BP Says Well Is Sealed, but Oily Gulf and Accountability Questions Remain. Pro Publica, Sept. 20

Response to the spill isn’t over yet, either. According to the Financial Times, 25,000 people are still working on spill response [5], down from the 47,000 working at peak levels in June. About 40,000 square miles of the Gulf remain closed to fishing [5], according to the Times. (That’s about half of what was closed at the spill’s peak.)

While some preliminary research has been conducted, much remains to done [6]. The St. Petersburg Times reported that the Florida Institute of Oceanography, a consortium of several universities, is starting on $10 million worth of studies [2] on the environmental impact of the oil spill.

BP currently faces about 400 lawsuits [14], according to Bloomberg. In July, the company said the Justice Department’s probe could lead to prosecution of the company or its employees, suspension of licenses, or debarment [15] from government contracts.http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/bp-says-well-is-sealed-but-oily-gulf-and-questions-remain-100920

Scientists Clash Over Amount of Oil in Gulf , Sept. 27, WSJ.

Adm. Allen and Capt. Edwin Stanton, a U.S. Coast Guard commander, said Coast Guard responders hadn’t been influenced by the estimated size of the spill.

“We assumed at the outset this would be a catastrophic event,” Adm. Allen said.

But Messrs. Graham and Reilly, the co-chairman, said the low estimates probably did affect the handling of the spill response. “I would assume it’s common sense that the flow rate will determine how many skimmers you need; how many thousand feet of boom you bring into the area; what you’re going to do with respect to dispersants that you order,” Mr. Reilly said. “It’s not entirely clear to me how it could be that flow rate did not affect the response.”