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A cap on BP's ruptured undersea well appeared to be bouncing in the water Friday, raising the possibility that BP has been capturing less oil than in past days.

The cap is meant to capture oil gushing from the well into the Gulf of Mexico. It was bouncing in the water Friday, moving more freely than it has in the past.

The implication is that less oil is being captured, said Steven Wereley, a member of the Flow Rate Technical Group, which is meant to provide scientifically sound information about how much oil is spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.

Officials have noted a slight drop-off in how much oil has been collected in recent days.

High winds account for the cap's "wobble," said Mark Proegler, a BP spokesman. He noted that forecasters expect rough seas to calm a bit this weekend.

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The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa P. Jackson, planned to tour parts of the Gulf Coast on Friday, a day after her agency gave BP a new directive on how to deal with the clean-up of the massive oil spill.

Jackson will hold a town hall meeting in New Orleans and tour areas of Pensacola, Florida, on Friday, which is her sixth trip to the area since the April 20 oil disaster, the EPA said.

On Thursday, the EPA and the U.S. Coast Guard issued a directive to BP on how the company should manage recovered oil, contaminated materials and waste recovered in cleanup operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Among other requirements, the directive requires the oil giant to give the EPA and state agencies access to any waste storage site and to provide specific plans, waste reports and tracking systems for liquid and solid waste.

"While the states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida are overseeing BP's waste management activities and conducting inspections, this action today is meant to compliment their activities by providing further oversight and imposing more specific requirements," the Coast Guard said Thursday. "Under the directive, EPA, in addition to sampling already being done by BP, will begin sampling the waste to help verify that the waste is being properly managed."

Waste sampling to date has been done in compliance with EPA and state regulatory requirements, the Coast Guard said.

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Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off