OIL SPILL

Cap Collecting 10,000 Barrels a Day

Though complications remain.

Slowly, the cap on the ruptured oil well is doing what it is supposed to do. After collecting just 6,000 barrels of leaking oil in its first 24 hours, the cap is now diverting about 10,000 barrels a day of the 12,000 to 19,000 barrels that are estimated to be spilling into the Gulf of Mexico on a daily basis. “We’re slowly raising production,” said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is coordinating the federal response. The diversion rate must be raised slowly, so that cold water won’t rush into the well and form ice, a scenario that doomed an earlier attempted fix. Also, a ship at the surface of the ocean can only hold about 15,000 barrels of diverted oil per day. Meanwhile, President Obama again promised a forceful response in his weekly radio address. “We’ve also ordered BP to pay economic injury claims,” he said, “and we will make sure they pay every single dime owed to the people along the Gulf Coast.”