Oil floats on the surface of the waters near the Louisianan coast.Nesting pelicans are seen landing as oil washes ashore at the island
Waves from the Gulf of Mexico wash oil onto the beach near the Mississippi River on the Louisiana coast.Pelican eggs stained with oil sit in a nest on an island in Barataria Bay in Plaquemine
President Obama announced today that former Florida Sen Bob Graham (left) and former EPA Administrator William K. Reilly (right) will lead a presidential commission investigating oil spill
A pelican colony off Louisiana's coast was seen awash in oil yesterday with birds and their eggs coated in the ooze.
President Obama said of the appointments: 'I can't think of two people who will bring greater experience or better judgment to the task at hand.'
A workman lays out a boom to try and trap the oil as pelicans leave their nests on an island in Barataria Bay, just inside the the coast of Louisiana. The island is home to hundreds of brown pelican nests as well at terns, gulls and roseated spoonbills
Nests rested in mangroves precariously close to the crude that had washed in.
Workers had surrounded the island with oil-absorbing booms, but puddles of oil had seeped through the barrier.
Anger with the government and BP PLC, which leased the rig and is responsible for the cleanup, has boiled over as more wildlife and delicate coastal wetlands are tainted. U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency chief Lisa P. Jackson was headed to Louisiana today, where she planned to visit with frustrated residents.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano were to lead a Senate delegation to the region on Monday to fly over affected areas and keep an eye on the response.
Meanwhile, the official responsible for the oversight of the month-old spill response said he understands the discontent among residents who want to know what's next.
"If anybody is frustrated with this response, I would tell them their symptoms are normal, because I'm frustrated, too," said Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen.
"Nobody likes to have a feeling that you can't do something about a very big problem."
President Barack Obama also has named a special independent commission to review what happened. The spill began after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana on April 20, killing 11 workers, and sank two days later.
At least 6 million gallons (22.7 million liters) of crude have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico since, though a growing number of scientists have said they believe it's more.
The visits from top Obama chiefs come as BP said it will be at least Tuesday before engineers can shoot mud into the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf, yet another delay in the effort to stop the oil.
A so-called "top kill" has been tried on land but never 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) underwater, so scientists and engineers have spent the past week preparing and taking measurements to make sure it will stop the oil that has been spewing into the sea for a month.
They originally hoped to try it as early as this weekend.
"It's taking time to get everything set up," BP spokesman Tom Mueller said. "They're taking their time. It's never been done before. We've got to make sure everything is right."
Crews will shoot heavy mud into a crippled piece of equipment atop the well. Then engineers will direct cement at the well to permanently stop the oil.
BP has tried and failed several times to halt the gusher, but has had some success with a mile-long (1.6-kilometer-long) tube inserted into the leaking pipe that BP said Friday was sucking about 92,400 gallons (350,000 liters) of oil a day to the surface.
The figure is much lower than the 210,000 gallons (795,000 liters) a day the company said the tube was sucking up just a day before.
BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the higher number is the most the tube has been sucking up at any one time, while the lower number is the average.
As the spill spreads deeper into vulnerable marshes, some have called for federal officials to take over the response. But Allen said the government must hold BP accountable.
After the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spilled 11million gallons (41.64million liters) of oil in Alaska, Congress dictated that oil companies be responsible for dealing with major accidents - including paying for all cleanup - with oversight by federal agencies.
BP is also developing several other plans in case the top kill doesn't work, including an effort to shoot knotted rope, pieces of tire and other material - known as a junk shot - to plug the blowout preventer, which was meant to shut off the oil in case of an accident but did not work.
Engineers had originally hoped to try it as early as this weekend.
BP spokesman Tom Mueller said there was no snag in the preparations, but that the company must get equipment in place and finish tests before the procedure can begin.
'It's taking time to get everything set up," he said. "They're taking their time. It's never been done before. We've got to make sure everything is right.'
Crews will shoot heavy mud into a crippled piece of equipment atop the well, which started spewing after the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 workers.
Then engineers will direct cement at the well to permanently stop the oil.
BP, which was leasing the rig and is responsible for the cleanup, has tried and failed several times to halt the oil.
Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said Friday that a mile-long tube inserted into the leaking pipe is sucking about 92,400 gallons of oil a day to the surface, a figure much lower than the 210,000 gallons a day the company said the tube was sucking up Thursday.
Suttles said the higher number is the most the tube has been sucking up at any one time, while the lower number is the average.
The company has conceded that more oil is leaking than its initial estimate of 210,000 gallons a day total, and a government team is working to get a handle on exactly how much is flowing. Even under the most conservative estimate, about 6 million gallons have leaked so far, more than half the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez.
Frustrated local and state officials were also waiting for the Army Corps of Engineers to issue permits so they can build sand berms in front of islands and wetlands to act as buffers between the advancing oil and the wetlands.
In a statement Friday, corps spokesman Ken Holder said officials understand the urgency, but possible environmental effects must be evaluated before even an emergency permit can be issued.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry also took BP to task for not responding aggressively enough to oil coming ashore in Terrebonne Parish, La., to the west of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Public interest in the spill is high - after lawmakers pressed BP for a live video feed of the leak this week, so many people tried to view it that they crashed the government website where it was posted.
BP executives say the only guaranteed solution to stop the leak is a pair of relief wells crews have already started drilling, but the work will not be complete for at least two months.
That makes the stakes even higher for the top kill.
Scientists say there is a chance a misfire could lead to new problems. Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University professor of environmental studies, said the crippled piece of equipment called a blowout preventer could spring a new leak that could spew untold gallons of oil if there's a weak spot that is vulnerable to pressure from the heavy mud.
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