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If U.S. officials had followed up on a 1994 response plan for a major Gulf oil spill, it is possible that the spill could have been kept under control and far from land.

The problem: The federal government did not have a single fire boom on hand.

But in order to conduct a successful test burn eight days after the Deepwater Horizon well began releasing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf, officials had to purchase one from a company in Illinois.

When federal officials called, Elastec/American Marine, shipped the only boom it had in stock, Jeff Bohleber, chief financial officer for Elastec, said today.

At federal officials' behest, the company began calling customers in other countries and asking if the U.S. government could borrow their fire booms for a few days, he said.

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/0...il_spill_raines.html
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Sounds like the last three administrations have been asleep at the wheel on this situation. Now I would think that the government had a contingency plan for disasters like this. Granted BP, Transocean and any other responsible party should foot the bill but the Coast Guard and Homeland Defense should have been out in front.

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