To Some in Australia, U.S. Response Looks Good
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
As environmentalists in the United States watch the continuing clean up of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with consternation, some Australian environmentalists say they are feeling, well, jealous.
Environmental groups here initially complained that the response to the Deepwater Horizon spill was slow off the mark. But WWF-Australia says the response of the Obama administration has been swift and substantial compared with what they call the lackluster response of the Australian government to a spill there last year.
The so-called Montara spill – considered one of Australia’s worst — started on Aug. 21, 2009, and involved a rig blowout in the West Atlas well in the Timor Sea. The accident occurred in much shallower water and involved less than one-tenth the flow of the Deepwater Horizon spill.
“There are lots of parallels between the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the oil spill we faced last year in the Timor Sea — that is, until you compare the responses,” said Gilly Llewellyn, WWF-Australia’s manager of conservation. “In light of the current crisis and the wholehearted response, we must ask, did the Australian government do everything it could when faced with a similar task?”
She noted that the United States had 7,500 people working on the spill, representing government, the military and industry. WWF said the number deployed to squelch Montara was 247. It took 73 days to shut down a spill that probably put at least 10,000 tons of oil in the water (estimates vary widely).
The Australians unsuccessfully tried dispersants, relief wells and controlled burns, but they ultimately succeeded by pouring thousands of tons of mud into the leaking well to seal it.
Also, WWF-Australia said the United States spill had already had an impact on policy, with the Obama administration ordering a moratorium on new drilling and inspections of other rigs. In contrast, the company that operated the blown well in Australia was given a new contract even as the oil was still spilling, according to WWF-Australia.
green.blogs.nytimes.com |
