...two 14-ft-high, 4-ft-dia. caps to try to fit on the pipe. One has a grommet to seal to the riser. The other has no seal and will be used if the grommet interferes with placement. The cap will connect by a new riser to a ship collecting the oil above.

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Chandeleur Islands berm approved in two reaches

But the process of installation may temporarily increase the release by 5% to 20%, according to BP, because cutting the riser will eliminate a crimp that may be restricting flow, and also will remove the riser insertion tool, which was successfully installed May 15 to capture some of the flow. It is the only device so far that has captured oil from the well.

BP is also working on a system using the manifold from its top kill operation to capture additional oil and gas from the well. It is also designing a free-floating riser that could be used to funnel the spewing oil and gas to a ship. The floating riser will connect to the top of the new containment device with a flexible hose and will allow a ship to easily disconnect from the subsea equipment in the event of a hurricane. BP says the floating riser pipe should be ready by the end of June.

The U.S. also accepted an offer from the Rijkswaterstaat, a Dutch government agency that oversees public works in many sectors, for three pairs of sweeping arms to attach to ships. Each pair can skim up to 350 cubic meters of oil per hour.

Mum on Cleanup

Most companies aiming to snag a cleanup role are staying silent on the topic. Clean Harbors Inc., a Norwell, Mass.-based environmental remediation and industrial services firm has told investors it has been “contracted to provide a variety of environmental response services throughout the Gulf of Mexico region to protect the area’s natural resources from the effects of the ongoing oil rig spill.” Officials did not respond to requests for more information.

Clean Harbors says it is providing "logistical support to various government agencies and private organizations," but did not disclose names of any clients for which it is contracted in the Gulf.

But in its published statements to reassure its entire client base of no "anticipated service disruptions," Clean Harbors says it has "deployed a large number of its internal and subcontractor resources" and has been "tasked" by unnamed clients in the region to recruit and train residents in the affected areas to handle cleanup operations. "The company is involved in every aspect of the spill response, [including] containment, removal and ultimate treatment and disposal/recyling of recovered product," says the statement. This includes supply of equipment such as booms, skimmers and vacuum trucks, and recovery and treatment systems.

In the statement, Clean Harbors CEO Alan S. McKim says that the duration of the firm's contracts and staffing levels are in flux because of changing weather and tidal conditions affecting the flow of the oil slick. But the firm said the spill response will result in a 15 to 20% increase in anticipated revenue for the second quarter, ending June 30, that was predicted to total $352 million. Those results will be announced in early August, the company says. The firm posted record revenue in 2009 of $1.07 billion, a 4% increase over the previous year.

Qianxin Lin, a researcher with Louisiana State University’s Dept. of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, says cleanup of oil from a marsh “could be as bad as, or worse than, the oil itself.” Washing with low pressure hoses or cutting the grass could leave more damage as foot traffic and equipment push oil into the sediment. Then it becomes a long- term problem.

Bioremediation injection of microorganisms into the sediment to degrade the oil�might be necessary, but it has its drawbacks, including oxygen depletion, which could create a dead zone, Lin says. It could also lead to an algal bloom, which could choke off the marsh grasses.

If the oil stays on the surface, Lin says controlled burning may have the least impact. “Within hours, it could consume most of the floating oils and the oil coating the grass,” he says. In previous burns, wetlands recovered within six months.