Oil gushing from the mile-deep well in the Gulf of Mexico has dominated the news since it erupted April 20.
But the Deep Water Horizon spill has nothing on the Lakeview Gusher between Taft and Maricopa, which blew in 100 years ago.
That fact was not lost on cable television network CNN.
A cr
ew from CNN was in Taft Thursday to tape a segment for the network's news division.
Reporter Casey Wian said it all in his opening on-camera remarks.
“We're at the site of the Lakeview Gusher, which is the largest oil spill in the history of the United States.”
Lakeview belched out an estimated nine million barrels of oil. That's 378 million gallons.
The big difference – aside from the fact Lakeview was on land and Horizon is a mile deep in the ocean – is the damage.
Lakeview quickly spread over sagebrush dotted land.
It undoubtedly wreaked havoc with critters in its path – rabbits, lizards, snakes and the like.
It did threaten to push into the Buena Vista Lake a few miles to the east, but the valiant efforts of a horde of oil workers and volunteers building dikes in the gusher's path.
Lakeview's plume also sent a mist of oil through the region that spread as far away as Fellows.
The gulf spill, by contrast, has quickly turned into the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history.
But Lakeview – so far – remains the biggest.
0 comments:
Post a Comment