By Eileen Fleming
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wwno/local-wwno-898187.mp3
New Orleans, La. – About 42,000 gallons of crude oil is leaking daily from a well nearly a mile below the surface. It had been attached to a drilling platform that exploded into a fireball Tuesday before sinking 36 hours later. The Deepwater Horizon platform was operated by Transcocean of Houston for BP.
BP is in charge of cleanup. Executive Doug Suttles said if remote-control equipment can't stop the oil, engineers are working on a way to put a containment dome over the leak.
"That system has been deployed in shallower waters, in fact after Katrina, but it's never been deployed in 5,000 feet of water and we need to be careful because it has not been done before."
BP is also planning to drill relief wells to choke it off, but that could take several months.
For NPR News, I'm Eileen Fleming in New Orleans.