Oil has begun washing up in marshes on La. coast

BP to use mud in latest effort to plug leak | Tar balls found on Key West

VENICE, La. — A tide of sludgy oil has begun washing into Louisiana’s coastal marshes, officials said yesterday, as BP remained days away from a new effort to cap the oil gushing from a damaged well on the Gulf of Mexico floor.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told Senate committees yesterday that the oil company will attempt a “dynamic kill’’ of the oil well on Saturday. That procedure involves pumping thick mud — not the “junk’’ that company officials had previously considered — into the drill pipe, in hopes of clogging it like a drain.

Hundreds of miles away from the Louisiana coast, there was a worrisome discovery: Tar balls, which are sticky clumps of decayed oil, were found in Key West, Fla., on Monday. Officials said they were being tested to determine if they came from the leaking BP well.

To read more  http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2010/05/19/oil_has_begun_washing_up_in_marshes_on_la_coast/

Article courtesy of The Boston Globe- The Green Blogger-By Joel Achenbach and David A. Fahrenthold -Washington Post / May 19, 2010