Gulf Oil Issues....

For those of you that have been following the story, you know that an oil rig explosion in the northern Gulf of Mexico has caused and is causing some major environmental problems. And the problems unfortunately might only get worse for a while.

All efforts are being made to contain this spill and get rid of it, but it is far from an easy task, and serious environmental consequences might occur.

I spoke to my buddy Hank Allen, a meteorologist at WGNO-TV in New Orleans, LA. Here is a quick email he shared with me about the issue.

"Basically strong southeast flow the next couple of days and then southerly (will drive the oil slick closer to the coast). The issue with the burning is the lesser of 2 evils. They think it's better to have the air pollution than the water and coastal issues. The problem comes in that even once they burn it off there is still going to be some left over. You're still going to have a tar like substance. I'm fairly confident some of this will make it to the coast. Right now they are setting up booms to try to corral it as best as possible. A special shrimp season has been opened to allow the harvest of as many shrimp as possible before the oil gets into the area. However the oyster beds could be in trouble and of course all the wildlife areas could be affected depending on how much gets in there. Plus you have the wetland restoration efforts that will obviously be hindered."

I have Robert Elvington writing a piece on this today that I will have posted later in the day....stay tuned....