impact analysis with the mineral management agency and clearly that analysis not proven to be so accurate, but as the coast guard admiral said in defense of bp, this is an absolutely unprecedented oil spill, 5,000 feet, a mile deep below the surface, three leaks, none of which over ten days has yet been successfully plugged. all right, phil, thank you so much. near a wild life preserve there in venice, louisiana. bp didn t say this was highly unlikely to occur and lobbied against secondary measures that could have prevented this together with that oil industry. that s another side of the story. specifically, mechanisms that would shut down the valves, the secondary measures you were referring to. reich reichmuth is standing by and the weather is interesting, the marsh lands and how difficult that would be to get cleared up. let me show you, the wind on here, winds, 25, 35 miles per hour and why it s pushing
well head here. back towards the west here, back into louisiana, it isn t quite as thick. now, today and then into tomorrow it s going to start to make its way into the marsh lands. i talked to general honore, during katrina, i don t know what it was. this water is going to move up the creeks. he said, boy, we don t have creeks. we have ditches and swamp. so that s exactly what he said. we don t have creeks. the move of water now and oil moving up into the swampy areas. this is the essuary, the life blood of the bracket of water, the saltwater comes in and all of those life forms all live in those things. we re going to lose the plankton, what eats the plankton, what eats the plankton all of the way probably up into the roiiver otters because of ts poison coming onshore here. by saturday, it s going to be farther to the north. by sunday, maybe all of the way to pensacola because the wind shifts directions. this wind yesterday was coming
lands. what i can tell you is this, marsh lands are a way of life, culture, also a way of making a living for a lot of people down here. and they know them well. i think part of our challenge, part of what we heard is to make sure we re hearing their ideas about ways that they may be able to protect oyster beds or shrimp hatchery, places that will be have y vulnerable over time if we can t see an end to this or relief. do you have a sense yet from your perspective, is this temporary or permanent damage to the coastal marsh land, fisheries not only the beauty of it but the economic vitality of it? no, i think it s way too early to forecast the severity or how long it will last. these marshes are resilient but they are also fragile. for years now, especially since the hurricane, people have been focused on restoring them.
but in response, what you do is use the response plans that have been developed. i want your assessment of what you saw in terms of environment. impact. you know how important coastal areas. you know how breath taking they are, the birds and other species and the refuge, how important the mashlands are. what is your sense of the environmental impact here? is the a colossal disaster many folks in the community down there are saying? well, it certainly has potential to be. we re talking about a very, very large slick of oil that s moving and continuing to be fed. what struck me first is that it is a very, very large area which has a sheen. so for us, that means the potential for that sheen to move in the air as well as on the top of the water. of course, then there s the larger areas of emulsified oil that will affect the marsh
wife poisoned in a 2007 are trip to germany. that stunning possibility is raise bide laura bush herself in her new book. we have a copy. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world here in the situation room. are we begin with frantic efforts to prevent an environmental nightmare. here are the latest developments. an oil well ripped open when a rig blew up and sank off louisiana is still gushing. 42,000 gallons of crude oil per day. that oil formed a slick up to 100 miles long and 30 miles wide. it threatens the coastline from the pristine beaches of northern florida to the most likely area of damage. the marsh lands of the mouth of the mississippi river.