World Market Media's  Instablog

The U.S. has lacked any kind of preparation to respond to a major offshore oil spill, as seen by the crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico and washing ashore in Louisiana. The industry has been drilling in the Gulf for decades with 77 rigs operating there, but BP PLC executives, government officials, and scientists are now learning as they go in the fight to limit environmental damage from this month-old spill. Sunday, on CNN's "State of the Nation", Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen likened the effort to address the Gulf oil spill to fighting a multifront war, as officials work to respond to oil coming ashore in southern Louisiana, tar balls in Alabama and Mississippi and the still-leaking well.

Today, Versar, Inc. has deployed a team of scientists to the Gulf coast region to provide technical support in response to the oil spill. Versar, Inc. is a publicly held international professional services firm supporting government and industry in national defense/ homeland defense programs, environmental health and safety and infrastructure revitalization. They offer a wide array of ecological assessments, statistical analyses, and modeling services that provide scientifically sound and defensible bases for environmental management decisions. The company was selected due to its rapid response capabilities and over 35 years of ecological monitoring and surveying experience. It has expertise in both oil spill response and Natural Resource Damage Assessment and is able to quickly respond to incidents of this magnitude. On-scene Versar scientists will be remotely supported by other Versar divisions with modeling, meteorology, fisheries ecology, sensitive habitat and other technical expertise.




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