare off birds. And shrimpers were being lined up to use their boats as makeshift skimmers in the shallows.

This murky water and the oysters in it have provided a livelihood for three generations of Frank and Mitch Jurisich’s family in Empire, La.

Now, on the open water just beyond the marshes, they can smell the oil that threatens everything they know and love.

“Just smelling it, it puts more of a sense of urgency, a sense of fear,” Frank Jurisich said.

The brothers hope to get all the oysters they can sell before the oil washes ashore. They filled more than 100 burlap sacks Thursday and stopped to eat some oysters. “This might be our last day,” Mitch Jurisich said.

Without the fishing industry, Frank Jurisich said the family “would be lost. This is who we are and what we do.”

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency Thursday so officials could begin preparing for the oil’s impact. He said at least 10 wildlife management areas and refuges in his state and neighboring Mississippi are in the oil plume’s path.

The declaration also noted that billions of dollars have been invested in coastal restoration projects that may be at risk.

As dawn broke Thursday in the oil industry hub of Venice, about 75 miles from New Orleans and not far from the mouth of the Mississippi River, crews loaded an orange oil boom aboard a supply boat at Bud’s Boat Launch. There, local officials expressed frustration with the pace of the government’s response and the communication they were getting from the Coast Guard and BP officials.

“We’re not doing everything we can do,” said Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, which straddles the Mississippi River at the tip of Louisiana.

Tension was growing in towns like Port Sulphur and Empire along Louisiana Highway 23, which runs south of New Orleans along the Mississippi River into prime oyster and shrimping waters.

Companies like Chevron and ConocoPhillips have facilities nearby, and some residents are hesitant to criticize BP or the federal government, knowing the oil industry is as much a staple here as fishing.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of blame going around here. People are just concerned about their livelihoods,” said Sullivan Vullo, who owns La Casa Cafe in Port Sulphur.

A federal class-action lawsuit was filed late Wednesday on behalf of two commercial shrimpers from Louisiana, Acy J. Cooper Jr. and Ronnie Louis Anderson.

The suit seeks at least $5 million in compensatory damages plus an unspecified amount of punitive damages against Transocean, BP, Halliburton Energy Services Inc. and Cameron International Corp.

In Buras, La., where Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005, the owner of the Black Velvet Oyster Bar & Grill couldn’t keep his eyes off the television. News and weather shows were making projections that oil would soon inundate the coastal wetlands where his family has worked since the 1860s.

It was as though a hurricane was approaching, maybe worse.

“A hurricane is like closing your bank account for a few days, but this here has the capacity to destroy our bank accounts,” said Byron Marinovitch, 47.

“We’re really disgusted,” he added. “We don’t believe anything coming out of BP’s mouth.”

Signs of the 2005 hurricane are still apparent here: There are schools, homes, churches and restaurants operating out of trailers, and across from Marinovitch’s bar is a wood frame house abandoned since the storm.

A fleet of boats working under an oil industry consortium has been using booms to corral and then skim oil from the surface.

The Coast Guard abandoned a plan Wednesday to set fire to the leaking oil after sea conditions deteriorated. The attempt to burn some of the oil came after crews operating submersible robots failed to activate a shut-off device that would halt the flow of oil.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was briefed Thursday on the issue, said his spokesman, Capt. John Kirby. But Kirby said the Defense Department has received no request for help, nor is it doing any detailed planning for any mission on the oil spill.

Obama dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson to help with the spill. The president said the White House would use “every single available resource” to respond.

Obama has directed officials to aggressively confront the spill, but the cost of the cleanup will fall on BP, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

Mohr reported from Jackson, Miss. Associated Press writers Janet McConnaughey, Kevin McGill, Michael Kunzelman and Brett Martel in New Orleans, and Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge also contributed to this report.

 Special thanks to Richard Charter