Oil Spill: Sobering News For the Gulf Coast

[greenparrot]

Originally Posted by Smallville

Obama received 2.5 milllion dollars from BP. Obama received more than any other politician from BP. Obama waited for a few days before he addressed the spill.

Airplanes crash do we stop flying because of it, no. car wrecks happen do we stop driving because of it, no. Can wind and solar provide all the power we need now? No they can't. Maybe in the future but we have to have cheap sources of fuel until we are able to get to that point. Nuclear power provides France with 70% of their power needs. But Democrats in this country won't let us build any nuclear plants. Something has to give! We can't continue to want cleaner sources of fuel but then turn around and deny everything that come down the pike like Nuclear.

ALL TRUE! The fossil fuel industry will remain an integral part of our existence and lifestyles for generations. We use too many products alone that are petroleum based. We should find and develop alternative energy sources as a complement to oil & gas but our lifestyles are linked for the forseeable future to oil & gas at some level. We don't know exactly what happened yet with this situation whether it be human error, equipment malfunction or disregard for existing safety features but my guess is we will adapt and find more safeguards to stem an oil flow like this in the future after an accident occurs. If we don't drill...other countries will i.e. China off Cuba which won't take us off the hook for possible environmental negative impact.

[miami305]

Me, Me, Me...what about the local wild-life? Poor animals...this is really terrible.

[QuantumX]

Miami Herald

Posted on Sun, May. 16, 2010
In a first success, a pipe begins to capture leaking oil
BY JAWEED KALEEM
jkaleem@MiamiHerald.com

Oil giant BP succeeded Sunday in connecting a mile-long pipe to help capture what it hoped will be a majority of the oil flowing from a damaged well into the Gulf of Mexico -- ``an important step'' toward capping the massive spill, the company said, but not a solution.
The company initially connected the suction pipe for about four hours just after midnight Sunday, sending some oil, gas and water to an oil tanker 5,000 feet above the seabed, but then the pipe was dislodged. It was reconnected late Sunday morning.

``We're looking to optimize this over the next couple days to try to produce as much oil and gas as we can,'' said Kent Wells, BP's senior vice president for exploration and production, at a press conference. He added that while the amount of oil being captured was gradually increasing, the company had not measured it.

The effort doesn't plug the massive oil leak that began on April 20 when an offshore rig caught fire and sank, but it's the first success in almost a month to begin capping the erupting flow. A similar effort had failed early Saturday.

Despite BP's success Sunday, scientists say that the large swatch of oil covering the gulf already has had a monumental ecological impact.

Satellite images taken Saturday by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory show that the oil may have already entered the Gulf loop current, which could pull it through the Florida Keys and into South Florida, according to an analysis by Mitch Roffer, a Florida-based oceanographer who runs Roffer's Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service and has tracked the spill.

``I think the threat to South Florida is real and we should get ready,'' said Igor Kamenkovich, associate professor at the Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami, who had not seen the images. ``It's hard to predict but if it gets in the loop current, it can happen as quickly as 7 to 10 days. . . If it does happen, it is bad news for us.''

So far, winds and currents have kept the oil away from the Florida coast, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

At the oil-leak site, a tube five-feet long and four inches in diameter was pushed into a leaking riser that's 21 inches in diameter -- the source of most of the spill. The inserted tube has three large flexible rubber diaphragms to keep it in the riser and block oil and water from mixing; however, BP officials said the riser is still leaking some oil.

The pipe is full of nitrogen, which is slowly being pulled back to let oil and gas flow in while keeping water from entering. Methanol, a kind of antifreeze, is also being pumped into the riser to stop crystals from forming that could block gas and oil from flowing to the ship. Crystals got in the way of a previous attempt to lower a 78-ton containment cap over the leak site.

The surface tanker will separate the oil, gas and water mixture for storage and eventual offloading. Overnight, some of the collected gas was burned through a flare system on the tanker. BP officials did not specify Sunday how much the tanker can hold.

`POSITIVE MOVE'

``It's a positive move, but let's keep it in context. We're not shutting off the flow of oil from this well, and we will do that when we do the top kill procedure,'' Wells said.

The ``top-kill'' involves jamming up to 50,000 barrels of a heavy-density mud-like liquid into channels leading to the oil well, effectively overpowering the leak before adding cement to seal it off. BP officials said it would attempt a ``top kill'' in a week to 10 days.

``The more mud we get into the well, the lower the rate and pressure will be'' of the spill, Wells said.

The insertion of the tube into the oil-disgorging pipe is the only successful attempt the company has had in curbing the ecological disaster that threatens the Gulf and Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida ecosystems.

A containment vessel -- four feet in diameter and five feet long -- or ``top hat'' that engineers would try to place over the main leaking pipe is also sitting on the sea floor as another option. Oil captured in it would also be pumped to a barge.

Officials also have not ruled out a ``junk shot,'' which entails shooting golf balls, shredded tires, knotted pieces of rope and other debris into the oil well to clog the leak.

BP also has started drilling two relief wells, which experts say is the most fail-proof long-term solution to stopping the spill. That process will not be completed until August.

FEARS RAISED

On Sunday, scientists said the discovery of large submerged oil plumes -- one up to 10 miles long -- raised fears of more damage to the Gulf. They also raised questions about when large amounts of crude might hit shore. Occasional tar balls have been seen on beaches in a few states, but there have not been any reports of large amounts of oil washing ashore.

Environmentalists -- and some leaders in the fishing and oil-spill cleanup industries -- have also raised concerns about BP's use of chemical dispersants, which break the oil into small droplets and keep it from rising to the surface.

`SMALL DROPS'

``Cosmetically, it makes it seem that the oil has gone away,'' said Tom Manton, the retired president and CEO of the International Oil Spill Control Corporation. ``But the oil doesn't go away. It ends up in small drops, either on the beach or on the seabed. . . In many cases, the dispersants are more polluting to the water than the actual oil is.''

The EPA and Coast Guard, however, say that the dispersants are ``generally less harmful'' than oil and will biodegrade in a shorter time span.

At least 210,000 gallons of oil have been gushing into the Gulf each day since the Deepwater Horizon exploded, and some scientists think the leak may be 10 times as bad.

Miami Herald Staff Writer Paradise Afshar contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/1...#ixzz0oB4xA45F

[I-275westcoastfl]

I really hope it doesn't make it to the keys and Miami.

[FLAWDA-FELLA]

I heard this morning, that they have already found lumps of oil just west of the Florida Straits.

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by FLAWDA-FELLA

I heard this morning, that they have already found lumps of oil just west of the Florida Straits.

Can you quote some sources for us Flawda-Fella? "I heard" is hearsay which is not reliable, but I don't doubt what you are saying is true.

[FLAWDA-FELLA]

My bad yo. The source came from the local news station here in Jax.

[greenparrot]

Originally Posted by QuantumX

Can you quote some sources for us Flawda-Fella? "I heard" is hearsay which is not reliable, but I don't doubt what you are saying is true.

try this

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-sp..._increasi.html

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by greenparrot

try this

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-sp..._increasi.html

I just heard it on the Weather Channel too. The tarballs are still pending testing to trace their origin.

[Sean in New Orleans]

TROUBLE!!...once it gets in the Gulf Stream it's going to hit Florida and the SE Coast worse than it has Louisiana. Goodbye Summer tourism 2010 for Key West, Miami, East Coast Florida all the way up to the Outer Banks. How much $$$ will Florida ask for with this???.....BP has already been dropping "courtesy tens of millions" to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida (for the Emerald Coast) already for various issues and reasons.

[miami305]

When is Hurricane Season again? Only a hurricane or several hurricanes can keep these oil from coming to Key West and the Southeastern FL (Miami). though that would probably move it faster to LA and Mississippi... This would be really devastating for South Florida....I need to hit the beach tomorrow cause who knows what will happen in the next weeks to come..

[FLAWDA-FELLA]

The official start of "Hurricane Season" begins June 1 in the Atlantic Basin.

[QuantumX]

The Miami Herald

Posted on Wed, May. 19, 2010
Toxic tar balls found in the Keys can be `as thick as roof tar'
BY FRED TASKER
ftasker@MiamiHerald.com

What are tar balls, anyway?
They're potentially lethal. A tar ball can smother a seabird, spawning shrimp or mangrove root, experts say.

They're toxic.

``They're petroleum, just like gas. If you're siphoning gas and get some in your mouth, it's very toxic,'' says marine biologist Dr. Lynne Fieber.

They're nuisances.

``They can be as thick as roof tar. You step in them and they smush under your feet like peanut butter. The best way to get them off is baby oil, then Dawn detergent. I don't know why it's Dawn, but it is,'' says Fieber, an associate professor of marine biology at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in Key Biscayne.

Chemically, tar balls are natural byproducts of oil. The ones that arrived off the Florida Keys over the past two days are perhaps from the oil spewing out of the Gulf of Mexico seabed, or perhaps from other sources.

LIGHT CRUDE OIL

What's gushing in the Gulf is, luckily, Louisiana light sweet crude oil -- not the heavy, sour, sulphur-laden stuff that erupts from many wells in Iran, Venezuela and elsewhere. Still, even sweet oil also contains some heavier components that are more like road tar -- hard to burn, hard to clean up.

As the gusher rushes to the surface, the light oil forms a thin rainbow sheen atop the water, and the heavier elements form particulates that circulate in the water column far beneath the surface, or fall to the seabed to the detriment of bottom-dwelling sea life.

Other heavier particulates can be formed when surface oil is burned to keep it from reaching shore. The heavier compounds can form tar balls because they're degrading, starting to dissolve and dissipate, Fieber says.

``Sunlight, the composition of seawater and natural microbes work on oil, changing it into other forms, one of which is tar,'' she says. ``It's called `weathering.' ''

THE SOURCE

Pinpointing the source of the tar balls near Key West is a complex but doable process, says Dr. Don Van Nieuwenhuise, professor of petroleum geoscience at the University of Houston.

Oil deposits are trapped thousands of feet beneath the seabed in natural pockets in the rock of widely varying sizes. Oil from one deposit is different enough from the oil in another only 20 or 30 miles away that they can be told apart, he says.

``They do molecular screens and atomic analysis to identify the compounds in each sample,'' he said. ``There are probably 20 labs around the country that can do this.''

Oil also can come from natural seepage from the vast, pressurized reservoir of petroleum under the Gulf, says Dr. Russell Chianelli, an oil-spill expert at the University of Texas at El Paso who helped clean up the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.

Or from shipwrecks. A small reservoir of oil found near Alaska decades after the Exxon disaster turned out to be from a U.S. oil tanker that was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in World War II off Santa Barbara, Calif., he said.

Cruise ships, oil tankers and other vessels are another source of tar balls, says Chianelli. Cruise ships sometimes flush their almost-empty fuel tanks to clean them for another load, he said. Oil tankers flush their oil-carrying tanks for the same reason.

``They're not supposed to do it closer than 200 miles from shore, but. . . .'' he says.

``Finding isolated tar balls in Keys waters or on area beaches is not an unusual occurrence,'' the Monroe County Tourist Development Council said in a Tuesday advisory. ``The Keys are located along a busy commercial shipping route and commercial vessels sometimes discharge bilge water that has oil in it.''

The council reported 667 oil and petroleum incidents in the Keys in 2008 and 681 in 2009.

SLOW PROCESS

Since tar balls are oil that already is partly degraded, they will continue to degrade over time and eventually dissolve entirely, the experts said. The process can work very slowly in cold water, Chianelli says.

Fishermen in Alaska's Prince William Sound say that, 21 years after the 1989 spill, they still can turn over a rock onshore and find oil. But that water is 35 to 40 degrees; the 80-degree-plus water in the Keys should speed the process, Chianelli says.

Finally, tar balls are ubiquitous. Chianelli says when he was a child, he and his mother would pick them up on the cold Atlantic shore in New England.

``They were firm. She would break one in half and give it to me, and we would chew it like gum.''

He says he knows better now.

Miami Herald staff writer Doug Hanks contributed to this report.


© 2010 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/1...#ixzz0oN372SUd

[desertpunk]

At least the Brits have a helpful attitude about their oil giant's screwup:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpo...&postcount=137

[CLTNC]

From Coast To Coast AM May 21.

The oil rig was owned by a South Korean Company. Rumor is that it was blown up by
North Koreans, coming from Cuba using a min-sub launched from a cargo ship. The sub used 3 torpedoes on the rig and blew it self up under the rig causing it to collapse. North Korea is under a news blackout from the US as of now.

I have look for other sources of news, but I think The US is keeping it quite. Rumor that oil people in Houston think it was North Korea.

[Sean in New Orleans]

Originally Posted by CLTNC

From Coast To Coast AM May 21.

The oil rig was owned by a South Korean Company. Rumor is that it was blown up by
North Koreans, coming from Cuba using a min-sub launched from a cargo ship. The sub used 3 torpedoes on the rig and blew it self up under the rig causing it to collapse. North Korea is under a news blackout from the US as of now.

I have look for other sources of news, but I think The US is keeping it quite. Rumor that oil people in Houston think it was North Korea.

Another sick, disgusting comment...someone making a joke about the largest environmental tragedy unfolding before our eyes in history. You're a warped human.

[diablo234]

Originally Posted by CLTNC

From Coast To Coast AM May 21.

The oil rig was owned by a South Korean Company. Rumor is that it was blown up by
North Koreans, coming from Cuba using a min-sub launched from a cargo ship. The sub used 3 torpedoes on the rig and blew it self up under the rig causing it to collapse. North Korea is under a news blackout from the US as of now.

I have look for other sources of news, but I think The US is keeping it quite. Rumor that oil people in Houston think it was North Korea.

Are you trying to be sarcastic? You know alot of fisherman are out of work and many seafood processing companies are in danger of going out of business. Not to mention tourist areas along the Alabama and Florida Gulf Coast are going to be hard hit when they were already hit hard by the recession.

Anyways the rig was built in South Korea by Hyundai which was then bought by Transocean and was leased to BP. I doubt Cuba would want to be involved since this affects them also since their main economy now is attracting tourists from Canada and Europe. Sorry to disprove your crackpot theory you a******.

[Sean in New Orleans]

Oil now pushing into Barataria Bay....just 40 miles S of Marrero, LA now!! The news is getting worse every day.

http://www.wwltv.com/news/Oil-pushin...-94674549.html

[lamsalfl]

I thought they laid out booms to protect the bay? Is the wind pushing it up and over?

[Bobdreamz]

[QUOTE=Smallville;56686571]Obama received 2.5 milllion dollars from BP. Obama received more than any other politician from BP. Obama waited for a few days before he addressed the spill.

I love how people try to politicize this and blame Obama for this. All resources by the Government are being used and BP initially said the spill was not huge and they could take care of it but now we know the truth.
This is not the time to play politics and finger pointing and you are essentially accusing the President of dragging his feet on a disaster because a company donated to his campaign.
Anyways today I heard there is an expert team from Abu Dhabi flying in to help BP cap this well.