By SETH BORENSTEIN and GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press Writers
COVINGTON, La. – Day by day, the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico is adding up to mind-boggling numbers.
Using worst case scenarios calculated by scientists, a month’s worth of leaking oil could fill enough gallon milk jugs to stretch more than 11,300 miles. That’s more than the distance from New York to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and back. That’s just shy of 130 million gallons.
If the government’s best case scenario is used – and only 5.25 million gallons have spilled – those milk jugs would cover a bit more than a roundtrip between New York and Washington. But the government is revising that number, with a team of scientists working around the clock to come up with a more realistic and likely higher figure.