Since the oil rig erupted in the Gulf on April 20, an estimated 4.2
million gallons of oil have polluted the Gulf waters, threatening
wildlife refuges, the coast, and the southeast economy.
The New York Times provides a daily tracker of the BP oil spill, an estimate provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
As of today, the drifting pool of oil---which covers at least 2,500 square miles of the ocean--is threatening Terrabonne and Atchafalaya Bays as well as the
coast of Louisiana. According to numerous estimates, the rig is spewing more than 200,000 gallons of oil a day, and officials estimate that the gush will happen for
weeks, if not months, to come.
To get an understanding of just how large and devastating this spill is, the Exxon Valdez spill was responsible for 10.9 million gallons of oil polluting Prince William Sound. And to get a sense of the large swath in which this giant spill is polluting, check out this Gulf Coast
oil spill map, which shows the leak size in comparison to Manhattan, San Francisco, and the Twin Cities. (Note: You must install Google Earth to view this interactive map.) The spill would drown the counties of Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington, Anoka, Sherburne, Wright, and more, and then spill over into Wisconsin, taking over EauClarie.
While original estimates said the rig was leaking
42,000 gallons a day--a rate at which is profound and destructive, but less than the devastating Exxon Valdez spill--current estimates reveal the rig is gushing more than 200,000 gallons a day. That means that, if the leak continues at its current rate and efforts to stop it continue to fail, the devastation from this massive BP mistake and spill could far exceed that of the Exxon Valdez disaster.