A year on, Gulf still grapples with BP oil spill Despite fears
of a total ecological disaster, the Gulf is slowly coming back
from the spill even with many challenges still remaining. Fri,
Apr 15 2011 at 8:08 AM BURNING AND LEAKING: Response ships stand
by as a controlled burn occurs in the Gulf of Mexico after the
oil spill on June 9, 2010. (Photo: Deepwater Horizon
Response/Flickr) VENICE, La./WAVELAND, Mississippi — When a BP
oil rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico last April,
killing 11 workers, authorities first reported that no crude was
leaking into the ocean. They were wrong. The disaster that
captivated the world's attention for 153 days struck at 9:53
p.m. CDT on April 20 (0253 GMT on April 21), when a surge of
methane gas known to rig hands as a "kick" sparked an explosion
aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig as it was drilling the mile-
deep Macondo 252 well off Louisiana's coast. Two days later, the
rig sank. One year on, oil from the largest spill in U.S.
history clogs wetlands, pollutes the