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It has been just over three months since the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers after it exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico, beginning the worst oil spill in US history. It now appears as though the well has been temporarily capped, with a relief funnel expected to reach the gushing well this weekend and a possible permanent plugging up within two weeks. Still, the majority of the work lies in the future as the massive effort to cleanup the estimated 200 million gallons of oil continues. The environmental impacts of the spill are still unfolding and many remain concerned not only about the oil itself but about BP’s unprecedented use of chemical dispersants in the water. Despite the high-profile efforts to clean up oil-soaked Pelicans and other birds, thousands of birds and animals have already died. The American Bird Conservancy earlier this week published a report highlighting how some aspects of the clean up operations in the Gulf Coast are actually harming rather than helping birds. According to the report’s author Mike Parr, “The clean-up operation is the second disaster.” Confirming the ABC’s conclusions, Melanie Driscoll, of the American Audubon society observed that “[d]ump trucks are driving on bird habitat, dumping sand into breaches on islands… There’s so much disturbance it’s hard to say what is protection and what is harm.”

GUEST: Mike Parr, Vice President of the American Bird Conservancy and author of the report

Find out more at www.abcbirds.org. Read the report here: http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/oilspill.html.