NOAA Scientist: Release of Oil Spill Report done by White House, Not NOAA

Dr. Bill Lehr, yesterday told a group of Congressional staff investigators on a conference call that a controversial National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report claiming that nearly three-quarters of the oil from the Gulf oil spill has already been addressed was released by White House officials and not scientists at NOAA.

The NOAA scientist told congressional investigators that the data backing up the assertions made in the report is still unavailable and that peer review of the report is still not complete. Officials at an August 4 White House press briefing had said that the report had been thoroughly peer reviewed.

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Deepwater Horizon oil plume more than twice all natural seeps in the northern Gulf of Mexico

NOLA.com  Published: Thursday, August 19, 2010, 2:00 PM     Updated: Thursday, August 19, 2010, 8:42 PM

In a peer-reviewed article published today in Sciencexpress, an online research magazine, the scientists say the concentration of toxic constituents of oil found in the plume indicate that twice as much oil was being supplied by the wellhead to that plume than was released by all natural petroleum seeps in the northern Gulf of Mexico, which means the plume itself could not have been created by the seeps.  NOLA.com

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Major study charts long-lasting oil plume in Gulf

Health and Science Wire - SunHerald.com
By SETH BORENSTEIN - AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON -- A 22-mile-long invisible mist of oil is meandering far below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, where it will probably loiter for months or more, scientists reported Thursday in the first conclusive evidence of an underwater plume from the BP spill.
The most worrisome part is the slow pace at which the oil is breaking down in the cold, 40-degree water, making it a long-lasting but unseen threat to vulnerable marine life, experts said.
Earlier this month, top federal officials declared the oil in the spill was mostly "gone," and it is gone in the sense you can't see it. But the chemical ingredients of the oil persist more than a half-mile beneath the surface, researchers found.

Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2010/08/19/2416632/scientists-map-invisible-oil-plume.html#ixzz0x8lizvR6

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