The Gulf Oil Spill Thread

[Whose Yur Planner]

^^ Great rumors. I don't know if they have any truth to them, but I would not be surprised. Dispersants are solvents, surfactants, and other chemicals that reduce the water-oil surface tension. Using "dirty" dispersants would be a great way to get rid of chemicals that are expensive to dispose of otherwise. Dispersants themselves are pollutants. Keep in mind that many of the superfund sites in this country are contaminated principally with solvents.

Anyway you slice it, the Gulf is screwed for the near future, be it oil or whatever. You don't honestly anything remotely resembling the truth is coming to come out of there hearings. All 3 companies are doing CYA for the lawsuits. The whole situation is starting to sound like a cluster!@#$

[boilerplater]

Interesting how new all of the Nat'l Response Corp. equipment looks. Somebody's gonna get a very big bill. Somehow I expected oil spill cleanup equipment to be a lot grimier.

[JNA]

Interesting website from NOAA: http://response.restoration.noaa.gov...topic_topic)=1

Article in my fair city's newspaper had a discussion of how the BOP failed.
No mention about how a BOP was designed to operate 1 mile deep.

industry officials acknowledged a fistful of regulatory and operational gaps: There is no government standard for design or installation of blowout preventers. The federal government doesn't routinely inspect them before they are installed. Their emergency systems usually go untested once they are set on the seafloor at the mouth of the well. The federal government doesn't require a backup.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/201...n/?partner=RSS

[The One]

Interesting website from NOAA: http://response.restoration.noaa.gov...topic_topic)=1

Article in my fair city's newspaper had a discussion of how the BOP failed.
No mention about how a BOP was designed to operate 1 mile deep.


http://www.courierpress.com/news/201...n/?partner=RSS

Golly gee whiz......isn't this how regulations get made and government get's bigger....so it really is the fault of industry for ignoring stuff that could cause greater regulatory oversight in the future after a catastrophic failure and massive public liability.....gee whiz.....this has only been going on now for.....ohhh....what....200+ years??? Just about every significant regulation has a similar root cause I think.

[imaplanner]

Here is the latest we are hearing locally about this mess: BP does not want to seal the well (but with current technology, they can do this very easily). Because if the well head is sealed, they may never be able to pump another drop of oil from the reservoir below, more regulations will be put into place, and no more drilling will be allowed in the Gulf. And other oil companies operating in the Gulf are encouraging and supporting this position.

I've changed my mind. I believe this now. It looks like BP has been refusing to share information and has been lying about the amount of oil spilled this entire time. Instead of 5,000 barrels its more like 70,000 barrels a day. I think this must be the case. All of their efforts have been focused on tapping back into the oil, none of their efforts have been on shutting it down completely. The government appears content to just let BP continue to lie and obfuscate. Congress blocks plans to raise the cap on damages above 75 million (they make more than that in a day). What a wonderful world we live in.

[Veloise]

Planderella has been sharing some marvelous stuff on FB.

"Tiny" oil spill per BP honcho
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_576215.html

Asked if he felt his job was already under threat, he replied: "I don't at the moment. That of course may change. I will be judged by the nature of the response."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...gulf-oil-spill

Kevin Costner and an oil separating machine
http://www.wdsu.com/news/23550079/detail.html

[Planit]

Here's another Oil Spill Solution

http://www.wimp.com/solutionoil/

seems so very simple doesn't it?!?!?!?!?!

[Duke Of Dystopia]

NOAA is saying that 2/3 of the oil may be hanging at about 1/3 of a mile above the sea floor where it can not be tracked by satellite or spotted by aircraft.

It can't be tracked as to where it is going, and the dispersion agents may be making it worse by suspending oil in the water column where it may not be found or reached for cleanup.

Scientists and oil specialists say that the oil may show up many weeks or months later in strange places.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_575647.html


But we have to live with the continuing myth that corporations will do whats right if they only had no oppositional government regulations or even just decent regulation to deal with.

Tell me again how we can't afford to build a modern electrical distribution system driven mostly by alternative fuels? (Deep sadness no emoticon for such a thing as this)

[The One]

NOAA is saying that 2/3 of the oil may be hanging at about 1/3 of a mile above the sea floor where it can not be tracked by satellite or spotted by aircraft.

It can't be tracked as to where it is going, and the dispersion agents may be making it worse by suspending oil in the water column where it may not be found or reached for cleanup.

Scientists and oil specialists say that the oil may show up many weeks or months later in strange places.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_575647.html


But we have to live with the continuing myth that corporations will do whats right if they only had no oppositional government regulations or even just decent regulation to deal with.

Tell me again how we can't afford to build a modern electrical distribution system driven mostly by alternative fuels? (Deep sadness no emoticon for such a thing as this)

The clock is ticking here in Arizona......tick tock....tick tock.....and we still haven't seen significant solar facilities built yet All talk...and NO WALK so far from the big utility companies in this state They seem to be creating ridiculously elaborate qualification schemes and then limiting the participation to what will amount to negligible development, all in the name of protecting profits The beauty contests being developed are called "pilot" programs or experimental power programs....or some such crap.

I can't think of anything more ridiculous....err....ah....well......how do you all like our immigration legislation so far??

[Gedunker]

I can't think of anything more ridiculous....err....ah....well......how do you all like our immigration legislation so far??

Can I see you papers, please?

[Veloise]

Incredibly beautiful, awe-inspiring, and sad pics.

[Whose Yur Planner]

Incredibly beautiful, awe-inspiring, and sad pics.

I saw the pix-we are soooooo screwed.

[Richmond Jake]

I've changed my mind. I believe this now. It looks like BP has been refusing to share information and has been lying about the amount of oil spilled this entire time. Instead of 5,000 barrels its more like 70,000 barrels a day. I think this must be the case. All of their efforts have been focused on tapping back into the oil, none of their efforts have been on shutting it down completely. The government appears content to just let BP continue to lie and obfuscate. Congress blocks plans to raise the cap on damages above 75 million (they make more than that in a day). What a wonderful world we live in.

Told you. They didn't want to cap it--they never will. Now the spill has gotten into the Gulf currents and is heading towards the Florida Straight--Key West. Next stop: the Atlantic. Our beaches may not be impacted!! I don't know if that's irony or what...no, it's not irony. I guess it's good fortune. But we are all still screwed.

I'm not even posting links. It's out there, ya'll have read it.

[Veloise]

http://paulrademacher.com/oilspill/

Here it is atop my fair city. Wowie.

[JNA]

Thank You Veloise good find.

[Rygor]

So it's basically big enough to cover the entire Chicago metro area (or should I say "petrol area") at this point. Yikes.

[Veloise]

So it's basically big enough to cover the entire Chicago metro area (or should I say "petrol area") at this point. Yikes.

Yep.

[imaplanner]

BP has a new strategy to deal with the problem.

[ofos]

BP has a new strategy to deal with the problem

Stopping leaks from Washington is waaaaaaaay beyond BP's capabilities. The oil leak is child's play in comparison.

[Water Planner]

Anyone thought much about what the consequences would be were such a oil rig blowout to occur later in the year during hurricane season.......imagine another Katrina running over that oil leak?

The regulatory folks need to do a better job of oversight.

[Richmond Jake]

Here are four animated computer models forecasting where the slick is going.

http://ocg6.marine.usf.edu/~liu/oil_..._forecast.html

[The One]

Yep.

If it reaches Gary Indiana, there could be some significant urban revitalization taking place

[boiker]

.imagine another Katrina running over that oil leak?
.

You don't need Katrina to cause a bunch of trouble. Even a weak tropical depression or tropical storm has enough wind energy to cause some signficant mixing in the different layers of the ocean. A Cat 1 or Cat 2 hurricane will cause signficant upwelling.

Here's hoping that no storm of any intensity makes it over the gulf of mexico... hopefully the sub-surface oil is far enough under that atlantic hurricanes won't effect it.

Lastly, the black beaches may happen where the gulf stream surfaces (near ireland, northern scotland).

[Duke Of Dystopia]

Huff Post is reporting that there is not a single research vessel actually doing dedicated science on the location, density, and depths of the various plumes of subsurface oil.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_580815.html

The thread IS going to be a never ending thread.

BP also seems to be trying to prevent seens of oil coming ashore from being widely made available by limiting access to locations. The coast guard seem to be going along with it.

[Veloise]

Huff Post ...BP also seems to be trying to prevent [scenes] of oil coming ashore from being widely made available by limiting access to locations. The coast guard seem to be going along with it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_581779.html