DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Worst environmental disaster in decades?

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/nat...st.html?sid=101

ShareThis
Oil slick washing onto Gulf Coast
Spill could be nation’s worst environmental disaster in decades

Friday,  April 30, 2010 2:49 AM

BY CAIN BURDEAU AND HOLBROOK MOHR

Associated Press


PATRICK SEMANSKY | AP
Workers in Venice, La., load oil booms onto a boat to assist in the containment of oil from a leaking pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico.

CLICK TO ENLARGE | DISPATCH MAP

BILL HABER | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Workers shuck oysters at the P&J Oyster Co. in New Orleans. Oil leaking from a sunken oil platform 40 miles offshore is threatening the Gulf Coast where oysters are harvested.
VENICE, La. -- An oil spill that threatens to eclipse even the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control yesterday, with a faint sheen washing ashore along the Gulf Coast last night as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes.
The spill was bigger than imagined - five times more than first estimated - and closer. Faint fingers of oily sheen were reaching the Mississippi River delta, lapping the Louisiana shoreline in long, thin lines.
"It is of grave concern," said David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling."
The oil slick could become the nation's worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life. Thicker oil was in waters south and east of the Mississippi delta about 5 miles offshore.
The leak from the ocean floor proved to be far bigger than initially reported, contributing to a growing sense among many in Louisiana that the government failed them again, just as it did during Hurricane Katrina. President Barack Obama dispatched cabinet officials to deal with the crisis.
Cade Thomas, a fishing guide in Venice, worried that his livelihood will be destroyed. He said he did not know whether to blame the Coast Guard, the federal government or oil company BP PLC.
"They lied to us. They came out and said it was leaking 1,000 barrels when I think they knew it was more. And they weren't proactive," he said. "As soon as it blew up, they should have started wrapping it with booms."
The Coast Guard worked with BP, which operated the oil rig that exploded and sank last week, to deploy floating booms, skimmers and chemical dispersants and set controlled fires to burn the oil off the water's surface.
The company has requested more resources from the Defense Department, especially underwater equipment that might be better than what is commercially available. A BP executive said the corporation would "take help from anyone."
Government officials said the blown-out well 40 miles offshore is spewing about 5,000 barrels, or 200,000 gallons, a day.
At that rate, the spill could eclipse the worst oil spill in U.S. history - the 11 million gallons that leaked from the grounded tanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989 - in the three months that it could take to drill a relief well and plug the gushing well 5,000 feet underwater on the sea floor.
Ultimately, the spill could grow much larger than the Valdez because Gulf of Mexico wells tap deposits that hold many times more oil than a single tanker.
An emergency shrimping season was opened to allow shrimpers to scoop up their catch before it is fouled by oil. Cannons were to be used to scare off birds. And shrimpers were being lined up to use their boats as makeshift skimmers in the shallows.
This murky water and the oysters in it have provided a livelihood for three generations of Frank and Mitch Jurisich's family in Empire, La. Now, on the open water just beyond the marshes, they can smell the oil that threatens everything they know and love.
The brothers hope to get all the oysters they can sell before the oil washes ashore. They filled more than 100 burlap sacks yesterday and stopped to eat some oysters. "This might be our last day," Mitch Jurisich said.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency yesterday so officials could begin preparing for the oil's impact. He said at least 10 wildlife-management areas and refuges in his state and neighboring Mississippi are in the oil plume's path.
The declaration also noted that billions of dollars have been invested in coastal-restoration projects that might be at risk. He also asked the federal government if he could call up 6,000 National Guard troops to help.
Tension was growing in towns such as Port Sulphur and Empire along Rt. 23, which runs south of New Orleans along the Mississippi River into prime oyster and shrimping waters.
Companies like Chevron and ConocoPhillips have facilities nearby, and some residents are hesitant to criticize BP or the federal government, knowing the oil industry is as much a staple here as fishing.
"I don't think there's a lot of blame going around here. People are just concerned about their livelihoods," said Sullivan Vullo, who owns La Casa Cafe in Port Sulphur.
A federal class-action lawsuit was filed late Wednesday on behalf of two commercial shrimpers from Louisiana, Acy J. Cooper Jr. and Ronnie Louis Anderson.
The suit seeks at least $5million in compensatory damages plus an unspecified amount of punitive damages against Transocean, BP, Halliburton Energy Services Inc. and Cameron International Corp.
Obama dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to help with the spill. The president said the White House would use "every single available resource."
The cost of the cleanup will fall on BP, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.


Not good

Yeah, I've really been dissappointed that this hasn't been posted in this forum over the past few days. I wonder if people really still think offshore drilling is so benign and critical to national security.

Quote:

---

Do you want windmill propelled cars? We sure can't use coal, since no new coal fired electrical plants are being built. At least not here. China has new ones going up constantly.

What is your suggestion for powering this country?

---

Powering the country and powering cars are two different questions. As far as powering the country, my home is powered from 100% wind (at least I'm paying to have 100% of my electricity be wind powered) and my lawnmower is a cordless electric mower. My car still uses gasoline.

Quote:

---

You do realize there was an explosion, right? And people died. And it was an accident, right?

---

I know it was an accidental explosion. Nobody would do this on purpose. But the problem is that the NATURE of this activity makes it nearly impossible to fix without massive devastation. An "accident" is causing the worst environmental disaster (if considering only single events and not long-term activity) in our country's history, and it is because it's deep in the gulf.

We're not equipped to fix issues like this. We don't have adequate technology for this to be done safely. They thought they had safety measures in place (emergency shut-off valve) but they didn't function like they were supposed to.

How many people will lose their livelihood over this? You know Louisiana is being forced to sue BP over this on behalf of the fishermen and many others that work on the coast, right? Class action lawsuit for probably billions. I'm sure that won't impact the price of oil at all.

Everybody is comparing this to the Exxon Valdez thing! But a lot more worse it seems! Plus, eleven oil riggers lost their lives and families are grieving!

My house is actually in the city of Pflugerville which is a suburb bordering Austin. In much of Texas you choose your electric provider and can choose your renewable content and rates. Here's a website where you can view and compare plans/providers.

Power to Choose

My electric plan is one of the 100% renewable content plans. The provider is "Champion Energy." If you would like to see some comparisons, my zip code is 78660 which you can use to view plans.

Quote:

---

Yeah, I've really been dissappointed that this hasn't been posted in this forum over the past few days.

---

If you want it posted, then post it. It's not our job to start threads on stuff YOU find interesting.

Quote:

---

I wonder if people really still think offshore drilling is so benign and critical to national security.

---

Yes I do .. not sure "benign" is the right word because everything has it's pros and cons... but if you feel otherwise then maybe we should abandon off shore drilling and just build more nuclear reactors because those accidents don't disrupt fishing...

Quote:

---

If you want it posted, then post it. It's not our job to start threads on stuff YOU find interesting.

---

My dissappointment was in that previously stories about offshore drilling were hot topics on here with many posters clamoring for it to be expanded. I remember one thread which was titled "At least Obama got this one right" when he approved the expansion of offshore drilling. Now, we have "the biggest environmental disaster in the country's history" as well as the death of 11 workers as a result of the dangers of offshore drilling and suddenly nobody is interested in the subject? Something big enough to mobilize the national guard, to cause a huge global corporation to actually INVITE its competitors into its offices to try to devise solutions to the problem, and nobody thinks it's worthwhile for three days? Why? I'm sorry but my conclusion is that it makes some people's politics look questionable. That's my dissappointment.

thanks.

Evidently killing fish is much worse than birds.

Quote:

---

If you want it posted, then post it. It's not our job to start threads on stuff YOU find interesting.

---

no need to attack

Quote:

---

Are you telling me a thug from Chicago or some of these wacko enviromental groups would not blow up a oil well to get their own way. Did you fall on your head putting up your windmill?

---

Wow, really?

By "thug from Chicago" are you insinuating some relationship to Obama or is this just a random city you've chosen? Because Obama is the one who agreed to expand offshore drilling, and any failure with it makes him look bad.

And how does blowing up an oil rig and trashing the gulf of mexico result in environmentalists "getting their way?"

Well, Bush did blow up the twin towers didn't he?

Seems ironic little Boobly comes out and supports off shore drilling then the disaster happens leaving him an "out" and the excuse of, "Hey, I supported it but it's too risky"! so he bans it getting what he may really want!

TaaaDaaa!!!

By thug from Chicago I'm talking about Obama. He did say he was going to open some drilling but now he is starting to waffle. If that happens how can you say the Enviromentalists didn;t win. I don't know if he and his evil minions are involved but its something to think about. I think we already how the opinion of the American people matter to this group of thugs.

Just to be clear, you're saying you think there's a significant likelihood that Obama had the oil rig blown up, right?

bird + oil + fire = dinner

I'm waiting for the official review to determine what they think happened.

For all we know it was an idiot lighting up a cigarette, or it could have been an environmental group doing the extreme to stop offshore drilling, like pro-life extremists killing doctors to prove their point. Or it could have been a bizarre chain of events that lead to an explosion.

Right now we don't know much of anything.

Do you think the government would tell us if it was these people?

i cant believe this has turned into a political thread. cant people be on the same team just once? you know the intelligent human team?

what is it, like 200,000 gallons a day? i havent read anything here about what this does to the wildlife, ecosystem etc. i know some people dont care about that so much.

for those that dont care for the environment, think about this side, the money side. how much tourism is lost? shrimpers, fisherman. oyster farmers etc. they will all be without a job. they have families to feed. price of gas? bet that will get some people fired up. hit them in the wallet.

this IS a big deal. no matter what SIDE you are on. this is gonna take alot of work to stop and clean. alot of people will have to work together for this.

and all we get here is a bunch of people wanting to think political about this. obama did it. crazy environmentalists did it. some people are just nuts. doesnt anyone have a little compassion here? not the "feed the poor" compassion or the "tax breaks for the wealthy" compassion. just a little human compassion.

this is bad for all. wanna blame someone? don't go to BP anymore.

^What he said.

j/c

And if New Orleans needed one more thing to contend with . . .

Quote:

---

this is bad for all. wanna blame someone? don't go to BP anymore.

---

Bingo, BP has been added to the list that includes only Citgo as of now.

I will do everything possible not to buy gas at these gas stations. If I have to, I will not buy more than 2 gallons. (The Citgo near me looks at me really weird when I come in asking for 7 dollars worth of gas (so that i can get to the next nearest station)).

But you are right, it's a huge deal. And where is the British help in all this, how would they like it if ExxonMobil washed up a ton of crude on their shores?

I am going to work in a maritime related field in about two years (whether its driving tugs, working on big ships). And there is a ton of work down there which will be heavily affected by this disaster. It really sucks because in my mind, I might be moving to the Gulf soon and this directly affects me. My entire life revolves around the water (and my family/friends/sports teams), but if this happened to Long Island Sound, I wouldn't know what to do.

So yeah, I'm really pissed. And I will probably do as much as possible (beyond running out of gas) to not support British Patroleum as long as they exist.

"Make the World A Little Better" was their theme song.............yeah right

Gulf Oil Spill Swiftly Balloons, Could Move East


VENICE, La. (May 1) -- A sense of doom settled over the American coastline from Louisiana to Florida on Saturday as a massive oil slick spewing from a ruptured well kept growing, and experts warned that an uncontrolled gusher could create a nightmare scenario if the Gulf Stream carries it toward the Atlantic.

President Barack Obama planned to visit the region Sunday to assess the situation amid growing criticism that the government and oil company BP PLC should have done more to stave off the disaster. Meanwhile, efforts to stem the flow and remove oil from the surface by skimming it, burning it or spiking it with chemicals to disperse it continued with little success.

"These people, we've been beaten down, disaster after disaster," said Matt O'Brien of Venice, whose fledgling wholesale shrimp dock business is under threat from the spill.

"They've all got a long stare in their eye," he said. "They come asking me what I think's going to happen. I ain't got no answers for them. I ain't got no answers for my investors. I ain't got no answers."

He wasn't alone. As the spill surged toward disastrous proportions, critical questions lingered: Who created the conditions that caused the gusher? Did BP and the government react robustly enough in its early days? And, most important, how can it be stopped before the damage gets worse?

The Coast Guard conceded Saturday that it's nearly impossible to know how much oil has gushed since the April 20 rig explosion, after saying earlier it was at least 1.6 million gallons - equivalent to about 2½ Olympic-sized swimming pools. The blast killed 11 workers and threatened beaches, fragile marshes and marine mammals, along with fishing grounds that are among the world's most productive.

Even at that rate, the spill should eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident as the worst U.S. oil disaster in history in a matter of weeks. But a growing number of experts warned that the situation may already be much worse.

The oil slick over the water's surface appeared to triple in size over the past two days, which could indicate an increase in the rate that oil is spewing from the well, according to one analysis of images collected from satellites and reviewed by the University of Miami. While it's hard to judge the volume of oil by satellite because of depth, it does show an indication of change in growth, experts said.

"The spill and the spreading is getting so much faster and expanding much quicker than they estimated," said Hans Graber, executive director of the university's Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing. "Clearly, in the last couple of days, there was a big change in the size."

Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer for exploration and production, said it was impossible to know just how much oil was gushing from the well, but said the company and federal officials were preparing for the worst-case scenario.

In an exploration plan and environmental impact analysis filed with the federal government in February 2009, BP said it had the capability to handle a "worst-case scenario" at the Deepwater Horizon site, which the document described as a leak of 162,000 barrels per day from an uncontrolled blowout - 6.8 million gallons each day.

Oil industry experts and officials are reluctant to describe what, exactly, a worst-case scenario would look like - but if the oil gets into the Gulf Stream and carries it to the beaches of Florida, it stands to be an environmental and economic disaster of epic proportions.

The Deepwater Horizon well is at the end of one branch of the Gulf Stream, the famed warm-water current that flows from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Atlantic. Several experts said that if the oil enters the stream, it would flow around the southern tip of Florida and up the eastern seaboard.

"It will be on the East Coast of Florida in almost no time," Graber said. "I don't think we can prevent that. It's more of a question of when rather than if."

At the joint command center run by the government and BP near New Orleans, a Coast Guard spokesman maintained Saturday that the leakage remained around 5,000 barrels, or 200,000 gallons, per day.

But Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, appointed Saturday by Obama to lead the government's oil spill response, said no one could pinpoint how much oil is leaking from the ruptured well because it is about a mile underwater.

"And, in fact, any exact estimation of what's flowing out of those pipes down there is probably impossible at this time due to the depth of the water and our ability to try and assess that from remotely operated vehicles and video," Allen said during a conference call.

The Coast Guard's Allen said Saturday that a test of new technology used to reduce the amount of oil rising to the surface seemed to be successful.

During the test Friday, an underwater robot shot a chemical meant to break down the oil at the site of the leak rather than spraying it on the surface from boats or planes, where the compound can miss the oil slick.

From land, the scope of the crisis was difficult to see. As of Saturday afternoon, only a light sheen of oil had washed ashore in some places.

The real threat lurked offshore in a swelling, churning slick of dense, rust-colored oil the size of Puerto Rico. From the endless salt marshes of Louisiana to the white-sand beaches of Florida, there is uncertainty and frustration over how the crisis got to this point and what will unfold in the coming days, weeks and months.

The concerns are both environmental and economic. The fishing industry is worried that marine life will die - and that no one will want to buy products from contaminated water anyway. Tourism officials are worried that vacationers won't want to visit oil-tainted beaches. And environmentalists are worried about how the oil will affect the countless birds, coral and mammals in and near the Gulf.

"We know they are out there" said Meghan Calhoun, a spokeswoman from the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans. "Unfortunately the weather has been too bad for the Coast Guard and NOAA to get out there and look for animals for us."

Fishermen and boaters want to help contain the oil. But on Saturday, they were again hampered by high winds and rough waves that splashed over the miles of orange and yellow inflatable booms strung along the coast, rendering them largely ineffective. Some coastal Louisiana residents complained that BP, which owns the rig, was hampering mitigation efforts.

"I don't know what they are waiting on," said 57-year-old Raymond Schmitt, in Venice preparing his boat to take a French television crew on a tour. He didn't think conditions were dangerous. "No, I'm not happy with the protection, but I'm sure the oil company is saving money."

As bad as the oil spill looks on the surface, it may be only half the problem, said University of California Berkeley engineering professor Robert Bea, who serves on a National Academy of Engineering panel on oil pipeline safety.

"There's an equal amount that could be subsurface too," said Bea. And that oil below the surface "is damn near impossible to track."

Louisiana State University professor Ed Overton, who heads a federal chemical hazard assessment team for oil spills, worries about a total collapse of the pipe inserted into the well. If that happens, there would be no warning and the resulting gusher could be even more devastating because regulating flow would then be impossible.

"When these things go, they go KABOOM," he said. "If this thing does collapse, we've got a big, big blow."

BP has not said how much oil is beneath the Gulf seabed Deepwater Horizon was tapping, but a company official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the volume of reserves, confirmed reports that it was tens of millions of barrels - a frightening prospect to many.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said that he has asked both BP and the Coast Guard for detailed plans on how to protect the coast.

"We still haven't gotten those plans," said Jindal. "We're going to fully demand that BP pay for the cleanup activities. We're confident that at the end of the day BP will cover those costs."

Obama has halted any new offshore drilling projects unless rigs have new safeguards to prevent another disaster.

As if to cut off mounting criticism, on Saturday White House spokesman Robert Gibbs posted a blog entitled "The Response to the Oil Spill," laying out the administration's day-by-day response since the explosion, using words like "immediately" and "quickly," and emphasizing that Obama "early on" directed responding agencies to devote every resource to the incident and determining its cause.

In Pass Christian, Miss., 61-year-old Jimmy Rowell, a third-generation shrimp and oyster fisherman, worked on his boat at the harbor and stared out at the choppy waters.

"It's over for us. If this oil comes ashore, it's just over for us," Rowell said angrily, rubbing his forehead. "Nobody wants no oily shrimp."

web page

Document: BP Didn't Plan For Major Oil Spill

April 30, 2010

British Petroleum downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at an offshore rig that exploded, causing the worst U.S. spill in decades along the Gulf coast and endangering shoreline habitat.

In its 52-page exploration plan and environmental impact analysis for the well, BP suggested it was unlikely, or virtually impossible, for an accident to occur that would lead to a giant crude oil spill and serious damage to beaches, fish, mammals and fisheries.

BP's plan filed with the federal Minerals Management Service for the Deepwater Horizon well, dated February 2009, says repeatedly that it was "unlikely that an accidental surface or subsurface oil spill would occur from the proposed activities."

And while the company conceded that a spill would impact beaches, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas, it argued that "due to the distance to shore (48 miles) and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts are expected."

At least 1.6 million gallons of oil have spilled so far, according to Coast Guard estimates, making it one of the worst U.S. oil spills in decades.

"Clearly, the sort of occurrence that we've seen on the Deepwater Horizon is clearly unprecedented," BP spokesman David Nicholas told The Associated Press on Friday. "It's something that we have not experienced before ... a blowout at this depth."

Robert Wiygul, an Ocean Springs, Miss.-based environmental lawyer and board member for the Gulf Restoration Network, said he doesn't see anything in the document that suggests BP addressed the kind of technology needed to control a spill at that depth of water.

"The point is, if you're going to be drilling in 5,000 feet of water for oil, you should have the ability to control what you're doing," he said.

Amid increased fingerpointing Friday, high winds and choppy seas frustrated efforts to hold back the giant oil spill seeping into Louisiana's rich fishing grounds and nesting areas, while the government desperately cast about for new ideas for dealing with the growing environmental crisis.

President Barack Obama halted any new offshore drilling projects unless rigs have new safeguards to prevent another disaster.

The seas were too rough and the winds too strong Friday to burn off the oil, suck it up effectively with skimmer vessels, or hold it in check with the miles of orange and yellow inflatable booms strung along the coast.

The floating barriers broke loose in the choppy water, and waves sent oily water lapping over them.

"It just can't take the wave action," said Billy Nungesser, president of Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish.

The spill — a slick more than 130 miles long and 70 miles wide — threatens hundreds of species of wildlife, including birds, dolphins and the fish, shrimp, oysters and crabs that make the Gulf Coast one of the nation's most abundant sources of seafood. Louisiana closed some fishing grounds and oyster beds because of the risk of oil contamination.

Many of the more than two dozen lawsuits filed in the wake of the explosion claim it was caused when workers for oil services contractor Halliburton Inc. improperly capped the well — a process known as cementing. Halliburton denied it.

According to a 2007 study by the federal Minerals Management Service, which examined the 39 rig blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico between 1992 and 2006, cementing was a contributing factor in 18 of the incidents. In all the cases, gas seepage occurred during or after cementing of the well casing, the MMS said.

As of Friday, only a sheen of oil from the edges of the slick was washing up at Venice, La., and other extreme southeastern portions of Louisiana. But several miles out, the normally blue-green gulf waters were dotted with sticky, pea- to quarter-sized brown beads with the consistency of tar.

High seas were in the forecast through Sunday and could push oil deep into the inlets, ponds, creeks and lakes that line the boot of southeastern Louisiana. With the wind blowing from the south, the mess could reach the Mississippi, Alabama and Florida coasts by Monday.

In Louisiana, officials opened gates in the Mississippi River hoping a flood of fresh water would drive oil away from the coast. But winds thwarted that plan, too.

For days, crews have struggled without success to activate the well's underwater shutoff valve using remotely operated vehicles. They are also drilling a relief well in hopes of injecting mud and concrete to seal off the leak, but that could take three months.

At the rate the oil is pouring from the sea floor, the leak could eclipse the worst oil accident in U.S. history — the 11 million gallons that spilled from the supertanker Exxon Valdez off Alaska in 1989 — in just two months.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he has pressed BP to work more efficiently to clean the spill and has pledged that "those responsible will be held accountable." President Barack Obama has ordered Salazar to report to him within 30 days on what new technology is needed to tighten safeguards against deepwater drilling spills.

With the government and BP running out of options, Salazar has invited other companies to bring their expertise to the table.

BP likewise sought ideas from some of its rivals and planned to use at least one of them Friday — applying chemicals underwater to break up the oil before it reaches the surface. That has never been attempted at such depths.

Animal rescue operations have ramped up, including the one at Fort Jackson, about 70 miles southeast of New Orleans. That rescue crew had its first patient Friday, a bird covered in thick, black oil. The bird, a young northern gannet found offshore, is normally white with a yellow head.

And volunteers have converged on the coast to offer help.

Valerie Gonsoulin, a 51-year-old kayaker from Lafayette who wore an "America's Wetlands" hat, said she hoped to help spread containment booms.

"I go out in the marshes three times a week. It's my peace and serenity," she said. "I'm horrified. I've been sitting here watching that NASA image grow, and it grows. I knew it would hit every place I fish and love."

———



web page

This is bad. You'd have better luck controlling a nuclear power plant failure.

What is your point?

Is it that we should not drill in oceans or that people are not commenting about BP's carelessness?

I will wait until you find a link to post that will pose as your answer.