The dome that was leaking oil at the bottom of the Gulf has a new lid. BP capped and plugged the latest oil seepage coming from the site of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster this week. The leak was emanating from the discarded, 40-foot-tall containment dome, which was used in a failed attempt to stanch the Big Oozy. The dome discharge created a sheen at the surface of the Gulf. Underwater robots, or ROVs, descended to the deep on Tuesday to cap the dome's "stove pipe" opening at the top, and plug connection ports on the side of the structure. 

BP used dish soap to make oil disappear when it was still in the water. Now that the oil is still appearing on beaches, the British oil giant is looking take a page out of the book of human soap Neutrogena. The company wants to give Louisiana beaches a deep clean. The giant oil company is asking permission from the Coast Guard to dig 4-5 ft. below the surface to clean tar mats and tarballs from the Big Oozy that were discovered last week on a stretch of Louisiana beaches from Port Fourchon to Elmer's Island. The state closed that stretch after the new oil was found.

After countless reports and hearings undertaken by the rest of the federal government, the U.S. Department of Justice weighed in on the Big Oozy this week. Legally speaking, things are getting even more disgusting for BP in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, as prospects for a settlement with the feds may be dimming.

Isaac may have rolled out the tar mat. On Tuesday, the state announced it was closing a dozen-mile area of coastline between Port Fourchon and Elmer's Island because a new tar mat has emerged in the Gulf of Mexico, and a "large concentration" of tar balls are washing up on the beach. The state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries didn't pin the oil to the Deepwater Horizon and BP, but said it will test the petrol to determine the source.

It's more than two years since the Deepwater Horizon blew, but the damage it caused is still oozing into local politics. When it comes to cleaning up, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu is telling the Coast Guard they shouldn't be packing up their things and leaving the shore just yet. Landrieu sent a letter to Commandant Robert Papp today requesting that the Coast Guard stay on the Louisiana coast. In the letter, Louisiana's senior senator calls on the Coast Guard to keep monitoring beaches for new oil, clean up submerged tar mats and clean up boom anchors that are getting in boaters' way off the Coast.

Last week, we learned dispersants could have played a role in disrupting the Gulf ecosystem after the Big Oozy. Now, a cadre of environmental groups want to make sure that if there is another disaster, the effects will be known before the oil starts leaking. In a lawsuit filed agaist the feds Monday, the group that includes the Sierra Club, Gulf Restoration Network and Louisiana Shrimp Association, argues that the federal government did not understand the effects dispersants would have on the environment before spraying it into the Gulf.

by Mary-Devon Dupuy

Back during the Big Oozy, BP touted their use of dispersants to make the oil go away, but skeptics questioned wihether the chemicals would have lasting impacts on the Gulf's ecosystem, and the health of the people who live on the Coast. On the ecosystem front, a new study from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab indicates the skeptics were on the right track. The study, released yeterday, concluded that dispersants disturb marine food chains and ultimately do more harm than good for the Gulf.

When dead dolphins starting washing up on Gulf Coast beaches last year, everyone started crying oil. But a new paper in the journal PloS ONE suggests there was another factor that might have been the ultimate cause of death. Cold water in the Gulf that flowed from the spring snowmelt might have been the final straw for the 186 dolphins - including 86 infants - that died over the first four months of 2011.

After weeks of looking like it might pass then eventually not passing, a transportation bill containing a key provision for Gulf states in the wake of the Big Oozy was waved home by the U.S. House of Representatives today, setting it up to head to the President's desk for signing. The RESTORE Act dedicates 80 percent of fine money paid by BP and the others responsible for the Big Oozy to pay for enviornmental and economic programs in Gulf states.

Remember how we were losing a football field of wetlands every hour? Well, the Big Oozy made it every half hour during the time that the oil spread, according to a new study. Over an 18-month period, the rapid rate of coastal erosion doubled along the edge of marshes where oil rolled up after the 2010 BP disaster, according to a study published Monday by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences University of Florida researchers. The oil killed not only marsh grass, but also their roots, making it easier for the tide to wash the land away. Despite the bad news, the study wasn't all sour grapes.