Nearly Three-Quarters of Oil Spilled Into Gulf Waters is Gone, U.S. Says

Nearly three-quarters of the oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon explosion has been captured or dissipated, according to a new U.S. government study. And the 26 percent of the oil remaining is on the surface as a light sheen or “weathered tar balls,” the New York Times reports, citing the study that the government was expected to release Wednesday. “There’s absolutely no evidence that there’s any significant concentration of oil that’s out there that we haven’t accounted for,” said Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the lead federal agency in producing the report. Specifically, the study estimates that about 5 percent of the oil was burned on the water’s surface; 3 percent was skimmed; 8 percent was reduced into tiny droplets by chemical dispersants; and 16 percent dispersed naturally. The extent of ecological damage caused since the April disaster, however, may not be known for several years. Through last weekend, the U.S. government and BP had scooped up nearly 36,000 tons of oil debris along the Gulf shoreline.