Reply #12: In this case

[Abq_Sarah]

That's not quite correct. Federal law was changed in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It's no longer left up to the individual states to respond to spills.

Major spills and are managed on the national level. The states coordinate with the federal government and their actions and responsibilities are directed by the national response teams and the response is dictated by the magnitude of the spill.

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=5c520868602917ce7125e06d3da5b91a&rgn=div5&view=text&node=40%3A27.0.1.1.1&idno=40

Part of the delay was due to the classification of the oil leak. Until last Wednesday, the true extent of the leak wasn't known. Once NOAA revised their estimates, the federal government and the state governments revised their action plans to reflect current information which dictated a different level of response.