Asia-Pacific

Giant oil skimmer being tested in Gulf of Mexico

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-07-04 11:07

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point person in the oil spill response, said Friday crews will resume getting the Helix Producer in place over the weekend, with production starting around July 7.

The storm that stranded oil skimmers and mangled containment boom didn't stop drilling work on two relief wells that BP says are the best chance at stopping the leak — in fact, drilling is a few days ahead of schedule, BP America spokesman Daren Beaudo said.

But the company is sticking with its early-to-mid-August timeframe for completing the wells because of the uncertainties of hurricane season and the precision needed as the drills get deeper into the ocean floor.

BP plans to pump heavy mud through one relief well to stop the leak from the broken well. The second relief well is being drilled as a backup.

Elswhere on the Gulf coast, environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson visited Pensacola Beach on Saturday, her first trip to Florida since the explosion and her sixth trip to the Gulf.

Jackson said that despite the level of contamination on the beaches, it should be up to local officials to decide whether they should be closed. Officials in Escambia County have posted oil warnings at beaches but not closed them.

"From a commonsense perspective there is nothing that I am going to be able to tell you in chemical lab that you can't learn about the safety of the water from a bathing purpose by looking at it and smelling it," she said.

Reporters pressed Jackson on whether she would wade into the water Saturday based on what she had seen.

"I would not go into the water today," she said.