Tag: Oil Spill Disaster 2010

Not much HOPE of that.

The dispersants are a massive experiment , and most likely a huge crime has been committed on the environment, in order to cover up the oil spill–which was at least an accident.

The Coast Guard and EPA allowing their use is a criminal act. And the use of even the worst one still goes on despite media reports to the contrary.

BP Still Using Dirty Dispersant in the Gulf

– By Kate Sheppard| Sat May. 22, 2010 10:35 AM PDT

BP is continuing to use a toxic oil dispersant in the Gulf, despite the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency directed the company to find a less-dangerous chemical to use on the spill. The company said yesterday that it could not identify a better alternative.

The EPA has a list of other approved dispersants that could be used in the Gulf, many of which are less toxic than Corexit. BP has already dumped at least 670,000 gallons of Corexit at the spill site.

Will the EPA force BP to switch dispersants? That remains unclear. On Friday, EPA spokesperson Adora Andy indicated to ABC News that the agency has not outright barred BP from using their brand of choice. “It’s not that Corexit is banned,” she said. “It’s not that they have to stop using it because they’re using it right now. But it’s just that they need to switch over.”

Beyond Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi. Where’s the oil now, and where is it gonna go?

Here’s a graphic of where it is now from US Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/n…

And, a satellite image, with loop stream superimposed (from the 17th)

http://deepseanews.com/wp-cont…

It kind of looks like some of it at least is starting to spin around and around in the central gulf.

That’s just surface oil though, and due to the dispersants, we don’t know what depth it’s all at.  Speeds, and potential directions are quite different depending on depths:

Fourth, measurements of near-surface current as high as 4 knots [2 m/s] have been recorded in eddies recently detached from the Loop Current. Available data do not indicate that the maximum possible speed in the Loop Current is any less than that figure. Current profiles associated with both the Loop Current and its eddies are highly sheared. These high surface speeds drop to about 1 knot [0.5 m/s] at 650 ft [200 m] and 1/2 knot [0.25 m/s] at 130 ft [400 m] depth. Features with lower surface speeds also have lower speeds at depth.

Current predictions are that the loop may swing further west than normal, threatening the Keys either less, or just a bit later on, and the Dry Tortugas perhaps more.  The Coast Guard claims that tar balls that have washed up in the Keys are not from Deepwater Horizon. You can judge their credibility for yourself.

At some point, though, it hits the Gulf Stream:

The Stream may well act as a barrier keeping the oil on the US side, not so much towards Cuba or the Bahamas. Seems like that’s what’s happening in this huge image (hat tip to Wolverine6)

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa…

As for now the oil is clearly affecting south west FL, the keys and dry tortugas, and then south FL east.  It may be that when it hits the fast, deep, warmer, water of the Stream, it’ll tend to drive it North or back towards Florida.

On April 30, 10 days after the start of the biggest oil spill in history, Obama finally woke up enough to promised to use :

“every single available resource at our disposal”

Since then, here’s what has he accomplished:

1. By May 3rd the armed forces touted that they had deployed 66,000 feet of boom.

Uh, guys, that’s only 12 miles.  

Yes, that includes this:

2. The armed forces assigned two aircraft to spray toxic dispersant.  

Whether they ever did or not is unclear.

3. Twenty federal government agencies, combined with BP to  hire a public relations firm–which started a website, a facebook page, and an account on twitter.

Tensions between the Obama administration and the scientific community over the gulf oil spill are escalating, with prominent oceanographers accusing the government of failing to conduct an adequate scientific analysis of the damage and of allowing BP to obscure the spill’s true scope.

Tensions between the Obama administration and the scientific community over the gulf oil spill are escalating, with prominent oceanographers accusing the government of failing to conduct an adequate scientific analysis of the damage and of allowing BP to obscure the spill’s true scope.

The scientists point out that in the month since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, the government has failed to make public a single test result on water from the deep ocean. And the scientists say the administration has been too reluctant to demand an accurate analysis of how many gallons of oil are flowing into the sea from the gushing oil well.

“It seems baffling that we don’t know how much oil is being spilled,” Sylvia Earle, a famed oceanographer, said Wednesday on Capitol Hill. “It seems baffling that we don’t know where the oil is in the water column.”

Excellent News !!!

No Effort Has Been Spared in Massive Operation !

The USS Gravely (DDG-107) an arleigh burk-class guided missile destroyer sits in the Port of Pascagoula, Mississippi surrounded by oil containment booms to prevent oil from the Deepwater Horizon from reaching it’s hull while in port. Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater oil rig that sank April 22, causing an oil spill threatening the waters near the U.S. Gulf Coast. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (EXW/SW) Corey Truax/Released)

The USS Gravely is Safe !

Safe I tell you.

What could be better.

I don’t do very many personal essays here, but as some of you here know,back in the day,  I was a gulf of mexico sponge diver,  and boat captain, and at one time the gulf was my backyard  or 2nd home if you will. I would spend most of the summer out there–a week or so at a time, and I’ve seen –and sometimes interacted with– every sort of sea life from the smallest reef dweller to the big pelagics.    

I’ve seen abundant life all over (except in the dead zone, miles off shore from the Crystal River Nuke plant). The kind of stuff recreational divers pay thousand to go see in far off places with better water visibility–and perhaps that’s one reason it remained so good for so long.  And, I’ve spent many peaceful nights out there, watching the stars, far from the light loom of shore.  

Today Greenpeace is reporting this:

I’m down at the oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico – or what for now is the Gulf of Mexico. Rick Steiner, a marine conservationist and oil spill expert, flew over the Gulf Wednesday morning and said, “It’s not the Gulf of Mexico any more. It’s the Gulf of Oil.”

   http://members.greenpeace.org/…

There’s more at the link, about the ‘theatre’ of a fake cleanup effort–booms not even being attended by skimmers, and are therefore useless, and so on.  

But, this disaster is taking away something beautiful, that I know so well, unlike for instance Alaska- where I’ve never been.     I have memories of favorite reefs, I’ve had friends die out there, memories of various storms, of nearly dying myself in diving accidents.  I’ve seen waterspouts – up to 5 at one time (friend on another boat got on the VHF said ‘that job at McDonald’s is looking pretty good right now’) , and lightning, rain and fog, and, way offshore, my dog fell off my boat in a storm.   I got him back.  I’ve made love out there. I’ve watched snowy star trek on a 5″ b&w tv. And I’ve watched the shooting stars pass over. I’ve seen where the shrimp boats have dragged their gear across hard bottom or reef tearing it all to hell,  and probably their gear too, but who cares about that. And I’ve pulled up thousands of sponges from deep and shallow water–wool sponge (bath) , yellow sponge (car wash) , grass and finger (tourist shop) .

Here’s a dead, unbleached wool sponge:

This guy thinks the Exxon Valdez has already been eclipsed:

http://www.gulfbase.org/person…

Ian McDonald, a biological oceanographer, strongly believes that the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill could have already surpassed the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He has categorically denied the estimates of NOAA and BP, which stands at 5000 barrels per day. According to his study and analysis, we are looking at a spill of around 25,000 barrels per day, rather than the 5,000 barrels estimated by BP. If his estimates are accurate, then we are facing a much bigger economical and threat than is currently being predicted.

http://apexnewsnetwork.com/283…

I could f’ing cry.

No surprise to anyone here I suppose, but – the attempt to put a box or dome over the first leak has apparently failed–ice crystals have blocked the whole mess up, and they’ve dropped the thing on the bottom, while they ‘re-assess’.