With a looming environmental catastrophe on their hands, US authorities racing to contain a Gulf of Mexico oil slick have enrolled Louisiana's prisoners in the clean-up effort, Governor Bobby Jindal said Friday.
The Department of Corrections is "working with the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (DWF) to train inmates in oil spill clean-up efforts so they can assist the federal lead agencies," Jindal said of the all-hands-on-deck response to the impending catastrophe facing Gulf states.
Strong southeast winds were blowing the first parts of the slick directly onto Louisiana's coastal wetlands Friday as government officials and representatives for BP worked around the clock to contain the spill.
The Louisiana DWF was also "training National Guard trainers so they can train the guardsmen," for the massive clean-up effort ahead, Jindal said.
With up to 200,000 gallons of oil a day spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from a ruptured well, the accident stemming from a sunken offshore rig may soon rival the Exxon Valdez disaster as the worst oil spill in US history.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
