The Spill, the Scandal and the President

NOAA "We consider this to be a human tragedy and environmental disaster" 
June 8, 2010 10:23 am est 

Initial water samples have confirmed low concentrations of subsea oil from the ruptured wellhead, said Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

"We suspected that, but it's good to have confirmation," Lubchenco said at a news conference Tuesday, June 8, 2010.

A University of South Florida research vessel confirmed oil as far as 3,300 feet below the surface 42 miles northeast of the site and 142 miles southeast, NOAA's Lubchenco said at a Tuesday morning briefing, who's monitoring the spill response for the government.

"We're certain it's oil," said Ernst B. Peebles, a USF biological oceanographer and chief scientist aboard the college's Weatherbird II research vessel, the ship that did the sampling. "We've done the analysis."

Peebles said laboratory tests were performed on water drawn from two layers of oil, a 98-foot thick layer found about 1,300 feet down and a second, even thicker layer found at a depth of about 3,200 feet.

BP has not commented on the latest development but in the past denied underwater oil plumes exist.

BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward said the oil is on the water's surface and that samples retrieved by the company's scientists showed "no evidence" of oil deep beneath the waves.
"The oil is on the surface," said BP's Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward. "There aren't any plumes."

BP continuing to deny.....

Were there warning signs that a disaster was about to happen on the BP oil rig? Five survivors of the rig tell Anderson Cooper about the days leading up to the explosion. Watch "AC360°" at 10 ET p.m. Tuesday.