Oil Leak Update: Fishing Ban Grows To 37%, Criminal Investigation Of BP Begins

"It's is an engineer's nightmare. They're trying to fit a 21- inch cap over a 20-inch pipe a mile away. That's just horrendously hard to do. It's not like you and I standing on the ground pushing- they're using little robots to do this." These are the words of Ed Overton, who is a professor of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University, talking about the latest BP effort to "contain" not stop the oil gushing into the Gulf.

The procedure BP is trying to do is hard enough, but there was another problem. The diamond-edged saw they are using to cut away parts to make this "cut and cap" idea work, had become stuck in a thick pipe on the blown-out well. That has now been freed and work continues.

Billy Nungesser, who is the President of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana doesn't pull any punches on his opinions of BP and The Coast Guard cleanup effort. Nungessor has called for the firing of the leaders of the Coast Guard, and Army Corps of Engineers. "They had no plan to keep the oil out, even though they said it wouldn't come ashore. They had no plan to clean it up. They had no plan to make the fishermen whole. It's like it's being run with a bunch of seventh-graders. This is absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable", said Nungesser.

BP is once again using toxic chemical dispersants to try to break up the oil. Meanwhile Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen says his job is to speak frankly to the American people.

I will be updating this story as more information becomes available. You can find updates at the end of this report.

The other very big news today is that a large amount of oil is now headed towards the Florida Panhandle and could hit the Florida coast tonight or Thursday. It was about ten miles away from the Florida coastline on late Tuesday night.

This bad news follows reports of oil hitting the Alabama and Mississippi barrier islands. Another 66,000 feet of booms to protect the coastlines are being installed and boats are trying to skim as much oil as possible off the water.

The oil leak disaster is so big, that it can be seen from space and it also is easy to see how big it is becoming. U.S. Attorney General Eric HolderEric Holder: "If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be forceful in our response. We have already instructed all relevant parties to preserve any documents that may shed light on the facts surrounding this disaster", said Holder. In other words, he wants BP to make sure that they don't "misplace" any documents that will show that they lied or knew about potential problems and ignored them. The New York Times is now reporting that Eric Holder plans to "prosecute to the fullest extent of the law."

I am also seeing more and more reports of cleanup workers getting sick. This a subject that I am trying to learn much more about. I've mentioned the cleanup workers who have become disabled who worked on the Exxon Valdez cleanup. Now, BP has hired some fishermen, whose lives they have already ruined, to help in the oil cleanup. These fishermen had to sign contracts that forbid from talking to the press. The fishermen have had feelings of being drugged, disoriented and very tired. They also have had breathing problems and have developed coughs. Most of these cleanup workers are not even provided with gloves and are working in street clothes. The more exposure these cleanup workers have to this toxic oil, the worse their health is going to become. I will be keeping an eye on this story because as the oil disaster continues to grow, the more people we are going to have develop chronic health problems.

Since the oil rig explosion, BP stock has now lost $75 billion in value. Updating the oil headed to the Florida Panhandle- it is now seven miles off the Florida coast.

The banned fishing area in the Gulf has once again been extended. The area now extends closer to Florida. This brings the ban to 37 percent of federal waters. This has occurred on the first day of recreational fishing season for red snapper.

Federal regulators have given the go-ahead to a new oil well in the Gulf, according to Time Magazine. The new well will be drilled 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. It will be operated by Brandon Oil & Gas.