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Oil Rig Survivors; Feds Update on Oil Crisis; White House Press Briefing with Thad Allen
Aired June 07, 2010 - 09:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's a busy day in the NEWSROOM. Here's what we've got going on next hour. Let's go ahead and start with Reynolds Wolf. He's right here in the weather center -- Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: All right Kyra. Yesterday, we had some rough storms in parts of the Ohio Valley. But today Mother Nature is drawing a beat on parts of the Central Plains. We're going to tell you what you can expect coming up in just a few moments.
(AUDIO GAP)
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: -- Florida where for the fourth day in a row pockets of this beach have received tar balls overnight. Beach goers, shop owners and fishermen are not happy about it. A live report coming up in the next hour.
PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, guys. Also, next hour, here's the government's go-to man on the oil disaster. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen. I spent 48 hours with him on the front line.
I'll give you a behind the scenes look at how he's fighting the oil and handling his critics coming up in just about half an hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, there's a new number one in tennis. Rafael Nadal of Spain took over the top spot from Roger Federer after winning the French Open. Nadal beat Robin Soderling for his fifth French Open title. He talked about winning the open and getting ready for Wimbledon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAFAEL NADAL, TENNIS PLAYER: This is amazing for me; a win in Monte Carlo, Madrid and then now here (INAUDIBLE). We will see. I have to enjoy right now this moment. But it's very difficult to win a Grand Slam. I did today, but now I start to practice on (INAUDIBLE) on grass for Wimbledon in two weeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: All right. Check out that watch on Nadal's wrist. Like it? Well, you can get one, that is, if you have a lot of money to burn. It was crafted by a luxury watchmaker and has all kinds of light weight metals used in airplanes. It costs more than most homes, $525,000 plus the watchmaker is producing a limited number -- just 50.
Things got pretty heated outside a world cup warm-up match. Take a listen.
As you can see, thousands of people stampeded right through the gates. There was an initial rush when the gates opened. Then they were closed and when they re-opened, a second stampede occurred. It is lucky that only several people were hurt. They actually closed the gates for good and that crowd outside just scattered. There were no incidents inside that stadium, by the way.
And a reminder that the World Cup begins on Friday; we'll be all over it for you.
Checking top stories now. In Ohio: a small town picking up the pieces and mourning the deaths from a weekend tornado. At least seven people confirmed dead in Wood County about 30 miles south of Toledo. The twister tore through the small community of Lake Township and heavily damaged a number of schools, houses and government buildings.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEB WINTERSMITH, FRIEND OF VICTIM: It's just so sad. I just keep walking around wondering what can you do to help? I mean there is just so much destruction everywhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And in about an hour from now, two New Jersey men due in court for allegedly planning to take part in a holy war. Investigators say they plan to travel to Somalia for training from al Qaeda-linked groups and launch attacks against fellow Americans. The feds had followed the men for years and arrested them on Saturday as they tried to fly from JFK Airport to Egypt.
And a quick peek at the markets a half hour before the opening bell. The Dow right now plus 23 points, we aren't expecting much of a bounce back today. The jobs report really rattled Wall Street on Friday as you know but this week, there aren't any major economic reports.
It is day 49 of the oil disaster in the gulf. The damage is growing wider. Tempers are growing shorter. Take for example, this dressing down from Admiral Thad Allen, the government's point man on the oil spill responding to BP's statement that it was pleased with its efforts to contain the underwater geyser.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: We're making the right progress but I don't think anybody should be pleased as long as there is oil in the water. What they have been able to do is put a containment cap over the leak site, started to bring oil to the surface and produce it and slowly start turning off those vents that are venting the oil. So I would say that progress has been made, but nobody should be pleased until the relief well is done. (END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And at any moment we're going to hear more from Admiral Thad Allen. Here going to join White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs for a news briefing on the crisis. It's just about ready to get underway. We will take it live as soon as he steps up to the podium.
First though, let's bring you up to speed on the crisis. Scientists now reporting a disturbing new development that they say they have discovered a second underwater plume of oil. The concern is that the plumes will poison the marine life that lives at greater depths.
BP hasn't commented on the latest claim but in the past has denied that underwater oil plumes even exist. Meanwhile, BP says it has spent about $1.25 billion on this catastrophe. That doesn't even include the cost of building the protective berms. Part of BP's payout has been in the form of jobs. Cleanup crews have fanned out across the region, but it's not clear exactly who is being hired or why.
Fishing crews who have seen their work and income disappear say they desperately need the paycheck. CNN's Rob Marciano has been hearing their pleas for help joins us now with their story from Pensacola Beach, Florida -- Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Kyra, as you can imagine, if you're out of work for five, six weeks at a time during the height of your season, getting a check for $5,000 is not a whole lot of money to keep things going here if you are a charter boat fishermen. And we've had a number of people come up to our cameras since we've been here Friday, giving us their story.
And well, as one fishermen put it, "if you're not P.O.'d, you're not paying attention."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO (on camera): Nobody wants to charter a boat?
CAPT. JOSH FORSYTHE, "BONE COLLECTOR" CHARTERS: No, we've had multiple, probably 35 cancellations already and we're getting three to four a day every day.
MARCIANO (voice-over): Josh Forsythe and crew man Kevin Ross showed up around our cameras over the weekend with signs begging BP or anyone to hire them.
We decided to find out who they were and what the story was.
(on camera): So guys, good to see you again. Josh, Kevin. It's good to have the boat back in the water?
QUESTION: Hope so.
MARCIANO (voice-over): This 22-year-old has grown up on these gulf waters.
(on camera): When did your father first take you out fishing?
JOSH FORSYTHE: Probably still in the womb. But I've been on the waters since I was one or two years old, on a boat.
MARCIANO (voice-over): Now Captain Forsythe owns the "Bone Collector" but the boat and the family business has been out of water since first try at red snapper on the first day of the season.
JOSH FORSYTHE: The first thing we saw, we were actually looking in the prop wash (ph) and it all turned brown.
MARCIANO: These pictures were taken by the crew.
JOSH FORSYTHE: We were about 13 miles southeast of the pass is where we first started noticing oil on the lines and we started picking up some snapper and about 120 foot of water that actually had oil on them.
MARCIANO: Oil on the lines and oil on the fish not good for the family business.
JOSH FORSYTHE: My grandfather was a mullet fisherman. It was started three generations ago and my father, he was first chief of police and ran a charter boat as well.
MARCIANO: But right now, the only business is cleaning up the oil and BP is in charge. Josh's father Ted Forsythe feels commercial vessels should be the first ones hired.
TED FORSYTHE, FATHER: You have licensed captains here begging, begging to go to work and we can't get anywhere.
MARCIANO (on camera): And you know the waters better than anybody?
TED FORSYTHE: Absolutely, fished these waters all my life. All of my life.
MARCIANO: Frustrated sitting on your hands.
TED FORSYTHE: Absolutely frustrating. There are many emotions - frustration, anger, despair, uncertainty of the future.
MARCIANO (voice-over): But it's his son's future that worries him the most.
TED FORSYTHE: My son was, you know, smart enough and good enough to earn his captain's license at 18 years old. He's been running this boat for his fourth year.
MARCIANO: And it's been a bad year. After weeks of calling with no response, finally BP took the bait.
(on camera): Shortly after we put your son on the air, BP called to hire you?
TED FORSYTHE: Absolutely, 5:30 last night.
MARCIANO: Do you think that was a coincidence?
JOSH FORSYTHE: I don't believe in coincidences.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: We are told the BP schedulers are going to call today or at the latest tomorrow to schedule these guys for some training. We'll certainly see if that happens. As for us, we have made multiple attempts to try to get BP's side of the story on this. And so far, no success at that.
You know, the other thing that people are frustrated about when you have tar balls washing up on this beach for four days now and you have fishing areas that are covered in oil just offshore. This is a state that doesn't get a whole lot of economic benefit from the oil business as opposed to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. They have very little money from the oil business. So they feel like they are certainly getting the raw end of this deal as they are paying the price now as oil gets very close to their shoreline -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Rob Marciano, we'll be talking on a regular basis. That's for sure.
And BP says it has paid out about $5 million in claims in Florida and half that money went to people who have seen their income take a hit. This is a claims office that opened yesterday in Pensacola, Florida. BP says it is not just replacing the income lost in the fishing industry, but also the hotels and restaurants who are now seeing tourists cancel their vacations.
Millions of gallons of oil, hundreds of miles of shoreline. Throughout the media coverage a much smaller number is often overshadowed. It's 11 - the number of men killed in the massive explosion that triggered this disaster. They are not forgotten by their grieving families or their co-workers who are demanding answers.
CNN' Anderson Cooper has spoken to some of the men who were on that rig.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Where were you on the first explosion?
MATTHEW JACOBS, DEEPWATER HORIZON EXPLOSION SURVIVOR: Out in the hallway. There were people screaming, hollering. It's like the movie "Titanic" right before the ship sinks. Everybody's just - I mean, I could feel the heat from the flames as soon as I come out onto the smoke deck.
But when I got up on the lifeboat deck, I just stopped and I looked up. I was like - I said, this can't be happening. I said, there is no way we can put that fire out.
COOPER: What did it look like?
JACOBS: It looks like you were looking at the face of death. I mean, you could hear it, see it, smell it.
COOPER: When you hear BP's Tony Hayward say he wants his life back, what did you think?
DANIEL BARRON III, DEEPWATER HORIZON EXPLOSION SURVIVOR: I want my life back. You know, I'm sure you want yours back, too. There are 11 guys out there. Their wives want them back.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Join Anderson Cooper tonight as he continues this conversation with five survivors of the BP oil rig explosion. That's an "AC 360" exclusive, live from the gulf tonight at 10:00 Eastern.
In just about an hour two men from New Jersey due in court on terror charges accused of wanting to wage violent jihad overseas and target American troops. 20-year-old Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and 24- year-old Carlos Eduardo Almonte are expected here at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time, federal courthouse in Newark. They are both U.S. citizens, by the way, and they were picked up at a JFK Airport over the weekend where the feds say they were on their way to Somalia for terror training. FBI agents also raided their New Jersey homes, but neighbors say they had no clue about the suspected terrorists living next door.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIO DE LA CRUZ, NEIGHBOR: I had chills. I can't believe it. I can't believe some people like that are living in my neighborhood.
RITCHIE MARKOVSKI, NEIGHBOR: Very nervous because I have this. That's what I fear - my kids. You know, not in my town. It's not expected. It's not expected.
JOHN DURANTE, NEIGHBOR: It's shocking, you know. You never know what's going on. You never know who lives next door to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Court documents say that the men are accused of conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap people outside the U.S..
Living through a tornado - winds like you would not believe. Even the police were taking cover.
WOLF: That's right. Yesterday really parts of the Ohio Valley south of the Great Lakes saw the roughest weather. But today it looks like we may have more rough weather developing across parts of central plains, possibly some strong thunderstorms and maybe even tornadoes. We'll talk more about that, coming up in just a few moments -- Kyra. PHILLIPS: And we want to remind our viewers right now. We are waiting for Admiral Thad Allen, the point man in charge of this entire response to the oil disaster, expected to come out any second to the podium to brief reporters, to brief us on the status of the Gulf of Mexico. We will take that live as soon as he steps up to the podium.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Straight to the White House briefing. Admiral Thad Allen.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
ALLEN: ... continue to increase over the first three days of operation, we have gone from 6,000 to 11,000. Trying to increase that production rate, ultimately close the venting valves and move to a greater capacity. BP anticipates moving another craft in that can actually handle additional production and the combination of the vessels actually is called a Q-4000, combined we'll have a production capability of about 20,000 barrels a day.
And we are looking to increase production, as I said, because slowly close those vents and see how the containment cap is working and whether or not any oil is forced down by the pressure through the rubber seals as we have talked about before.
In the long run, British Petroleum is also looking at bringing larger production vessels in, creating a more permanent connection that can be disconnected easily in case we have a hurricane or bad weather later on in the hurricane season. And we'll continue to optimize the production out of the well and to contain it.
As I have said on several occasions, the long-term solution to this is going to be drilling the relief wells which again are targeted in early August. There are two relief wells in progress right now. Development driller 3 is down between 7,000 and 8,000, below the sea floor. Development driller 2 is down around 3,000. Those will continue. The second one is a risk mitigator as we move towards what will be the final solution which will be the relief wells.
And following the intersection of the well bore with those relief wells they will put heavy mud down there to suppress the pressure of the oil, come up with the reservoir, put a (INAUDIBLE) plug in and effectively do what I would call a bottom kill as opposed to the top kill which was not successful a couple weeks ago.
What I would like to kind of talk to you about is the area of operations out there. We're going to try something on you today and if you like we'll continue to refine this, I take this as a work in progress. Can we put the slide up, please?
There are copies available on the web. And we'll get it to you. But basically, we're going to try to start giving you a three- dimensional look at what the world of work is out there. We are dealing with basically four areas of operations. One is the subsea area where we try to do containment on the well. The second is trying to deal with the oil that's on the surface above the well where it comes up in large quantities and can be dealt with effectively through mechanical skimming and in situ burning. We all know about the recovery on shore, but the emphasis over the last couple of weeks has shifted to the area between the shoreline and out about 50 miles. Because what's happened over the last several weeks, this spill has disaggregated itself. We are no longer dealing with a large monolithic spill. We're dealing with an aggregation of hundreds of thousands of patches of oil that are going a lot of different directions. And we've had to adopt and we need to adapt to be able to the threat.
When this operation started, we were controlling all skimming and in situ burning operations out of the incident command post in Houma, Louisiana, which has responsibility for the area where the well is at. In the last week, we shifted control of skimming assets to the commander and incident command post in Alabama who is responsible for Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Actually have detached a task force to work for him to push out 50 miles offshore and find these smaller patches and try and deal with them before we get to shore. This is an adaptation to the changing characteristics of the spill which is no longer a single spill, but a massive collection of smaller spills moving forward.
In regards to that what is becoming critical in the near future, we'll be able to get skimming capability offshore and be able to work those small patches. We have made some significant progress in bringing more folks into the fight in terms of vessels of opportunity.
These are local fishing vessels and work boats that we certify to help us and also certify the individuals and train them between Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida right now, we have about 1,500 vessels of opportunities where we have certified the crews and put them out there. What we now have is an opportunity to match vessels of opportunity with skimmers. So the next critical component or resource we're going to be looking for is to increase the amount of skimmers, now that we have these vessels that can deploy them.
We have over a hundred large vessels that are skimming offshore in and around the surface area above the well. What we want to do is take it down to a slightly lower level, smaller skimmers and smaller vessels that can work in the harbors and the bays up to 50 miles offshore. And we are moving those assets into place right now. We will be looking nationally at our skimmer inventory and try to get those matched up with those vessels of opportunity as we move forward.
We continue to move Coast Guard units as well. We have Coast Guard cutters that have skimming capabilities stationed off Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. We have a Coast Guard cutter out there conducting command and control, helicopters for surveillance and we have small Coast Guard patrol boats that can actually do scouting, work with the vessels of opportunity to identify the small patches of oil and deal with it there. I would tell you this though.
Boom is not a silver bullet against oil. We have a situation over the weekend where we had boom in place and back behind Dauphin Island, Alabama and the sea state actually defeated the boom where we have some oil come ashore there and they had to deal with that. We'll continue to press forward. I think we have to deal with the reality that no matter how much boom we have out there, the disaggregation of this slick is going to cause oil to come ashore from time to time. The question for us and the challenge for us is to get quicker and agile smaller units to get to back bay shallow areas and work offshore to find smaller patches of oil and be with them as quickly as we can moving forward.
With that, I would be glad to take questions you might have for me.
QUESTION: Admiral Allen, what percentage of oil do you think is being captured at this point by the containment device?
ALLEN: Let me give you two answers to that. I think we're going to get more (INAUDIBLE) as we get the actual flow rate established. We have two models for flow out of the wellhead that were done by our flow rate technical group under (INAUDIBLE), the U.S. Geological Survey. One was a range of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day. The other was a range of 12,000 to 25,000 barrels a day.
We are now approaching production around 15,000 barrels a day. I think once we know the production flow and we are able to seal off the vents and then assess the leakage around the seal, we will have a hard fast number which will tell us where in the range that flow rate lies and allow us to kind of, I would say, narrow the range in the outside near greater fidelity.
Once we do that, we can actually back that in for the number of days the spill is ongoing and get a better overall estimate of the overall amount of oil that's been spilled. It's kind of like an oil budget - how much is coming out, how much did we skim, how much did we burn and then so we can account for, you know, where all the hydrocarbons went. And that's a work in progress. Right now, we'll be able to give you a much finer estimate once we establish the flow rate.
QUESTION: And yesterday you talked about the cleanup lasting well into the fall. Can you elaborate -
ALLEN: Sure.
QUESTION: - on what you meant there? Because you kind of expected it all to be cleaned up in the fall.
ALLEN: Well, I think we need to be realistic and honest and transparent with the American people. You know, when the relief well is finished and it's capped sometime in August, oil will have flowed to the surface in some manner. We probably won't get 100 percent containment, we want as much as we can get. So there will also be oil on the surface the day the well is capped. And the question is that will have to be dealt with. There will be long-term environmental issues associated before the oils come ashore.
We have to conduct natural resource damage assessments so we can understand the long-term issues associated with that and what BP should be held accountable for as far as correcting those environmental problems. If you look at all of that, we'll be dealing with the effects of oil well after the time the well is capped.
QUESTION: How long approximately?
ALLEN: Well, it depends on how much oil is up there and again the direction and thee currents and so forth. But I think there needs to be an expectation that we're going to be working at least four to six weeks after that well is capped on the oil that's just presently overhead. That doesn't account for oil that may come ashore and will elude us. We'll have to deal with that as far as the impact on the marshes.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: How would you characterize the containment process so far? Have there been any signs of setbacks or progress? And then on the same thing, can you say how many total miles of coastline have been soiled by oil so far?
ALLEN: Sure. On the containment process, I think it is going fairly well. This is a condition-based process. They increase production, once they establish that. They are always concerned about the formation of hydrates. They are putting methanol down there. They're also warming the oil as it comes up. All that's kind of the imbalance and I think it's going fairly well.
What we want is to establish a rate so we know exactly what that containment cap can tolerate in terms of flow and what's going to be lost. And I think it is very, very important that we are watching that very, very closely.
As far as the coastline, I think we have about 120 miles total, linear, that's been impacted. But I would say that's kind of deceiving because I was talking with the parish president and Governor Jindal, you can have one mile impacted linearly and that could go very deep as far as the acreage of the marshlands behind it. So I think we need to understand when it comes to shore that marshland, there is a depth component to this and the effect could be far greater than that. Yes, sir?
QUESTION: You say you are in contact with the White House every day, that you are getting everything you need. There are people down in the gulf though that say there aren't enough skimmers, there aren't enough people on the beaches. Are they just misinformed? And also you mentioned optimizing production, understand you want to get as much out of this. But there is an incentive for BP to pull the oil out. Actually they have to forfeit the oil and that profit to disincentivize them from keeping that going?
ALLEN: The reason they want to keep the production going is not what they may recoup out of that in terms of production. The reason you want that flow to continue is it alleviates pressure on the well bore. We did the top kill and we're able to forced mud down the well bore to the point where we actually suppressed all the oil, but the minute they stopped pumping the mud, the oil came back up. The reason they didn't go any further is they do not know the condition of the well bore and the casings down there. If you observe pressure on that, you wouldn't want to force oil out into the formation or into the strata and have it come up through the sea floor. So you want to produce oil for safety and containment reasons.
QUESTION: Should they have to forfeit the oil?
ALLEN: That's above my -
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They are the responsible party. They are going to bear the cost for exactly what the admiral is describing. I think those costs are likely to greatly exceed what the oil that is recouped is sold for on the market. They are in for response and recovery. There will be penalties that will be involved in this in the many billions of dollars.
QUESTION: Back to the skimmers, people are asking, where are the skimmers?
ALLEN: Yes. We are doing a national inventory right now. Because as the response is evolved, as I told you, skimmers are now - the quantity in demand. And we're looking at the national inventory. We may have to make a decision at some point to move skimmers from some part of the United States and basically accept the risk if there is an event there to be able to bring them here. We are having that discussion right now.
QUESTION: Did we wait too long to do this, six weeks in?
ALLEN: First of all, we have a lot of skimmers down there. The question is we now know that we can take advantage of these vessel opportunities. We don't have the vessels of opportunity several weeks ago. We have them now.
QUESTION: The University of South Florida has been doing underwater samples to see if there are underwater oil plumes. What do we know about that in terms of the existence of these big oil plums and whether or not they will come to the surface?
ALLEN: What we know is they found densities below the surface. The question is of those dense masses they found how much hydrocarbons or oil was there. We have had a couple of crews as that came up with some of that data. What Jane (INAUDIBLE) has done, she has dispatched a fleet of NOAA ships and one of those actually right around the platform themselves. I was out there last week and there was an old vessel taking water samples. What they're doing here is they are taking samples at different depths to try to establish the amount of hydrocarbons at a particular death.
She wants to make a model of the entire gulf to find out. Because if you go down there, there is a density. If you (INAUDIBLE) it may not be there because it moves around. What she's trying to create is a model of the entire gulf. It's kind of like putting pixels on the screen with data samples that go down through the water column. (INAUDIBLE) the hydrocarbons are there. That is attacking right now. That will have to be put into a computer to come up with a data model for the cause . But that's what's going on.
QUESTION: Do you know if there are big large oil plumes underwater yet? Or that has not been -
ALLEN: It hasn't been established by testing. We understand there are densities down there. But as she would say they haven't been characterized yet. They are testing them.
QUESTION: And then there are also conflicting reports whether or not there are birds that are covered in oil from Texas, as far as Texas. Is that true or not?
ALLEN: I haven't gotten that report. We'll certainly follow up and get back to you on that. I haven't personally been given a report on Texas.
QUESTION: Following up on the issue of - you were saying over the weekend that it will take the cleanup, could take months. I talked to environmental groups this morning who say that's a pipe dream. They believe that based on the "Exxon Valdez" situation it will be three, four, five years, maybe more than that. But this cleanup operation is going to be going on in a major way. You somehow disagree with that?
ALLEN: No, no. Maybe it is how we are characterizing it. Dealing with the oil spill on the surface, it's going to go on for a couple of months. After that it will be taking care of, I agree with your long-term issues of restoring the environment and the habitat and stuff and it will be years. I separated out two different functions. I have no argument with that characterization.
QUESTION: One other thing, when we were down there this week with the president, we wanted to get shots of work crews on the beaches and there are apparently rules that they can only work 20 minutes in every hour and (INAUDIBLE) crews down the beach, passed six different tents of people. We could not get a shot of anybody working in the hour or so we were on the beach.
I know people in Grand Isle are irate. Because they say, look, let us go out and do it. Why do you have all these rules and all these bureaucracy? Would you oppose people or is there any kind of mechanism that could be used to let people really fired up to clean it up because they live there and let them do it?
ALLEN: We have a program - it's called Qualified Community Responders where we bring them in and we teach them to do certain tasks and it can be driving the vehicles up and down the beach, some basic training on raking and removing debris and all sort of things and a number of states would actually train these folks and put them to work there. I don't know about the particulars of your particular situation but that certainly is available.
QUESTION: Are you aware - is there really, as we were told, a 20-minute limit in each hour?
(CROSSTALK)
ALLEN: Not me personally. We'll get the information and follow up.
GIBBS: Obviously anybody that deals with and comes into contact with this substance, as the Admiral says there is a training program that's involved and we are taking worker health extremely seriously. We don't want to find, as you said, months, weeks or years later that we didn't put enough safeguard in on the front end to ensure the health of those that have been contracted or want to volunteer to help at the beaches.
ALLEN: We actually have gotten agreement with the Department of Labor and (INAUDIBLE) use their protocols to make sure that they are fully integrated into our response as well.
QUESTION: Admiral, as I understand it, the containment cap is now putting out more oil than the ship above is able to carry. You mentioned that BP can bring other ship in. Why is the company just doing that now? Why does it seem like we are always one step behind here?
ALLEN: Well, they are not at a production rate yet. They potentially could be there as they are spooling it up there will be a second vessel brought in.
QUESTION: Is that why they didn't close the second valve?
ALLEN: They are not the full rate. Yes, this is my understanding.
GIBBS: There is also - as I understand it, there are - as you said, there is concern about hydrates. There is concern about pressure. This is a delicate cap. We want to ramp this thing up so that this is a solution we can work with for weeks and months and don't do something too rapidly to cause something tragic to happen.
ALLEN: I would tell you several weeks ago they started converting to a much larger production platform in anticipation that they would replace this one at a higher capacity platform. That is being done right now but it's a very large ship. Some of these are coming as far as the north sea to bring in the type of production platforms that are floating that could do this at a larger rate. That had already been in progress.
QUESTION: Bottom line, BP has consistently underestimated the amount of the flow, the flow rate. The U.S. government doesn't seem to know it. Why is this so difficult?
ALLEN: Frankly, BP is not doing any estimates on flow rate. We've established our own group and we do that now. It is independent of British Petroleum. The estimates I gave are estimates that we are doing. I mean, they can do it if they want, but I think we need the American people to understand that any flow rates are being developed under any models. Those are governmental with third parties involved, not BP. And that's what's happening.
(INAUDIBLE)
ALLEN: Well, I think there was a lot of talk about transparency. I think you guys need to be assured that we are doing this and we are.
GIBBS: Well, not to mentioned as we talked about here, Chip, the amount of oil that leaks will help determine the fine that BP incurs. So while our interests align on capping this well, we would never ask BP to tell us how much oil they think is leaked in order for us to determine the compensation and penalty that is to be derived from it. Understanding that, again, the flow rate technical group was stood up and as Admiral Allen has said, countless number of times - our response was not dictated upon a flow mechanism. But the flow rate technical group was set up because we had - hold on.
We had a better idea and could use better equipment, NASA equipment, equipment from all over the government to get as best an estimate as we could for an event that is happening 5,000 feet below the surface of the water. The analogy used to me was it is - we are trying to measure 5,000 feet below the surface, the amount of material that is coming up if you were to shake a Coke can. That's not a perfect analogy because most Coke cans are 12 ounces and you know the amount.
So the flow rate technical group is going back and looking at the information that we have now, the information post the shear cut and whether or not, as the admiral said, we can get a closer range as to what is happening.
QUESTION: There was a time when you guys were saying a lot that the flow rate wasn't essential because you were planning for the worst case scenario, but there are now a couple -
ALLEN: That's always been -
QUESTION: But it is relevant, right.
ALLEN: Exactly. You're making a great point.
QUESTION: Whether top kill is going to be effective.
ALLEN: At one point in the response we said, "OK, it's time to get a better estimate on that because ultimately we have to know the entire amount of oil that was discharged, not only for the purposes ofwhat follows on, but in terms of accountability of B.P., but to be able to assess the overall environmental impact of exactly how much oil is out there." So you're absolutely right.
But in the beginning, it wasn't quite as required in terms of timeliness. But it is required. It has to be done, and that's the reason why we're doing it.
QUESTION: Do you question whether B.P. has the resources available to bring to this problem that they said they would have when they filed their application for the drilling permit? ALLEN: Are you talking about the drilling permit for the original well?
QUESTION: Yes.
ALLEN: We have far exceeded the assets being brought to this problem that were indicated in there.
You're talking about their spill response plan?
QUESTION: Yes.
ALLEN: Yes, we've far exceeded that now because of the breadth of this thing. It's from Louisiana clear to Port St. Joe, Florida. So the actual resources out there are far beyond what they identified in their plan.
QUESTION: Does B.P. have -- has B.P. -- so B.P. has brought all that they said they would and more?
ALLEN: Yes. Yes. The resources -- the resources identified in their plan were all brought to bear. That's correct. That's correct.
QUESTION: And is there anything right now that B.P. is not doing that you would like to see them be doing?
ALLEN: We'd like them to get better at claims. And there are two issues of claims.
One is just the timeliness for the individuals. They made something fairly easy. If you show up and you have a W-2 form or any kind of evidence of employment, they're starting to make partial claimant payments. We need to get that routinized so every month they can look forward to that check coming in. And we have somebody on my staff that's actually meeting with B.P. today.
There's a second, larger issue that the local leaders identified to the president in the last couple of weeks and actually, Governor Riley in Alabama indicated to me on Saturday. And that's businesses putting claims in for their inability to operate - seafood manufacturing plants and so forth.
That -- those are -- those claims are processed in a different way and require different documentation, and it requires information about the businesses themselves.
That appears that may be a little cumbersome right now, so we're actually going to have a meeting with British Petroleum this week and try and simplify their ability to actually handle the claims from businesses.
So, in that regard, they don't have a history of in that - in that company of doing that type of work. They brought in contractors and claims adjusters that are working with them. But we think they need to do that better and quicker. GIBBS: And I would say this: We heard this, as the admiral said, on Friday, both with elected officials and when we met with fishermen, we met with seafood processors who are going through this process.
We have -- we've set up -- as we talked about on Friday, if you go to disaster assistance.gov, there's a pretty large icon for people to go to if they are having difficulty getting their claims adjudicated by B.P.
There is an official that is set up through FEMA that works directly with the national incident commander to ensure that this process is moving along as expeditiously as it needs to.
We've got problems with, as the admiral said, major claims being paid and different -- different things along the route. A seafood processor said, you know, "We -- when we catch our shrimp, we freeze the shrimp and they're processed."
So while their processor may not be seeing a lessening in the output based on what they had caught previous to this, obviously because a huge portion of the Gulf is closed to commercial fishing, more shrimp is not coming in, right? So that back end of that process is ending, while if you just simply looked at the business, the sheer output would not necessarily look different.
So those are things that we're asking B.P. to work through. It's something that the president...
ALLEN: I think the best example -- the president and I were down there, we met with local leaders and had some lunch with them -- is a marina operator having maybe 10 percent of the boats tied up in the marina then they would normally this time of year. And all the associated support for that, you know, food and local businesses being used for meals and all that kind of stuff.
That is very, very complex, but we got to get to the bottom of this, make sure these folks can have access to the claims process.
QUESTION: So is anybody in the economic food chain of the Gulf essentially eligible for reimbursement? If you're -- if you operate a B&B that doesn't have people coming? If you supply food to the B&B that doesn't have people coming? I mean, is it all the way down?
ALLEN: You're asking us some questions that we never had to answer in the context of an oil spill or this large, and that's -- those are the types of things we're working through this week. Tracy Wareing, from FEMA, is -- we've actually brought her over her with us on the National Incident Command staff and she's coordinated that for us. We'll have some more -- we're delving into that this week.
QUESTION: You said that when the second platform arrives that they'll be able to contain about 20,000 barrels of oil?
ALLEN: Produce about 20,000 barrels. QUESTION: So does that mean that when you look at your - the two models, that you're expecting that it's going to be closer to the25,000 barrels of oil...
ALLEN: We just know that's their capacity. We still haven't established what the flow rate is. That is the big unknown that we're trying to hone in and get the exact numbers on.
QUESTION: So the flow rate could end up being higher than25,000?
ALLEN: If that's the case, then we're going to be dealing with the residual oil until we get the larger production platform that I talked about earlier.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Twenty-five is before the shear, which could increase it another 20 percent.
GIBBS: Could have, yes.
ALLEN: Could have. Could have.
GIBBS: And the flow rate -- the flow rate group is, as I understand it, going through the larger flow rate as well as trying to hone in on what we think we might have seen in terms of increased capacity after the shear cut.
ALLEN: And we'll make those numbers known as we get them. We're not trying to low ball it or high ball it. It is what it is, and we need to tell you that.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) the most, you'll be able to produce 20,000barrels of oil per day, once the second platform --
ALLEN: Correct. And then that's anticipated to be replaced by a larger production capacity platform in several weeks.
QUESTION: And how many times -- how often do you speak to Tony Hayward?
ALLEN: As often as I need to. Either Tony Hayward or Bob Dudley. Sometimes they're in different places, in different locations. But I would say daily and maybe multiple times during the day if I need to.
QUESTION: And have you brought up the claims issue...
ALLEN: Yes.
QUESTION: -- with either of them directly?
ALLEN: Yes, I did.
QUESTION: And what -- what has been their response?
ALLEN: They say they're looking for any type of input, direction that we will give them, because they obviously want to do this right.
ALLEN: It's not a core competency of B.P., so we need to give them some help and some direction and guidance. And that's what we're doing.
QUESTION: And the meeting that you're having this week -- will that be with Tony Hayward?
ALLEN: No, we -- the person that runs our claims processing for B.P.
QUESTION: OK.
ALLEN: And if I need to meet with Tony Hayward after that, we'll do that -- myself, Tracy Wareing, and their claims processor.
QUESTION: When you speak to Tony Hayward and Mr. Dudley, do you trust the information that they're giving you?
ALLEN: I get this question all the time. I'm not sure it's a matter -- a matter of trust. You know, we're working together. It has to be cooperative. We're trying to create unity of effort.
If I ask them for information, I get it. If I think I need more information, I go back and ask them. If there's an ambiguity or something needs to be clarified, I go back and I do that.
I have given them directions sometimes, saying, "We're not going to go forward until you give me this."
It's an ongoing, constant dialogue. You can call it partnering, cooperation, or trust, whatever, but that's the way it works.
GIBBS: And we're asking for, and will be asking for at this meeting, some greater transparency on this claims process, trying to shorten the window for what B.P. is legally required to do in filling those claims, but in having a broader understanding, through transparency, about what -- what has yet to be fulfilled.
ALLEN: There are some complicating factors. We are dealing with personal -- personally identifiable information, so there are privacy issues and data associated with the folks who are filing claims and how you actually manage this process that we use to make sure we get it right.
QUESTION: Three issues.
Admiral, one, dispersants: Can you catch the nation up on what we've used so far? Are you still using them? What's the environmental (INAUDIBLE) you have for them now as this continues?
Secondly, on the sand berms in Louisiana, where are they? Are they -- is one halfway constructed? Do you have two up? Or where are we on that process?
And do you have anything contemplated anywhere else along the possible spill target areas as the spill continues?
And lastly, you said on one of the shows yesterday that you would look into this issue of whether or not B.P. withheld or urged you to withhold video early on in the disaster from public release. Do you have any -- any comment on that?
ALLEN: Yes, I think we issued a statement on that. I don't think there was any indication that we did do that. And my press assistant can make it -- make it available to you.
Can you go back -- I forgot the first question now.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Dispersants and the sand berms.
ALLEN: Dispersants -- good.
Dispersants: As you know, we recently breached the 1 million gallon threshold, not a threshold of any particular importance, other than its sheer magnitude.
QUESTION: Never before had that...
ALLEN: Never before -- never before.
I've had frequent contact with Lisa Jackson on this. And the overall approach is to minimize the amount of dispersants being used on the surface because they're not as effective as the dispersants used in the subsea area.
ALLEN: The reason they're not as effective is they go on top of the oil and you get less effect because there is oil -- if the oil is several inches deep, the dispersants, kind of, react on the top. You actually need to, kind of, mix it up and emulsify it for the dispersants to have the greatest effect.
When we apply dispersants with a wand at the point of discharge, there's a better mixing already, so it is much more effective at a much lower rate.
So our general strategy is to use subsea dispersants wherever possible and minimize the amount on the surface to what's needed for safety or exigent circumstances, and I'll give you one.
As you saw -- we did some video out on the oil rigs last week when I was out there -- in the background, one of the offshore supply vessels was actually spraying water all around the Discoverer Enterprise. That was to put down volatile organic compounds that were coming up out of the oil that was sitting around the ship that was actually producing -- that actually was a threat to personal safety and health there on those vapors. Dispersants put those down.
You'd rather use water to do it. There may be times where because of the situation you may want to use dispersants to reduce those -- those vapors. But those are the types of things we would talk about. They give us a dispersant plan and EPA is aware of that. Our federal on-scene coordinator is trying to minimize dispersants on the surface, but there may be times that they're going to use it, but we need to use those in very judicious quantities. That means we're going to be relying on in situ-burning and mechanical skimming in and around the wellhead.
QUESTION: And sand berms?
ALLEN: Sand berms -- at this point, the president made the decision last week. We authorized the six segments that were created by the Corps of Engineers. The state of Louisiana is working with British Petroleum. I understand they've got the funding mechanisms in place.
I think the real issue right now is availability of barges. There are a couple of barges that are starting to work right away, and I can -- I can verify this for you, but I believe the first place they're going to start working is somewhere around the Chandeleur Islands because the sand source is close enough where they can get to work right away.
When you go to the west of the Mississippi River, they're actually going to have to take sand from offshore, actually deposit it on the sea bed, and then retransmit it to make the berms on the islands. That's a much longer process.
I've talked with Lieutenant General Van Antwerp, head of the Corps of Engineers, about their ability to -- to free up dredges from other projects to be able to help them.
The state of Louisiana is also looking nationally at -- at dredge capability and right now it's a matter of finding the dredge capacity to be able to start doing some work. But they're ultimately going to have to take a lot of sand, move it in close to shore, and then move it again.
If they come up against a capacity problem in dredges, we could something called a waiver of the Jones Act, which would allow us to bring foreign-flag dredges in, but that would be -- I would consider that only as a last gap-filler that might be needed.
ALLEN: I don't think we're there yet, and Louisiana has not come and told me that yet.
GIBBS: Just so -- I think you're aware, and if I'm not mistaken, each night the joint information center's fact sheet contains an updated number in the amount of surface and subsea dispersants used. So people should be able to track each day how much is (INAUDIBLE).
QUESTION: On the claims process, what role is the government playing or could the government be playing in going in there and actually managing it for and with B.P.? And, also, I want to ask you, on royalties: Is B.P. committed to paying federal royalties, as far as you're concerned, on that oil that's collected?
ALLEN: I'm not sure on the royalty issue.
GIBBS: Let me check on that.
ALLEN: On the claims process, what we're trying to do is create independent government teams for every state, facilitate them - the state -- getting together with the B.P. claims processors to identify problems and move ahead.
There's actually a fairly novel idea being approached in Alabama right now, and that's training National Guardsmen to go out and assist folks in filing claims. So you actually kind of have a multiplier effect. And that's being discussed actually today between Tracy Wareing and the folks in Alabama.
So we will have teams in every state that are able to do that. The question is when we get out to these folks, I had some anecdotal evidence, there are some folks who are just sitting back because they just think it's not going to work, it's too much trouble. Well, those folks have got to know they come forward, put these claims in, they're going to get -- they're going to get paid. And we need to help them understand that and how to do it.
QUESTION: Admiral, over the weekend, Tony Hayward said that B.P. clearly was not prepared for a spill of this magnitude.
The Coast Guard is the front-line agency in responding to oil spills. So what about the Coast Guard? Did you discount the possibility of a major blowout in the Gulf?
ALLEN: No, we had always anticipated that could happen. In fact, in April of 2002, we actually ran an exercise on the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which is only about 90 miles to the west of where this happened. And we envisioned a total loss of the wellhead for a number of days. It almost was similar type of event, except it was in much shallower water.
In that national exercise, I was the national incident commander in the drill. We ran it out of the Superdome.
And so we have known about these and planned for them. What's made this one anomalous is the amount of area this oil is covering and the breadth from central Louisiana clear over to at this point PortSt. Joe, potentially Florida.
I don't think any plan ever envisioned it would get out that far and disaggregate and have us -- have the requirement to have so many resources spread across such a wide area. Because you kind of think of an oil slick coming in en masse, you think about the Exxon Valdez.
That is what's been different, and that, if anything, is taking our resources. It's the breadth and the complexity of the disaggregation of the oil, which I don't think it was accounted for and anticipated in any plans.
QUESTION: Any reason why that wasn't anticipated? This never happened before? No engineers could (INAUDIBLE)?
ALLEN: What you usually do in a response plan, you come up with a worst-case discharge of some amount that you plan against, then you identify the resources that could be brought to the scene in terms of skimming, booming sensitive areas that are nearby, in situ burning and so forth. And those were all identified.
But if you have to -- if you have to replicate that across the entire Gulf, you start multiplying the resource requirements, and that's something we probably need to look at as we -- as the commission takes a look at the response.
I don't think it was any, kind of, lack of duty or anything like that. I think it was a peculiar set of circumstances that, frankly, weren't anticipated and I think are going to have to be anticipated in the future.
GIBBS: And, look, we've said this before. I think the last time you saw a spill of this magnitude in the Gulf it was off the coast of Mexico in 1979. And the president has asked the commission and the Department of Interior, as it looks through the regulatory framework of this, to ensure that we're taking all precautions and all possible scenarios into account as I think it's probably safe to say, if something doesn't happen since 1979, you begin to take your eye off of that thing.
ALLEN: I think -- I think we need to be totally transparent and learn as much as we can from this thing. And I think -- I think everybody -- everybody's on board with that. If there's something we could do better in the future and change our response planning, we certainly need to do that.
QUESTION: Admiral, I wanted to ask you, personally you've really become the face of this spill over the past week and a half. I can't imagine that's how you expected to end your Coast Guard --
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
ALLEN: I told somebody I'm failing to get fired.
(LAUGHTER)
Well, yes, I didn't anticipate this would happen (INAUDIBLE) my career, but I'm honored to have been asked to do this. It's not a very easy job; it's very complex. It's one of the hardest things I've ever had to deal with personally.
But clearly, clearly, we need unity of effort and that has to happen some way.
What makes this spill very different, by the way, and I hear a lot of talk, "Well, let's bring DOD in," and things like that, when you have a military operation, you're operating until what we call Title 10 of the U.S. Code and there's a monolithic chain of command from the lowest soldier, sailor or Coast Guardsman clear to the president.
In this one, we have a lot of different Cabinet departments with roles and responsibilities and missions they're required to conduct out there, and the real goal in this type of an environment, and any incident that takes place outside DOD, is unity of effort, not unity of command. And that's what we're trying to achieve here because there are a lot of stakeholders, a lot of people have responsibilities.
Good example is the shared responsibility between Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA. Fish and Wildlife Service has marine mammals and endangered species. NOAA's responsible for commercial fisheries, the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Well, they both have equities out there in the Gulf, and the question is, how do you create that unity of effort? And that's the real challenge.
QUESTION: And your public responsibilities of doing briefings such as this, do they take away from the incident commander part of it?
ALLEN: Well, this is always a very valuable practice.
(LAUGHTER)
GIBBS: Serve him a softball.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: On the skimming and the shoreline, you say that a boom isn't a silver bullet.
Where are the -- how many skimmers are actually out there now close enough to shore to be doing some good? And are there really no other higher-tech techniques to -- to protect the shoreline other than the booms? Are there new technologies used that haven't been tried in past spills?
ALLEN: Well, we actually have a separate team that's looking at alternative technologies, and we get requested to take a lot at that them. We're actually evaluating some of those.
There are very different types of skimming capability and some of them are effective in different parts of the water. The question is getting the right skimmer so the oil that you want to recover in the depth of water and where it's at. The big ocean skimming systems are much different than what you do in five or six feet in the back bay.
And you have -- you have some types of skimming systems that actually are drums, and the oil sticks to it, and they roll up and it's scraped off and they continue to capture it in a containment device. There are some systems where they'll have a boom with a pocket at the end. You can carry the oil and you evacuate it out. There are some systems that actually will take a circle and drop it just below the surface of the water and have the oil, kind of, flow into it almost like a drain, recover it, and pump it out.
So there's a lot of stuff out there. What we have to do is match the type of skimmer, the quantity of skimmers, with the vessels we've got. And that's how this -- the characterization of this response has changed, and we're having to adapt with it.
QUESTION: And that's been hard to get -- to get in close enough to protect the (INAUDIBLE).
(CROSSTALK)
ALLEN: The best thing we need to do is probably get these vessels of opportunity because there are water men. They know the local areas. They have boats with the right draft that can operate there and then match the right skimmer to them. And that's -- that's the process that we're going through right now.
QUESTION: You mentioned that vessels of opportunity were not on hand until recently. The additional platform is still on its way to the site. The systems for compensation are still being set up and finalized.
Can you address the perception that, as Savannah put it, the response has just consistently be a couple of steps behind the problem?
ALLEN: Well, I think we're -- we're adapting to an enemy that changes. The nature of this oil spill has changed continually since day one. We had a lot of oil in one spot to begin with. Based on the currents and the wind, this has all been disaggregated. And as the spill has changed, our responses had to change.
The -- for instance, oil or hurricanes or any weather are agnostic to boundaries between states. All of our response organization and structure is by states and our (INAUDIBLE) port zones. So the difference between the incident command in Houma and the incident command in Mobile was actually a division of labor that is the Pearl River that divides Louisiana and Mississippi.
And when you start talking about one of these things, that's an artificial boundary, so we have to learn how to adapt. As this thing gets broad and goes across different jurisdictions and authorities, then we have to change our command and control structure and we have to adapt to it.
And then you can say there's a latency period there where we're slow to react. You could say that, but I think we're trying to adapt and learn from a spill that's never happened before in this country.
QUESTION: I have two oil questions, and I have one non-oil question.
Are you taking those now, Robert or after?
GIBBS: (INAUDIBLE) take them now.
QUESTION: All right.
First, you said over the weekend on "This Week" that you've issued an order that journalists are going to have unfettered access to the -- to the disaster site. What I want to know is, what's goingt o happen to -- what are you going to do to B.P. for preventing journalists from -- from getting access to these sites both prior to now and going forward?
ALLEN: Well, if we have to, we can issue an administrative order for the federal on-scene coordinator. If they violate it, there are civil and criminal statutes associated with it.
But we -- we haven't issued an order like that. I put out a general guidance that's only two reasons that -- that media should be prohibited from an area: if it's a security reason or a safety reason because of personal protective equipment.
Other than that, we are putting no restrictions on access.
Now, we can't tell somebody to talk to somebody they don't want to. But my policy is, unless it's a security or safety reason, there is no restriction on access.
QUESTION: Is that system nimble enough?
I mean, you know, if B.P. calculates that keeping journalists away from oily birds is more valuable than whatever your penalty is going to be down the road, how...
ALLEN: I guess somebody would have to give me the -- I guess somebody would have to give me the specifics of an incident, and we'll go take a look at it.
QUESTION: What if I wanted to take a picture of an oily bird and they told me to go away?
ALLEN: Well, it's hypothetical. If you give me the facts, I'll react to them and tell you what we would do or can do.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) seem to be under the impression they can't talk (OFF-MIKE) talk to them down there; they're not permitted.
ALLEN: We'll follow up with -- I'll have a call with Tony Hayward.
QUESTION: My second question: Director James Cameron says he offered to help film the site, the disaster site, and B.P. told him no. And what he says is that, you know, currently, the video stream we have, the only video we have, images of the actual leak are controlled by what he characterizes as "the criminals."
Does he have a point that maybe it's worth some risk to have someone other than B.P. providing images of that leak?
ALLEN: I know he met -- I know he met with Lisa Jackson and some of our folks were in the room. I would just make this observation. And I haven't talked to Mr. Cameron myself.
All the video that's coming out of that operation, right now, from the remotely operated vehicles, is available, OK?
And we've -- we've made that available -- actually, there was some concern, when we started the top kill process, that it might put too much pressure on the operators, and B.P. actually wanted to have a delayed broadcast to remove the risk in the control room, and it was decided, after a conversation between myself and Tony Hayward, that the need for transparency overwhelmed whatever additional risk might be created by that.
So -- and the other thing you have to understand is they're conducting what they would call sim-ops; that's what the industry would call simultaneous operations -- within about a one-square-mile area around that well head and the riser pipe and everything else. At any particular time, you could have between 14 and 20 ROVs operating down there. The need to deconflict those for safety reasons is a valid one.
We were using the riser insertion tool -- if you remember, when we started that, we had to stop and reinsert it. The reason they had to do that was the ROVs that were doing the subsea dispersant application, the ROVs that were working on the insertion tube, actually bumped into each other. And it caused the tube to be dislodged and they had to do it again.
So there's an issue about density and the amount of ROVs you can bring down there. And I appreciate Mr. Cameron's comments, but I believe trying to put one more ROV down there might actually increase the risk to the operation. And there are a number of ROVs operating down there.
QUESTION: Robert, off the subject of the oil, does the president have any reaction to the controversy over Helen's remarks that were publicized Friday?
GIBBS: Well, I have not spoken with him directly on that.
I would say this. I think those remarks were offensive and reprehensible. I think she should and has apologized. Because, obviously, those remarks are -- do not reflect, certainly, the opinion of, I assume, most of the people in here and certainly not of the administration.
QUESTION: Admiral, on the question of disaggregation, which I think means breaking up...
ALLEN: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: I assume that --
ALLEN: Pretty simple sailor talk.
(LAUGHTER)
GIBBS: Not too simple -- not too -- family broadcast (INADUIBLE) --
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Does that make it more difficult? Does that make it more --
(CROSSTALK)
ALLEN: Yes -- well, yes and no. It makes it more difficult. But when it comes ashore, it's not in a mass at a point where you have a huge impact on one place, so -- and I wouldn't even say it's a silver lining because of there's oil on the water, nothing but bad happens. But it does lessen the impact where it does come ashore, because it's not coming ashore in a mass but it's coming ashore at a lot of different places.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)
ALLEN: It's increasing the capacity and complexity of the response, yes.
QUESTION: And is it naturally occurring or do the dispersants add to that?
ALLEN: It's all of the above. When it came to the surface, there might have been in situ burning going on, there might have been mechanical skimming, there might have been dispersants being applied.
The next day, the wind may have shifted. So you have -- some oil went this way. The next day, some oil when that way. You have currents moving it around, tidal currents as well.
So depending on when the oil came to the surface, under what environmental conditions, it could have created a small batch of oil and moved it one direction and then another one another direction.
And that's what we're dealing with. It's not a monolithic spill.
QUESTION: But on balance, is the use of dispersants worthwhile, even though it breaks this up and makes it harder to skim or (INAUDIBLE) in different places?
ALLEN: I believe they're worthwhile, but I think there's enough concern as we approach the million gallon mark, and I think, specifically, from Lisa Jackson and Jane Lubchenco regarding the unknown implications of that amount of dispersants, that out of - out of caution, even though we may need it from time to time, say to suppress volatile organic compounds, we need to have a minimum amount of dispersants for using only when it's the most appropriate and we need to use them to achieve a particular effect and then focus all of our dispersant application at the site of the leak.
(CROSSTALK)
ALLEN: Well, actually, we have -- we have suppressed them on the surface, yes.
GIBBS: The directive that went for a much greater reduction in the volume, I think is now...
(CROSSTALK)
GIBBS: But now several weeks old.
QUESTION: Given the delicacy of this containment capsule issue, are you confident that it will remain effective during the months it will take to dig the relief wells?
And what kind of maintenance (INAUDIBLE) needs to be done down there?
And would there ever -- would a scenario ever arise where I tmight be -- you might have to stop producing the oil to fix or upgrade or whatever the solution down there?
ALLEN: I don't think we should ever be comfortable with the containment operation. We're going to be watching it very, very closely. We ought to be ruthless in our oversight of B.P. and trying to understand what oil is not being contained that's leaking out around that rubber seal, once we know what that flow rate is.
And we need to understand completely that if we have severe weather in form of a hurricane, there may be times we're have-- going to have to disconnect that operation and reestablishment(ph). And during that time we're going to have oil coming to the surface again.
That's the reason I've said this is a long campaign, and we're going to be dealing with this oil for the foreseeable future.
QUESTION: Several questions. One, has B.P. or this government consulted with the British government on issues of resources - and the British military -- and efforts to help? And if so, what wassaid?
ALLEN: I would say I have no contact with the British government per se, but we have looked at foreign offers of assistance. We have taken boom and skimming capability from overseas and accepted that, and B.P. has made a number of purchases overseas, especially the Middle East, where the type of equipment we want is there, actually bought it and flown it in.
I'm working with our military to extent that they can add value. We've had Canadian forces down that have actually been flying some missions with their aircraft.
So there's been a lot of international outreach, but nothing direct with the -- with the British forces.
QUESTION: Why not tap the British -- British government, especially since B.P. is based over there? Why not?
ALLEN: Well, we can certainly reach out and contact them. We -- we -- we -- anybody that has anything to bring to the fight we're considering. If it takes an ask, we'll do that. That's fine. I have no problem with that.
QUESTION: And also another question. You're talking about optimizing production (INAUDIBLE) lessening waste. Is it cost effective to recycle some of the wasted oil that has been spilled? And how -- go ahead.
ALLEN: Yes. Almost all the recovered oil is recycled one way or another, with the exception if it's contaminated sand or debris. That actually in some cases can become oily waste or hazardous waste, has to be treated in accordance with EPA guidelines.
Lisa Jackson has gone out and really looked. We actually have been to a couple facilities to make sure we know how they're handling the oily waste. And there are certain ways that has to be disclosed of properly, in landfills or other places. And those are following EPA guidelines.
QUESTION: So marshland oil, things, maybe some reeds or...
ALLEN: Yes. When you have anything that's got oil on it, it becomes -- it has to be disposed of in accordance with federal law just like waste oil or hazmat would be, yes.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) it's not cost effective to even try to do that?
ALLEN: Well, some of that disposal is done through incineration. There are some things they can do. But in general, if it -- if the oil can be recycled or reused or reclaimed, that happens. But it gets to a point where it's just plain oily debris, then we dispose of that in accordance with federal guidelines.
And EPA is consulting with us and making sure those are met with. In fact, when Lisa and I go out and visit the various sites, one of the things we look at -- or two things. Number one is waste disposal and how they're doing decontamination. Almost every forward operating base has a decontamination station, either for boom or individual boots or clothing, where you go into this. It's all washed off. It's put into a tank. The oil is decanted and then recycled.
GIBBS: Let's do Sam and then we should go to this meeting.
QUESTION: Just a quick question. Can you discuss the benefits and the shortcomings going forward of actually requiring oil companies to drill relief wells simultaneously to the production of oil? Andwould that have helped in the current situation had B.P. actually had that relief well up on-line even before the spill took place?
ALLEN: I have not had that discussion. I think that would be a legitimate point to be raised and put in front of the commission as they do their work. GIBBS: Yes. I would say that's a -- that would fall under, I think, Sam, the regulatory framework that the commission will evaluate in order to determine the best way to operate this in a fail-safe atmosphere moving forward.
Thanks, guys.
