As I write this, 42,000 gallons of oil a day are spilling into the Gulf of Mexico and nobody has found a way to stop it.
Let me repeat that.
42,000 gallons of oil a day are pouring into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and nobody has figured out how to stop it.
This isn't a ship with a specific amount of oil which would allow us to determine what the potential maximum spill might be. This is oil gushing from the seafloor through a pipe attached to a well 5000 feet deep. We don't know where the end will be.
All day yesterday, I checked the recommended list for updates on the spill and found nothing. After finally getting home yesterday evening, I found that Magnifico had written a detailed diary about the latest developments on the spill that had somehow not made the rec list.
Why is this not receiving more attention at this site?
Environmentally, this is a slow motion disaster. According to MSNBC, we'll know more Tuesday if current efforts to stop the leaks will be sufficient, if not it will take much more time.
Crews used robot submarines to activate valves in hopes of stopping the leaks, but they may not know until Tuesday if that strategy will work. BP also mobilized two rigs to drill a relief well if needed. Such a well could help redirect the oil, though it could also take weeks to complete, especially at that depth.
Weeks.
Weeks of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico and these are best case scenarios.
The spill is exacerbated by the fact that it is 5000 feet deep.
In recent years, oil companies have been looking deeper and deeper for oil reserves according to a recent Wall Street Journal article.
The job of shutting off the well is made all the more difficult by its location. Much of the critical equipment is under almost 5,000 feet of water on the seafloor. A well in such deep water was unthinkable in prior decades, but the industry has pushed the technological envelope in recent years in its search for new sources of oil and natural gas.
The industry seemed all too ready to get the oil, but failed to have a plan for stopping a leak at these record depths. The spill containment equipment currently being used has simply never been tested at depths of 5000 feet.
From the NY Times:
officials intend to place a large dome directly over the leaks to catch the oil and route it up to the surface, where it could be collected.
This has been done before, but only in shallow waters, Mr. Suttles said.
"It’s never been deployed in 5,000 feet of water," he said. "But we have the world’s best experts working on that right now."
They had no plan.
These companies are so blinded by their own greed and so convinced of their invincibility that they failed to have proper safety procedures in place.
The Huffington Post reports this morning that
Brian Beckom, a personal-injury attorney who has sued TransOcean several times on behalf of workers, says that "the industry preaches safety, that's what comes out of their corporate mouths, but I know for a fact that is not always the way things go," though he concedes that the company is better than most in the industry, especially some of the smaller "fly-by-night operators". With newer expensive rigs -- BP was paying $500,000 a day to use Deepwater Horizon -- Beckom says "there is tremendous pressure to put production first" and safety issues fall by the wayside.
Magnifico has done a wonderful job of putting together all the latest information as it comes in. I'm pleading that we start giving this more attention. Over the next few days, we'll get a better idea of how long it might take to stop the spill and what clean up efforts will be needed.
To keep track of the latest news updates or clean-up efforts, please join the facebook group Hands Across the Sand. Hands began as a grassroots movement to try to stop the Florida legislature from opening state controlled waters 3-10 miles from shore for drilling. The movement has expanded since the announcement by President Obama to open areas off of the Eastern coast to drilling. You can go to their website for information on hosting an oil drilling protest in coastal areas.
Update From an AP report:
The Coast Guard says crews may set fires to burn off oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico from a wrecked offshore drilling platform.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry says the burn would be done far offshore and could happen as soon as Wednesday.
She says efforts have failed to shut off the flow nearly 5,000 feet below where the rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank last week. Robot subs are still working on it.
The oil would be trapped in special containment booms and set on fire.
Attempts to activate a shutoff valve are not working and crews will begin drilling a new well Thursday. A process that could take up to three months.
To put that into perspective:
If the well cannot be closed, almost 100,000 barrels of oil could spill into the Gulf before the relief well is operating. That's 4.2 million gallons. The worst oil spill in U.S. history was when the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989.
Also, Homeland Security is set to launch and investigation into the rig explosion.
Action update - Thanks to RLMiller for this comment and suggestion:
People who are concerned about this should comment here, join the Facebook group, but also comment online to the federal agency that has to listen. The MMS website for public scoping (agenda-setting) will accept comments through June 30. Tell them you're concerned about tourism. Tell them you're concerned about sea turtles and other vulnerable critters. Tell them you're concerned about safety. Just tell them!
MMS website
I would like to clarify that the area 3-10 miles offshore are state controlled waters. The GOP in Florida has been trying to push through close shore drilling, so hypothetically, we could have drilling between 3-10 miles off of our coast and then from 125 miles out if the Florida legislature and the Obama administration had their way. This alone is reason enough to get motivated to get out the vote for Dems on a state level in Florida.
Thanks for all the recs. We are going to have a rough few months here on the Gulf Coast with the oil spill and hurricane season approaching. We need to make our voices heard and demand clean energy. Please join Hands Across the Sand to stay updated on national efforts to protest oil drilling.
If you have never been to the Gulf Coast and seen and felt the sand on the beaches, I hope you have the opportunity to do so one day. Our beaches are like no other. The sand squeaks beneath your feet when you walk and is as white as snow.