With the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico about to enter its eighth week, West Coast agencies are trying to help contain what has already become the worst environmental disaster in American history. The Coast Guard has sent active personnel and reserves from stations throughout California, Washington and Oregon to help with containment of the spill, including marine environmental response personnel, inspectors and other experts. Captain Roger Laferriere, commander of the Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach, is currently the on-site commander in Houma, La. Deputy Sector Commander John Caplis is running the Los Angeles-Long Beach operation during Laferriere's absence.

The Coast Guardsmen in the Gulf are expected to serve a 30-45 day rotation in the area, but all of the staff working on the spill are well-trained and can move in and out of the system with little need for extra preparation.

Sacramento's Office of Spill Prevention and Response, a subsidiary of the Department of Fish and Game, has sent five members of its staff who are also in the Coast Guard, as well as a dozen other non-Coast Guard specialists, including staff trained in geographical information systems, wildlife cleanup, and oil dispersants. The OSPR staff will spend a two-week rotation in the Gulf in order to keep workers from getting burned out and to maintain staffing levels in California.

The Port of San Francisco is supplying 5,000 feet of containment boom to the Gulf to help with the effort. Other environmental cleanup agencies throughout the West Coast have also contributed booms, including 10,000 feet from the National Response Corporation and 20,000 feet from the Clean Rivers Cooperative in the Pacific Northwest sent in early May.

Containment booms are floating barriers used for temporary control of oil spills and are considered the most environmentally acceptable form of containment. They are most effective in calm seas.

BP has contracted and subcontracted many environmental cleanup agencies, including Rancho Dominguez-based Advanced Cleanup, which has sent staff, booms, and oil tracking equipment to the Gulf. The company has sent more than 40 staff to the Gulf Coast region and expects to send more than 100 more to assist BP and the Coast Guard, said company head Ruben Garcia.

The oil spill began with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on April 20 that killed 11 people and has been sending an estimated half million to four million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico per day. Attempts to stop the gusher, located more than a mile below sea level, have been mostly unsuccessful.

-- The Cunningham Report