As Size of Slick Shrinks, Experts Say Oil is Breaking Up, Staying Below Surface
By JEFFREY KOFMAN
BURAS, La. July 26, 2010
For 86 days, oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's damaged well, dumping some 200 million gallons of crude into sensitive ecosystems. BP and the federal government have amassed an army to clean the oil up, but there's one problem -- they're having trouble finding it.
The leak is capped and the spill appears to be shrinking, but where is it going?
Watch 'World News' for the latest coverage on the Gulf oil spill.
At its peak last month, the oil slick was the size of Kansas, but it has been rapidly shrinking, now down to the size of New Hampshire.
Today, ABC News surveyed a marsh area and found none, and even on a flight out to the rig site Sunday with the Coast Guard, there was no oil to be seen.
"That oil is somewhere. It didn't just disappear," said Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser.
Salvador Cepriano is one of the men searching for crude. Cepriano, a shrimper, has been laying out boom with his boat, but he's found that there's no oil to catch.
"I think it is underneath the water. It's in between the bottom and the top of the water," Cepriano said.
Even the federal government admits that locating the oil has become a problem.
"It is becoming a very elusive bunch of oil for us to find," said National Incident Cmdr. Thad Allen.
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