Aug 04 2010
Crossposted at Daily Kos and The Stars Hollow Gazette
|
|
|
|
Note:
Due to the unusually high number of editorial cartoons published over the past week or so (I literally have another 300+ cartoons saved), I’m going to try and post another edition of this diary by Friday, August 6th. It something I’ve never done before.
Jul 28 2010
I sighed uneasy relief with everyone else when BP finally stopped Deepwater Horizon from emptying itself in the Gulf. Yes, I knew it was temporary. Yes, I knew it could blow up again any minute. But there was, nevertheless, a relief. For a short time anyway, BP would stop turning the Gulf of Mexico into a disgusting oil gumbo garnished with oil soaked pelicans and dead dolphins.
But then I read this article in the New York Times:
A wellhead in southeastern Louisiana was spewing a mist of oil and gas up to 100 feet into the air after being hit by a tug boat early Tuesday morning, officials said. It is at least the third unrelated oil leak in the area since the Deepwater Horizon spill began 99 days earlier.
The well is about 65 miles south of New Orleans in Barataria Bay, which is surrounded by wildlife-rich wetlands and was a fertile area for fishermen, shrimpers and oystermen before the BP spill. By Tuesday afternoon, a reddish brown sheen 50 yards by one mile long was spotted near the well, according to a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard said the well was owned by Cedyco, a company based in Houston.
The wellhead burst at 1 a.m. local time Tuesday after being hit by a tug boat, the Pere Ana C, that was pushing a dredge barge, Captain Buford Berry, though details were still being investigated.
So, not to put too fine a point on it, there is more oil and gas being deposited in the Gulf as you read this. And they haven’t started stopping it yet, and are booming. Booming. Booming with 6000 feet of boom. Pardon me, but didn’t we all decide in the past 3 months that that is worthless. Oh, but excuse me again, this is a new day. And a new leak. And so we get to try stuff that didn’t work before all over again. Because we’re crazy and think it’ll be different this time.
And then we have this gem:
No specific flow rate has been determined, officials said.
Mama mia. Oy gevalt.
And this, dear reader, is why I find myself shrieking. And uttering strings of profanity. Join me.
simulposted at The Dream Antilles and The Stars Hollow Gazette and dailyKos
Jul 16 2010
…numerous industry experts have warned that there is no upside to temporarily capping the well as part of the well integrity test, and that it might actually cause the well to blow out.
Admiral Thad Allen previously said that the test will be considered a success if pressure in the well stays at 8,000 psi or higher for 48 hours. So we won’t know for a couple of days whether the test has succeeded.
As AP correctly notes:
Now begins a waiting period to see if the cap can hold the oil without blowing a new leak in the well. Engineers will monitor pressure readings incrementally for up to 48 hours before reopening the cap while they decide what to do.
Interestingly, as CNN’s Situation Room noted a couple of minutes ago, the cap might soon be re-opened, and closed again only during hurricanes:
Admiral Thad Allen releasing a statement to us just a short while ago…
He cautions “This isn’t over”…
Very interesting here. He talks about the cap as a temporary measure to be used for hurricanes…
“It remains likely that we will return to the containment process… until the relief well is completed”
So it looks like the plan is to go back to releasing the oil and letting it pump up to the surface.
(hat tip FloridaOilSpillLaw).
So is the well integrity test a meaningless PR stunt, which is delaying completion of the relief wells, and failing to bring us any closer to permanently killing the oil gusher?
Jul 13 2010
This is the 83rd Day on the Gulf of Mexico During the BP Oil Spill. You will not see these pictures in the MSM.
Louisiana coast
Dying River Delta and DeepWater Horizon Macondo wellsite
Center of Gulf of Mexico.
Franklin Eddy. Oil circling endlessly in mid Gulf.
Tail of the Dead Dragon. Southern Gulf of Mexico.
Oil Slick Streamers Brushing Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
Eastern Yucatan Coast, Oil Slick, and Cuba to the East (upper right)
Jul 10 2010
About 500 years ago, Cortez landed in Mexico. He told the people who were already living there that they had to become subjects of the King of Spain. But, they told him, they were already subjects of Montezuma, the Emperor who was in Tenochtitlan. Cortez told them that Montezuma had to become a subject of the King of Spain, too, and he took Montezuma prisoner. As if that weren’t enough, he told the People that they had to give up their Old Gods and accept his God. Cortez’s God, he told them, was far more powerful than their Gods, and if they didn’t accept his God and abandon their own Gods and abandon their practice of having idols and human sacrifices and ceremonies and dances to their Gods, they would be killed. Also, Cortez told them, they had to deliver to Cortez all of their gold and silver. So it was that the Spanish foothold came to what is now Mexico in 1517.
Jul 03 2010
Perhaps you heard about the recent EPA Press Release, regarding latest Toxicity Testing results for Dispersants. Depending on which sound bite you heard, it almost sounded like Corexit got a clean bill of health.
Confused? I was too. And since I had previously written a well-received diary,
Corexit Toxicity Tests not so hot, When Mixed with Oil
by jamess — May 30, 2010
which dove into the Toxicity Data, that the EPA originally cited as credible only 2 months ago, I figured I should try to figure out what was up with the ‘New and Improved’ Dispersant Testing.
What follows is my assessment of what’s happening now, including some relevant links.
I’ll try to keep it brief. (I hate long diaries, lol)
Jul 01 2010
Because the original is so oftentimes better than the description in the “can’t make this up” category, here is the latest press release from the Government’s Deepwater Horizon Incident JIC page:
http://www.deepwaterhorizonres…
NEW ORLEANS — The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is proud to announce that FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) is joining the efforts to protect sea turtle nests and eggs from potential impacts of the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The company will be donating resources to transport hundreds of nests containing thousands of eggs to Florida’s Atlantic Coast and its logistics experts are working the Unified Command and its partner organizations to implement this complex translocation. The relocation efforts are scheduled to begin in mid-July and continue throughout the hatching season.FedEx is working closely with Unified Command Wildlife Branch scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA and other partners to create the safest transportation solution for the relocation effort. FedEx will take extensive precautions to protect the sea turtle nests and eggs, which will travel exclusively in its FedEx Custom Critical air-ride, temperature-controlled vehicles.
“In light of the imminent threat to sea turtles, we felt it was important to help move this extraordinary project forward,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director of NFWF. “Given our strong partnership with FedEx and our long standing relationship with the federal agencies, we were able to move quickly to develop an effective plan. We’ll continue to work with all parties so that this relocation offers the best hope for sea turtles’ survival.”
FedEx provides logistics expertise, in-kind shipping and funding for disaster preparedness, relief and recovery, working with organizations including the Red Cross, Salvation Army and Heart to Heart International. A FedEx-sponsored Salvation Army disaster response unit is in use to support responders to the oil leak right now. In 2006, FedEx donated its transportation services to deliver more than 1.2 million pounds of medical and other relief supplies to the Gulf Coast area in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
NFWF is supporting a number of wildlife projects in the Gulf region and is helping to coordinate the work of federal agencies, biologists and others who will be involved in the massive transport effort. The Foundation, established by Congress in 1984, is a non-profit conservation organization that works closely with federal agencies and private sector partners to protect wildlife and natural resources.
No word yet on whether or not the beaches in Florida will have to be at home and able to answer the phone or doorbell at the time of the delivery, or wait until the next scheduled package delivery on that route after the weekend and on the next business working day.
Help. I’ve lost my habitat.
photo from US Govt. flickerstream, Deepwater Horizon Response, 6/10/2010 UC Davis
______
update 7/2/10 : they’re going to hatch the eggs in a climate controlled warehouse, release them, and hope the turtles know where to return years later. http://www.marconews.com/news/…
Jul 01 2010
Some are attuned to the possibility of looming catastrophe and know how to head it off. Others are unprepared for risk and even unable to get their priorities straight when risk turns to reality.
So begins an article in the Financial Post the other day written by Lawrence Solomon titled Avertible Catastrophe The construct of the article is so completely damning to our country, our government and our culture
Stunning incompetence
Lack of will.
shows an incomprehensible scarcity of intellectual imagination.
Jul 01 2010
On June 15, 2010 the US Department of Energy announced that a group of federal and independent scientists convened by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and Chair of the National Incident Command’s Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG) Dr. Marcia McNutt (Director of the U.S. Geological Survey) had developed a new estimate for the amount of oil gushing from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico that indicated the leak could be spewing up to 2.52 million gallons of crude oil per day into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico from British Petroleum’s Macondo Well.
“This estimate brings together several scientific methodologies and the latest information from the sea floor, and represents a significant step forward in our effort to put a number on the oil that is escaping from BP’s well,” said Chu, who then expanded with “As we continue to collect additional data and refine these estimates, it is important to realize that the numbers can change. In particular, the upper number is less certain – which is exactly why we have been planning for the worst case scenario at every stage and why we are continuing to focus on responding to the upper end of the estimate, plus additional contingencies.”
Estimates from both BP and from the US Government of the amount of oil gushing from the blown out wellhead on the gulf seabed have been almost continually revised upwards since the well blowout and leak began on April 20, with widespread suspicions that BP has deliberately understated the leak rate in attempts to limit liability for the company.
It now appears that Chu may have been somewhat prescient with his statement that “it is important to realize that the numbers can change”, and that the estimate of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico may need to be increased again, since an undated internal BP document (.PDF) obtained by Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) was released by Markey on Sunday June 20 showing that BP’s own internal analysis believed that a worst-case scenario, based on damage to the well bore, could result in a leak rate from the well of 55,000 to 100,000 barrels of oil per day.
Jun 29 2010
Update. Tues June 29, 8:20 pm PDT. NWS, Miami, FL. Tropical Storm Alex is now officially a Hurricane, and the first hurricane of the season and the first June hurricane since 1995. Alex is about 255 miles / 415 km SE of Brownsville, TX, with winds of 75 mph, moving 9 mph / 15 km/hr . All watches remain in effect. Hurricane Alex is expected to make landfall late Wednesday evening in the Texas/ Mexico border area.
Status of Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Area’s “City of Ships” of Blown Out BP Well : Oil skimming operations by surface boats have been suspended. BP Oil is still so far collecting gas/oil from the riser pipe and the BOP, but the attempt to hook up another gathering ship to the BOP to suck up yet more oil from below the sea’s surface has been delayed due to high winds and waves. BP says they are still working on installing yet another floating riser pipe that they can then quickly disconnect from in the case of bad weather, but it’s not finished yet.
Status of relief well. Still close to wellbore, allegedly within 20 feet yesterday, now drilling past it and down and taking multiple magnetic soundings to locate it before attempt is made to intersect. Still supposedly on track for August of this year.
________
Well, I’ve got bad news and good news.
The National Weather Service as of 10:00 pm CDT Monday has upgraded the Hurricane Watch for Tropical Storm Alex to a Hurricane Warning.
But it’s heading northwest to Texas. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/r… Sorry, eastern Mexico, it’s going to visit you again too.
NOAA and the NWS has also put together a page on New Orleans/Baton Rouge/Deepwater Horizon which has every sort of weather graphic you’d want to see on this. Satellite, radar, wind, wave, trajectories, 37 different weather maps and charts to gawk at.
Bookmark this:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lix/?n…
