Official "99 percent" certain tar mat is from BP oil disaster

A huge mat of oil has forced state officials to close off a chunk of Louisiana's coast to fishing and other aquatic recreation.

 

The area that's closed stretches roughly from the western tip of Grand Isle to Port Fourchon. Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority director Garret Graves says they haven't scientifically linked the petroleum to the BP oil spill, but he's pretty certain they will.

 

"It's impossible to say at this point with a hundred percent certainty, but I can sit here and confidently say with 99 percent certainty that that's exactly what it is," said Grave. "It's in some of the areas where we've previously found things like tar balls, tar mats and other impacts, and so it appears to be sort of weathered in a manner that would be consistent with Deepwater Horizon."

 

And it would be just what a lot of people feared: that even years after the well beneath Deepwater Horizon was capped, oil left over from the disaster will keep showing up from time to time, especially after sever weather.