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Disaster looms as oil slick reaches US coast

jesus christ
Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots
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the mayan calendar was off by two years :)

or not? perhaps it is the repurcussions of this which leads to the "2021"8)
 
Oil giant BP has succeeded in connecting a mile-long pipe to capture the oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, a company spokesman said Sunday.

"We are restarting the operation now'' to siphon oil 5,000 feet above the ocean floor to a ship where it can be temporarily stored, said BP spokesman David Nicholas.

Nicholas said the company had succeeded in connecting the tube overnight, collecting some oil, gas and water, but that the tube was dislodged. On Sunday morning, it was reconnected.

The effort does not plug the massive oil leak, but it is the first successful attempt in almost a month to keep the oil from flowing into the ocean
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http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/16/1632278/despite-media-reports-bp-says.html
 
yes, lets consult that website you linked to where the earth is going to cave in because we're sucking out all its inner juices. ;)

seriously though, I doubt it. They've been doing controlled burns for weeks, and it seems like they're pretty hard to get going.
 
i guess if you got a liquid oxidizing agent (besides gaseous oxygen) and flooded the oil fountain areas with it, that'd allow the oil to burn without air

BL Stoner Saves The Day
 
tarball1_437592e.jpg


Tar balls wash up at Key West beaches; surveys continue today
Source:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/tar-balls-wash-up-at-key-west-beaches-693727.html
 
So, looks like we're still fucked?

"Could gush for years..."

And, just as I thought, they drilled too deep(RE:Greg Palast's investigations), and there is no way to stop this.

Wonder when they're going to decide to do it right and bring in a relief oil rig, like I said in the fucking first place?
 
BP won't change dispersant used in oil spill...

(CNN) -- BP plans to continue using a controversial subsea dispersant to break up a plume of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, saying that the leading alternative could pose a risk over the long term, the EPA indicated Saturday.

The EPA issued a directive on Thursday, ordering BP to find, within 24 hours, a less toxic but equally effective chemical than its current product, Corexit 9500 -- and one that is available in sufficient quantities. The directive also gave the company 72 hours to stop applying it to the undersea gusher.

Corexit has been rated more toxic and less effective than many others on the list of 18 EPA-approved dispersants, according to testimony at a congressional hearing Wednesday.

The EPA released BP's response to the mandate on Saturday.

The response, which BP submitted late Thursday night, said that the oil company identified the only other effective, less toxic alternative available in mass quantities as Sea Brat 4. However, BP said the Sea Brat product "contains a small amount of a chemical that may degrade to a nonylphenol."

Nonylphenol is an organic chemical that is toxic to aquatic life and may persist in the environment for years.

Corexit, however, "does not contain chemicals that degrade into NP [and] the manufacturer indicates that Corexit reaches its maximum biodegradeablility within 28 days of application" and does not persist in the environment, BP's response said.

"Based on the information that is available today, BP continues to believe that Corexit was the best and most appropriate choice at the time when the incident occurred, and that Corexit remains the best option for subsea application," BP said.

Despite the continuing use of Corexit, BP is not in violation of the EPA directive, which said that should the company not be able to identify alternative products, "BP shall provide ... a detailed description of the products investigated [and] the reason the products did not meet the standards" required by the agency.

"We will continue to review and discuss the science through the end of the 72-hour window on Sunday, and then we will reach a decision," an EPA spokesman said Saturday.

John Sheffield, president of Alabaster Corp., which manufactures Sea Brat, took issue with BP's response, saying Saturday that the company is "nitpicking my product because they want to use what they've always used."

Sheffield told CNN that he discussed the nonylphenol issue with EPA officials earlier this week, saying the chemical makes up less than 1 percent of the Sea Brat dispersant.

"I've already diffused this issue with the EPA," he said, adding the agency "accepted that response days ago."

The EPA has not yet publicly issued a formal response to BP's letter. EPA officials met with BP executives on Friday to discuss the issue and to explore alternatives.

The EPA said Saturday that it "will continue to work over the next 48 hours to ensure BP is complying with the directive," but did not respond to requests for additional comment.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security announced Saturday that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will lead a bipartisan Senate delegation to inspect the Louisiana coastline after globs of thick, heavy oil began washing into some of the state's marshlands this week.

The delegation will meet with federal officials and BP representatives to discuss the ongoing response efforts.

Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/22/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T1

quoting from MSDS under Section 6 NOTES:

"Corexit may contain trace amounts of ethylene oxide * (CAS No. 75-21-8 ETHYLENE OXIDE NJ Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet-pdf format), a condition which creates the potential for accumulation of ethylene oxide in the head space of shipping and storage containers and in enclosed areas where the product is being handled or used. Ethylene oxide is considered by OSHA, IARC, and NTP as a potential carcinogen * for humans. Ethylene oxide may also present reproductive, mutagenic, genotoxic, neurologic and sensitization hazards in humans. If this product is handled with adequate ventilation, the presence of these trace amounts is
not expected to result in any short or long term hazards.


Corexit: BP Using Dispersants In Gulf Banned In U.K. For Being More Toxic And Less Effective
http://www.propublica.org/ion/blog/item/In-Gulf-Spill-BP-Using-Dispersants-Banned-in-UK

Has anyone brought up the fact that a 11 yr BP Executive is now an executive for Nalco, the company that makes Corexit??BP Cares.... lol....yah okay
 
Jindal not waiting for the slow Fed govt help

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said the state will not waiting for federal approval to begin building sand barriers to protect the coastline from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Oil has pushed at least 12 miles into Louisiana's marshes, with two major pelican rookeries awash in crude.

Gov. Jindal was critical of the amount of boom his state received to ward off the oil seeping toward the coastline. But his major gripe comes at the expense of the Army Corps of Engineers, who have yet to give the go-ahead for the building of sand booms to protect the Louisiana wetlands. He used photographic evidence of oil breaking through hard booms, soft booms and another layer of protection, before being finally being corralled by a sand boom built by the National Guard.

"It is so much better for us. We don't want oil on one inch of Louisiana's coastline, but we'd much rather fight this oil off of a hard coast, off of an island, off of an island, off of a sandy beach on our coastal islands, rather than having to fight it inside in these wetlands," Gov. Jindal said, making the case for sand booms.

The governor said he has been forced to protect Louisiana without the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers, which is weighing the ecological impact of the construction of more sand booms.

"We are not waiting for them. We are going to build it," Jindal said.

"We can either fight battle -- we can fight this oil -- on the Barrier Islands 15 to 20 miles off of our coast, or we can face it in thousands of miles of fragmented wetlands," Gov. Jindal said, clearing favoring the first option. "Every day we're not given approval on this emergency permit to create more of these sand booms is another day when that choice is made for us, as more and more miles of our shore are hit by oil."
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from NECN

Slow Fed response to a disaster in Louisiana? That damn Bush!! :! Oh wait, he's gone.
 
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