Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico: Set on Fire
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Thu Apr 29, 2010 9:34 am » by -Marduk-
Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico: Set on Fire
This is a measure of how fearsome the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has become: engineers set parts of the oil slick on fire this afternoon. The hope: that they can burn off at least some of the leaking crude before it reaches the gulf coast.
"No populated areas are expected to be affected by the controlled burn operations, and there are no anticipated impacts to marine mammals and sea turtles," said the Coast Guard in a statement. "In order to ensure safety, the Environmental Protection Agency will continuously monitor air quality and burning will be halted if safety standards cannot be maintained."
It is an inherently risky move, said engineers, but less risky than the alternatives. "When you've got an oil leak like this, you use every tool in the toolbox to keep it offshore," said Edward Overton, a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. "If it gets to shore, it's going to coat everything with this sticky, gooey stuff and create a tremendous, awful mess."
The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, operated by BP Oil and owned by Transocean Ltd., exploded and started burning April 20. Eleven rig workers were never found and are presumed to have died.
The Coast Guard said oil continues to spew from the wellhead, 5,000 feet beneath the surface of the gulf, at a rate of about 42,000 gallons per day. Satellite images show the resulting slick drifting north and eastward toward the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
"It's premature to say it's catastrophic," said Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry, who is leading the operation. "I will say it's very serious."
Some floating oil has come within 20 miles of shore. Adm. Thad W. Allen, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, told reporters in Miami today that depending on winds and weather, crews might have two to three days before oil hits land.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Eco/oi ... d=10499012
This is a measure of how fearsome the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has become: engineers set parts of the oil slick on fire this afternoon. The hope: that they can burn off at least some of the leaking crude before it reaches the gulf coast.
"No populated areas are expected to be affected by the controlled burn operations, and there are no anticipated impacts to marine mammals and sea turtles," said the Coast Guard in a statement. "In order to ensure safety, the Environmental Protection Agency will continuously monitor air quality and burning will be halted if safety standards cannot be maintained."
It is an inherently risky move, said engineers, but less risky than the alternatives. "When you've got an oil leak like this, you use every tool in the toolbox to keep it offshore," said Edward Overton, a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. "If it gets to shore, it's going to coat everything with this sticky, gooey stuff and create a tremendous, awful mess."
The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, operated by BP Oil and owned by Transocean Ltd., exploded and started burning April 20. Eleven rig workers were never found and are presumed to have died.
The Coast Guard said oil continues to spew from the wellhead, 5,000 feet beneath the surface of the gulf, at a rate of about 42,000 gallons per day. Satellite images show the resulting slick drifting north and eastward toward the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
"It's premature to say it's catastrophic," said Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry, who is leading the operation. "I will say it's very serious."
Some floating oil has come within 20 miles of shore. Adm. Thad W. Allen, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, told reporters in Miami today that depending on winds and weather, crews might have two to three days before oil hits land.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Eco/oi ... d=10499012
______________________________________________________________________________
-= PREDESTINATION: Itz hard to be ze good guy when you turn into a fucking gun =-
-= PREDESTINATION: Itz hard to be ze good guy when you turn into a fucking gun =-
Thu Apr 29, 2010 9:35 am » by -Marduk-
poor animal kingdom 
greed was ze cause of it
greed was ze cause of it
______________________________________________________________________________
-= PREDESTINATION: Itz hard to be ze good guy when you turn into a fucking gun =-
-= PREDESTINATION: Itz hard to be ze good guy when you turn into a fucking gun =-
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Thu Apr 29, 2010 1:22 pm » by Cornbread714
coast-guard-says-to-set-leaking-oil-ablaze-t20991.html
Nobody noticed my thread yesterday, now there are 3, lol...
Anyway, this is way worse than they've been saying. Now it seems there have been over 100, 000 barrels a day leaking into the Gulf.
Also they've been playing down the impact by saying it's not as bad as the Valdez incident, which I think is a very misleading comparison.
The Valdez accident occurred on a relatively uninhabited coastline - the impact on humans will be much greater from this accident, I think, and a rocky coastline as there was in Alaska is a different story than the delicate marshlands, wetlands and sandy beaches of the Gulf Coast.
But hey, what do I know? I just grew up fishing, swimming and surfing on the Gulf Coast.
I better just listen to the oil company experts, right? They have all the answers...
Nobody noticed my thread yesterday, now there are 3, lol...
Anyway, this is way worse than they've been saying. Now it seems there have been over 100, 000 barrels a day leaking into the Gulf.
Also they've been playing down the impact by saying it's not as bad as the Valdez incident, which I think is a very misleading comparison.
The Valdez accident occurred on a relatively uninhabited coastline - the impact on humans will be much greater from this accident, I think, and a rocky coastline as there was in Alaska is a different story than the delicate marshlands, wetlands and sandy beaches of the Gulf Coast.
But hey, what do I know? I just grew up fishing, swimming and surfing on the Gulf Coast.
I better just listen to the oil company experts, right? They have all the answers...
Where's the beer and when do I get paid?
- Jimmy Carl Black (the Indian of the group)
- Jimmy Carl Black (the Indian of the group)
- Cornbread714
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Thu Apr 29, 2010 2:06 pm » by Cornbread714
The more I think about this, the more upset I get.
But hey, I guess we are all to blame, in part. We sure loves us some oil, don't we?
But hey, I guess we are all to blame, in part. We sure loves us some oil, don't we?
Where's the beer and when do I get paid?
- Jimmy Carl Black (the Indian of the group)
- Jimmy Carl Black (the Indian of the group)
- Cornbread714
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- Posts: 10616
- Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:11 pm
Thu Apr 29, 2010 4:06 pm » by Cornbread714
cornbread714 wrote:Anyway, this is way worse than they've been saying. Now it seems there have been over 100, 000 barrels a day leaking into the Gulf.
I meant to say gallons, not barrels - still sucks though...
Where's the beer and when do I get paid?
- Jimmy Carl Black (the Indian of the group)
- Jimmy Carl Black (the Indian of the group)
- Cornbread714
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- Posts: 10616
- Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:11 pm
Thu Apr 29, 2010 5:03 pm » by Cornbread714
And now they are saying it could end up being more than 4 million gallons before it's over with.
The Gulf Coast has always been the ugly stepsister of America's coastline. They've allowed shit to go on there that they would NEVER have tolerated on the West or East coasts.
Where I'm from, the Southeast Texas coast, it's nothing but refineries and oil rigs, the cancer rate is hundreds of times higher than the average and people are still allowed to drive cars on the beach, which up until recent years, was covered in tar lumps that got on your feet and bathing suit and car and wouldn't come off.
That was from the big 60s and 70s oil boom which was largely unregulated.
Finally hurricanes washed most of that crap away, but the entire Gulf Coast has been raped and poisoned systematically for the past century.
The precious wetlands have been drained away on the Louisiana coast and that destroys the natural hurricane barrier that those swamps once were.
There is a huge and growing dead zone in the Gulf due to mismanagement of the Mississippi River drainage. It was already becoming a cancerous cesspool down there, this is just the last nail in the coffin, I guess.
Sorry, but this just makes me sick...
Why the Gulf Coast? Is it just because we are stupid rednecks and we let our natural resources be plundered by modern-day carpet-baggers?
The Gulf Coast has always been the ugly stepsister of America's coastline. They've allowed shit to go on there that they would NEVER have tolerated on the West or East coasts.
Where I'm from, the Southeast Texas coast, it's nothing but refineries and oil rigs, the cancer rate is hundreds of times higher than the average and people are still allowed to drive cars on the beach, which up until recent years, was covered in tar lumps that got on your feet and bathing suit and car and wouldn't come off.
That was from the big 60s and 70s oil boom which was largely unregulated.
Finally hurricanes washed most of that crap away, but the entire Gulf Coast has been raped and poisoned systematically for the past century.
The precious wetlands have been drained away on the Louisiana coast and that destroys the natural hurricane barrier that those swamps once were.
There is a huge and growing dead zone in the Gulf due to mismanagement of the Mississippi River drainage. It was already becoming a cancerous cesspool down there, this is just the last nail in the coffin, I guess.
Sorry, but this just makes me sick...
Why the Gulf Coast? Is it just because we are stupid rednecks and we let our natural resources be plundered by modern-day carpet-baggers?
Where's the beer and when do I get paid?
- Jimmy Carl Black (the Indian of the group)
- Jimmy Carl Black (the Indian of the group)
Thu Apr 29, 2010 5:15 pm » by Nickelson
US military joins Gulf of Mexico oil spill effort
The US military has joined efforts to stop an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico as fears rise about its scale.
Five times as much oil as previously thought could be leaking from the well beneath where a rig exploded and sank last week, the US Coast Guard says.
Rear Admiral Mary Landry said some 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) a day were thought to be gushing into the sea 50 miles (80km) off Louisiana's coast.
The slick is 45 miles by 105 miles and heading towards the coast.
If the coastguard estimate is correct, the spill could match the 11m gallons spilt from the Exxon Valdez tanker off Alaska in 1989 within two months.
Oil giant BP operated the Deepwater Horizon rig. Its chief operating officer of exploration and production, Doug Suttles, welcomed the US military's offer of help.
He said the company was using remote operative vehicles (ROVs) to try to find out how much oil was leaking into the sea.
"This is very, very difficult to estimate," Mr Suttles told reporters.
"Down below the surface we actually can't meter this oil so we can just observe it... what our ROV pictures show to us on the sea floor hasn't changed since we first saw the leak... but what we can say based on what we're picking up on the surface it looks like it is more."
Mr Suttles estimated something between 1,000 and 5,000 barrels a day was leaking.
Meanwhile, a fire-fighting expert said the disaster may become the biggest oil spill ever.
Mike Miller, head of Canadian oil well fire-fighting company Safety Boss, told the BBC World Service: "Probably the only thing comparable to this is the Kuwait fires [following the Gulf War in 1991].
"The Exxon Valdez is going to pale in comparison to this as it goes on."
Scientists say only a quarter of local marine wildlife survived the Exxon Valdez disaster.
Controlled burn
The scale of the operation to contain the oil spill and protect both the US coastline and wildlife is unprecedented, with the military and other government agencies collaborating with BP - which had hired the sunken rig - and industry leaders.
Efforts to stem the flow are being complicated by the depth of the leak at the underwater well, which is about 5,000ft (1,525m) beneath the surface.
Weather forecasters have meanwhile warned that changing winds could drive the oil slick ashore by Friday night. Its leading edge is now only 20 miles (32km) east of the mouth of the Mississippi.
A coastguard crew has set fire to part of the oil slick in an attempt to save environmentally-fragile wetlands.
The "controlled burn" of surface oil took place in an area about 30 miles (50km) east of the Mississippi River delta.
But Mr Miller warned that burning off leaking oil was not a long-term solution.
"The object of this game is to shut off the flow," he said.
Relief well
Engineers are working on a dome-like device to cover oil rising to the surface and pump it to container vessels, but it may be weeks before this is in place.
It is feared that work on sealing the leaking well using robotic submersibles might take months.
BP is also working on a "relief well" to intersect the original well, but this is experimental and could take two to three months to stop the flow.
President Barack Obama had been briefed on the new developments, and BP has welcomed the offer of assistance from the defence department to help contain the spill.
Seventy vessels - oil skimmers, tugboats barges and special recovery boats that separate oil from water - as well as five aeroplanes, were working to spray dispersants and round up oil, BP said.
Burn zone
Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead after the worst oil rig disaster in almost a decade. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said the top priority was "to protect our citizens and the environment".
With the spill moving towards Louisiana's coast, which contains some 40% of the nation's wetlands and spawning grounds for countless fish and birds, it was hoped a "controlled burn" of oil contained by special booms would limit the impact.
Environmental experts say animals nearby might be affected by toxic fumes, but perhaps not as much as if they were coated in oil.
On Wednesday afternoon, BP and coastguard boats swept the thickest concentrations of oil into a fire-resistant boom.
This was then towed to a five-mile "burn zone" set up inside the slick, where it was set alight shortly before nightfall.
BBC
The US military has joined efforts to stop an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico as fears rise about its scale.
Five times as much oil as previously thought could be leaking from the well beneath where a rig exploded and sank last week, the US Coast Guard says.
Rear Admiral Mary Landry said some 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) a day were thought to be gushing into the sea 50 miles (80km) off Louisiana's coast.
The slick is 45 miles by 105 miles and heading towards the coast.
If the coastguard estimate is correct, the spill could match the 11m gallons spilt from the Exxon Valdez tanker off Alaska in 1989 within two months.
Oil giant BP operated the Deepwater Horizon rig. Its chief operating officer of exploration and production, Doug Suttles, welcomed the US military's offer of help.
He said the company was using remote operative vehicles (ROVs) to try to find out how much oil was leaking into the sea.
"This is very, very difficult to estimate," Mr Suttles told reporters.
"Down below the surface we actually can't meter this oil so we can just observe it... what our ROV pictures show to us on the sea floor hasn't changed since we first saw the leak... but what we can say based on what we're picking up on the surface it looks like it is more."
Mr Suttles estimated something between 1,000 and 5,000 barrels a day was leaking.
Meanwhile, a fire-fighting expert said the disaster may become the biggest oil spill ever.
Mike Miller, head of Canadian oil well fire-fighting company Safety Boss, told the BBC World Service: "Probably the only thing comparable to this is the Kuwait fires [following the Gulf War in 1991].
"The Exxon Valdez is going to pale in comparison to this as it goes on."
Scientists say only a quarter of local marine wildlife survived the Exxon Valdez disaster.
Controlled burn
The scale of the operation to contain the oil spill and protect both the US coastline and wildlife is unprecedented, with the military and other government agencies collaborating with BP - which had hired the sunken rig - and industry leaders.
Efforts to stem the flow are being complicated by the depth of the leak at the underwater well, which is about 5,000ft (1,525m) beneath the surface.
Weather forecasters have meanwhile warned that changing winds could drive the oil slick ashore by Friday night. Its leading edge is now only 20 miles (32km) east of the mouth of the Mississippi.
A coastguard crew has set fire to part of the oil slick in an attempt to save environmentally-fragile wetlands.
The "controlled burn" of surface oil took place in an area about 30 miles (50km) east of the Mississippi River delta.
But Mr Miller warned that burning off leaking oil was not a long-term solution.
"The object of this game is to shut off the flow," he said.
Relief well
Engineers are working on a dome-like device to cover oil rising to the surface and pump it to container vessels, but it may be weeks before this is in place.
It is feared that work on sealing the leaking well using robotic submersibles might take months.
BP is also working on a "relief well" to intersect the original well, but this is experimental and could take two to three months to stop the flow.
President Barack Obama had been briefed on the new developments, and BP has welcomed the offer of assistance from the defence department to help contain the spill.
Seventy vessels - oil skimmers, tugboats barges and special recovery boats that separate oil from water - as well as five aeroplanes, were working to spray dispersants and round up oil, BP said.
Burn zone
Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead after the worst oil rig disaster in almost a decade. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said the top priority was "to protect our citizens and the environment".
With the spill moving towards Louisiana's coast, which contains some 40% of the nation's wetlands and spawning grounds for countless fish and birds, it was hoped a "controlled burn" of oil contained by special booms would limit the impact.
Environmental experts say animals nearby might be affected by toxic fumes, but perhaps not as much as if they were coated in oil.
On Wednesday afternoon, BP and coastguard boats swept the thickest concentrations of oil into a fire-resistant boom.
This was then towed to a five-mile "burn zone" set up inside the slick, where it was set alight shortly before nightfall.
BBC
Thu Apr 29, 2010 8:41 pm » by -Marduk-
Obama says BP ultimately responsible for oil slick
WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday BP Plc is ultimately responsible for the cost and cleanup of a widening Gulf of Mexico oil spill but that he is using "every single available resource" to address it.
Obama, in the Rose Garden for an education event, opened his remarks by speaking about the Gulf of Mexico spill. He said it was possible that Defense Department resources would be used to address the problem. He said he has consulted Gulf coast state governors.
"While BP is ultimately responsible for funding the cost of response and cleanup operations, my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal, including potentially the Department of Defense to address the incident," he said.
Obama said he had ordered Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano and EPA administrator Lisa Jackson to visit the site on Friday to assure that "BP and the entire U.S. government is doing everything possible not just to respond to this incident but also to determine its cause."
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN291 ... arketsNews
WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday BP Plc is ultimately responsible for the cost and cleanup of a widening Gulf of Mexico oil spill but that he is using "every single available resource" to address it.
Obama, in the Rose Garden for an education event, opened his remarks by speaking about the Gulf of Mexico spill. He said it was possible that Defense Department resources would be used to address the problem. He said he has consulted Gulf coast state governors.
"While BP is ultimately responsible for funding the cost of response and cleanup operations, my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal, including potentially the Department of Defense to address the incident," he said.
Obama said he had ordered Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano and EPA administrator Lisa Jackson to visit the site on Friday to assure that "BP and the entire U.S. government is doing everything possible not just to respond to this incident but also to determine its cause."
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN291 ... arketsNews
______________________________________________________________________________
-= PREDESTINATION: Itz hard to be ze good guy when you turn into a fucking gun =-
-= PREDESTINATION: Itz hard to be ze good guy when you turn into a fucking gun =-
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