By Ian Graham

When dealing with the potentially disastrous oil spill off the coast of Louisiana, responders have a lot of “tools in [their] toolkits,” officials said. This includes dispersal chemicals that break crude oil into a biodegradable substance, booms to contain spreading oil and fires to burn standing oil out of seawater.

Until the source of the spill is under control, the federal response supervisor said yesterday, there’s no surefire way to keep the impact of the spill under control, and every option — including burning — is on the table.

“If we don’t secure the well, this could be one of the most significant spills in U.S. history,” Rear Adm. Mary Landry, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Eighth District said during a conference call yesterday.

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The burning, which Landry said is simply “a tool in the toolkit,” will be done in small doses, far from shore where soot and smoke could create a health hazard. After the initial explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon, a single large fire was used to try to mitigate the initial leaking oil.

“We don’t burn if there’s a risk,” Charlie Henry, lead science coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said. There must be a strong positive benefit, and little to no potential hazard, before fire is used, he explained.

Should fire become necessary, Landry said her organization will post photos of the operations to maintain transparency as they clean up the spill. Fire will likely become a more desirable option as the slick moves closer to land.

Landry said landfall is not expected until the weekend, but she has coordinated with potentially affected states to get them the resources they need to keep as much oil as they can off their coasts. The slick is currently about 20 miles from Venice, La.

Landry said this particular spill, while perhaps not the biggest in history, is very unique because of the depth of the spill’s source and the technology being employed to repair the problem.

“We will not stop until we have exhausted every single option,” Doug Suttles, chief operating officer of British Petroleum said. His company is spending more than $6 million daily to try to stop the leak at its source, a blowout preventer 5,000 feet below the surface.

BP and TransOcean, the operators of the sunken oil rig, are currently using robotic subs to work deep underwater while they build equipment to gather and redirect leaking oil.

As of yesterday, 3,740 barrels (about 157,000 gallons) of oily water have been successfully removed. Officials estimate about 1,000 barrels of oil have leaked daily since the rig sunk.