Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette

BP has finally had some success as the petroleum giant struggles to cap the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  It has recently inserted a pipe in the well head that is one mile below the ocean surface.  In can now siphon off oil and deposit it in a tanker floating 5,000 feet overhead.

However, the one mile pipe siphons off only 20% of the oil gushing into the ocean, leaving more than 200,000 gallons a day to pollute the waters off Louisiana.

Scientists are warning that large plumes of oil 10 miles long may have already moved into two loop currents.  One loop current will take the oil to the coast of Texas and the other loop current will take the oil to the Florida Keys.  Once the oil hits the Florida Keys it will only be a matter of time before it rounds the tip of Florida and begins floating up the East Coast to as far away as New Jersey.

The environmental disaster continues as government agencies spray thousands of tons of chemicals under the ocean surface to break up the oil.  The use of these toxic chemicals at this ocean depth has never been tried before and there is no data on the impact the chemicals will have on the sea life of the area.

Many local residents believe they are witnessing their livelihoods and their way of life being destroyed.  In the mean time, BP executives are desperately trying to escape responsibility for the disaster.

At a recent news conference, President Obama harshly reprimanded BP for trying to dodge its responsibility for what is turning out to be the greatest environmental disaster in American history.

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Blogging: Life Against Death

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