A peer-reviewed report on the controversial federal estimates of how much oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster remained in the Gulf of Mexico in mid-July found that the estimates were largely accurate, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Jane Lubchenco said Tuesday.
Lubchenco and other Obama administration officials released a pie chart on Aug. 4 that concluded that 26 percent of the 4.9 million barrels of oil released from the Macondo well remained as "residual," on or just below the surface as light sheen and weathered tarballs, washed ashore or buried in sand and sediments.
The original report relied on the results of the government's "oil budget calculator" that was created as a tracking system for the gushing oil, and was being used to direct response and clean-up operations, including the use of offshore in-situ burns of surface oil and of dispersants.
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