May 13 2010

OTW: “This Could Ruin Our Summer”

(6 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

NOTE to admins/editors: I could probably use a little help with the pics formatting! 6PM: thanks ek! 😉

OTW = Off The Wall, is my Thursday ongoing series

PhotobucketDavidseth’s essay last night made me cry: “But BP’s not pouring oil directly on me, or my family, or my house, or my land.” (excellent essay, & he says it much better than me… my sentiments)

Yes, yes they are. They are pouring oil on us… My house, my beach, my land, my Gulf, my ocean, my planet. And yours too.

“We came to the beach just in case we can’t come next week or in the next 20 years…”

{Dad, family of 4}

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The winds Sunday gusted to 25 mph, blowing from the Gulf toward the coast, but coming a bit from the east. That helped keep the huge oil slick from coming closer to Florida.

“Currently, there are no impacts to the state projected through Wednesday,” said Florida Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Amy Graham. “Florida continues to make preparations to safeguard the state’s shoreline.”  

“We wait for summer so we can go to the beach,” {16 year old boy, Pensacola Florida}.

“This could ruin our summer.”

source

Ya think…?

Among the many pressing questions sparked by the Deepwater Horizon blowout is whether federal regulations are adequate and sufficiently enforced.

Through Wednesday, an estimated 4.6 million gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf from the stricken well. That’s based on an estimated daily flow of 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, which well-owner BP PLC has described as not very reliable.

“The two methods we have to estimate it are, one, just visual observation. There’s actually no way to put a meter on,” BP’s chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, said during a briefing Wednesday in Robert, La. “The other method we have is with surface expression: how much oil is on top of the sea. Those are the two bits of data, which tell us we think it’s probably in that 5,000-barrels-a-day range. But this is highly uncertain.”

John Amos, who analyzes satellite images to document oil spills, said that, based on his and other scientists’ calculations, the spill rate may be as much as a million gallons a day, or more than five times greater than BP’s figure.

“If we are underestimating the daily rate of flow, then we are essentially understating the potential environmental damage and economic damage,” Amos said. “I have no reason to think that is intentional, but clearly the oil companies aren’t incentivized to make the spill look big.” source

Here’s some good bloggy stuff… in this Florida eco – enviro blog, they have a great blogroll there.

It’s not as if we didn’t know.

All I really want to do today is look at more pictures.

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I don’t want to think about it.

… my mangroves, your seagrass, or our coral reefs… or especially, coral cryobanks. Depressing.

Beautiful or ugly. Small, large. Majestic, miniscule.

Mine.

Yours.

Ours.

Photobucket  Florida manatee  Photobucket  Photobucket

As kids, my sister and I, we’d ride our bikes to the pool, the library, the Mile (Miracle Mile), the Grove, the marina, friends’ houses…. and yeah, the beach. Mom was always telling us how we took it all so much for granted…. we were growing up in paradise and didn’t even know it. She was right, of course. Perpetual summer. We thought it’d always be there. Forever.

My beach. My ocean. My sky.

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I just wish these foul smelling humanoids would go back where they came from, some other planet. I don’t know where. Just go.

Get off my fuckin’ lawn.

BP

Over 120 flights have been made to apply dispersant to the spill since the response effort began. ~BP

Assholes.

P.S. My heart goes out to the people of the Delta coast, Katrina survivors, as they brace for impact….it’s just… Florida for me is ‘home’. It’s just heartbreaking.

23 comments

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  1. want the gov’t to seize their assets. Story here. Go get ’em, grandma.

    Photobucket

    • Edger on May 13, 2010 at 19:10
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    the hurricanes this summer are going to blow everybody’s minds. With black poison rain all over the coast and all the way up to maybe Washington. One commenter at dkos said something to the effect that when the Capitol Dome turns black with oil we might start to see some real consequences for BP’s management and for Salazar and MMS.

    But I think the crops that will be rained on with that shit will show some more serious consequences.  

  3. carry me home…

    • RiaD on May 13, 2010 at 23:03
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    So, how much oil is leaking out of BP’s busted well at the floor of the Gulf of Mexico? Shortly after the April 20th rig explosion, it was widely reported that the well was leaking oil at a daily rate of roughly 40,000 gallons.

    But as the spill continued, the estimates were revised dramatically upward – more than fivefold, to 210,000 gallons per day, and that’s been the consensus figure over the past couple of weeks. But some experts insist that figure is far too low – and that the number needs to go up another fivefold.

    • TMC on May 14, 2010 at 01:33
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    Court OKs approval of Shell Arctic drilling plan

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A federal appeals court Thursday removed a legal challenge standing in the way of Shell Oil’s plans to drill wells off Alaska’s shore this summer.

    A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a case that challenged federal approval of Shell’s exploratory drilling plans in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.

    The expedited ruling followed oral arguments last week in Portland, Ore.

    The court determined that the federal Minerals Management Service met its obligations to consider the potential threat to wildlife and the risk for disaster before it approved Shell’s Arctic Ocean project.

    Shell Oil, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, hopes to drill three exploratory wells in the Chukchi and two in the Beaufort this summer with a 514-foot drilling ship, the Frontier Discoverer.

    Chris Krenz, Arctic project manager for Oceana, one of the plaintiffs, said the decision was disappointing in light of the ongoing BP crude oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

    “Oil companies have tapped the easy oil off of our coasts,” he said. “They are now pushing the limits and increasing the risk by heading to the deep water of the gulf and the remote and unforgiving Arctic.”

    • RUKind on May 14, 2010 at 01:59
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    Pack the family in the ole SUV and head north up the Appalachians. Hey! WTF! Where are the mountain tops?

    Here, have some CleanCoal to go with those BPOysters. It’s the New American Century.

  7. i really don’t know what else to say

  8. Canada begins drilling deepest oil well


    ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland, May 10 (UPI) — Chevron

    Canada Ltd. has begun drilling the deepest oil well ever attempted in Canadian waters, at more than 1.5 miles deep, authorities say.

    The drill ship Stena Carron began work on the well Sunday at Orphan Basin, 267 miles northeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Monday.

    Chevron Canada says the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is making it mindful of safety and the company says it doesn’t have to make any changes to its drilling program because of the mishap.

    There are two ships under contract by Chevron Canada that allegedly could drill Orphan Basin relief wells should a mishap occur, which would ease pressure from a main well and inhibit a spill from a blowout well, the CBC reports.

    The Lona O-55 well will take several months to drill, the company says.

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