Drill, baby, drill! The Exxon Valdez leaked 257,000 barrels of oil off the coast of Alaska. It was the worst oil spill in US history. At the rate of 5,000 barrels of oil per day, the new estimate, the leak from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, that killed eleven, would take 51 days to equal that record. By June 10th the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster would surpass the Exxon Valdez. We do a few things well.
From an April 14th post, a week before the disaster where Eyeonmiami warned about the Gulf Loop, I wrote: ""Matt Schwartz, a leader of Sierra Club in Broward, spoke at the Friends of the Everglades meeting. He noted how sea turtles were showing up on the east coast of Florida slimed with oil tar balls. We used to believe it was just oil tankers cleaning their bilges offshore. Now we know that a lot of pollution is being carried up the east coast of Florida from the Gulf of Mexico. As it is, the Florida peninsula is swimming in a sea of goop."
In reply, a reader wrote the worst timed response in Eyeonmiami history: "Do you have a reference for this? I consider myself pretty well informed on this issue and I have never heard this claim before. Is this his opinion or science? It would be nice if there was a scientific claim rather than a claim of the president of a local chapter of Sierra Club whose credentials are unknown. The fact that the people in Louisiana and Mississippi (and the Florida panhandle) don't seem to be screaming about oil pollution from offshore rigs where they are much more greatly exposed is the counter argument that would indicate that offshore drilling technology has reduced the risk of pollution dramatically." ie. Drill, baby, drill!
From The Miami Herald this morning: "Nick Shay and Villy Kourafalou, professors at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science who have been tracking the spill, said a shift to the south could pull it into the loop current, which pushes into the Gulf in a clockwise swirl, spills back into the Straits of Florida through the Keys and then back north in the Gulf Stream, where prevailing winds push material onto tourist-filled beaches... "Whether it's nutrients, whether it's bacteria, whether it's toxic material, it's a transport mechanism,'' he said. Kourafalou echoed Shay, saying the loop current was largely overlooked in the decision by the White House this year to expand oil and gas exploration into areas of the Gulf where the effect is the strongest. "Things come through the Keys. Things that happen in the Gulf will find their way here one way or another,'' said Kourafalou, a research associate professor."
7 comments:
as a grove resident, fisherman and former GOM oil field worker i can be sure when i say that this accident is a very rare and especially tragic occurance. i disagree wholesale increased drilling initiatives but i have worked those oil fields in LA, worked with Trans, Diamond and TDW in the field for many months. i never saw such a good crew get in so much trouble. diamond crews are the best in terms of safety, whole families go offshore for diamond. dads, sons, cousins and uncles, 99.99999999% of the time they work hard and watch eachother's backs. this is a huge industry and environmental event. we all need to pitch in, everyone regardless of opinion or politic. we can contract boats, control burn, corral and catch globs in 5 gal buckets at the shoreline. this well will continue to leak for a long time till they figure a way to effectively P&A this thing @ 5K ft. good luck. meanwhile, get some buckets and oil soak pads
So screwed. Well. Who needs the Gulf of Mexico. Its just a sewer anyhow.
I learned about the Gulf Loop in the late 1980's. It was through fishing in the Marquesas, 30 miles west of Key West. At some point, maybe it was 1990... there was a severe sea grass die-off. It was shocking because the sea grass had always been in the best shape of anywhere I had fished. At the time, although there had been an algae bloom in north Florida Bay, the waters were in good shape all the way down from Marathon. The only thing that made sense was that the Gulf Loop had carried some nasty water from who knows where in the Gulf across the Florida Straits. We'll see how this episode 5000 feet below the Gulf plays out on Florida's expensive shoreline real estate. It is going to be interesting.
Just returned from a camping-birding trip to Fort Jefferson,Dry Tortugas.
On Tuesday night just prior to Sunset a great egret flew onto the island.
It was deeply coated with tar/oil on the back of its neck.
At sunrise on Wednesday I resighted the bird.
Dead in the moat.
I guess it is only a matter of time until we see the effect on the turtles that are beginning to congregate to breed and nest in the area.
I am going to post this anyway as I see no reason not to. Would it be possible to use a shaped explosive charge to crush the pipe above the lower BOP in order to restrict the flow until a relief well can be drilled? Is that impossible in this situation due to damage sustained during the collapse of the rig? Is there anyone who has some knowledge of the details associated with this problem who is willing to share data?
Bomb away. "Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes said the effort to choke off the leak from a well in 5,000 feet of water may take as long as 90 days."
to plug and abandon a well the holder of the depleted asset will hire divers to set explosives that are aimed at cutting off the well's flow. before that, they TRY to cement, pack with walnut shells or basically ruin the well. however, plug and abandon never really works that well offshore. it always leaks at some point. that is why you never want to be stuck holding a depleted well. they are huge liabilities.
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