Gulf Oil Spill Worse Than Initially Reported

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AndyH said:
Great. Five attempts and in a lot less water. Where do I sign - I'll take three! :?

Yes, there are people in TOD saying they should be drilling 4 wells now. That way the chance of success is very high. Apparently they have sensors that can hone in on the metal in the last few feet. But, you could always hit a bad patch of rock and lose the well.

I'm not sure what the problem with Montara was. May be they didn't have sensors ? BTW, the cement job there was done by Halliburton as well - apparently they are the world leaders in cementing.
 
Lot of cursing. But worth the watch.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_enCDXmVj0[/youtube]
 
Maybe they should design these floating rigs to do an emergency auto-submerge (flood the flotation) to go down 30 feet (or so) under to put out any fire, wait 30 minutes, and then "blow the tanks" to re-surface?

Sure, big cleanup, but perhaps better than a total loss?
 
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2010/05/24/ricks.cousteau.oil.cnn

Rough excerpts...

I was involved with the Exxon-Valdez. That was 21 years ago and it's not over yet.

The dispersant allows us to say 'out of sight out of mind'...

The oil will be headed thru the Caribbean, up the US East Coast, and to Western Europe.

The oil will settle to the bottom of the ocean - people are saying it's not that big of a problem. Even if it does settle at the bottom of the ocean it's gonna kill everything. That will have an impact on the entire food chain. You're going to find it in the plankton. The fish are gonna eat it, the shrimps are going to eat it, the oysters are gonna eat it. It's gonna affect everybody.
 
evnow said:
Lot of cursing. But worth the watch.

[youtube]<snip>[/youtube]

Absolutely amazing. I'd love to know who the speaker is.

I found a document that talks about boom placement strategy - Containment booming appears to be a valid technique - used primarily to circle the leak so the oil can be skimmed.
http://www.dec.state.ak.us/spar/perp/star/07containment.pdf

Circling islands looks to me to be use of a sort of reverse-containment method. Here it is - it's called Exclusion Boom and it's designed to protect sensitive areas from an approaching oil slick. http://www.dec.state.ak.us/spar/perp/star/16exclusionboom.pdf

What the video shows is 'diversion boom' placement. According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation docs, this technique is used in rivers or other areas where there's a steady current. http://www.dec.state.ak.us/spar/perp/star/field/Section B-Part III Mechanical-Diversion Boom(FG).pdf

If these Alaska docs are correct, then I begin to doubt that the video creator is out to help the situation. Maybe the entire goal was simply to create a viral video.

At the same time, the Coastie talking-head does seem to be on BP's side, and that bothers me more than just a little bit.

Andy
 
Yes or large quantitys of these:

http://www.hydrasep.com/

new story on the above company:
http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12526701

"By Chip Washington - bio | email

HERNANDO, MS (WMC-TV) - The gulf oil spill is still causing headaches for residents and those who fish for a living, but a company in Hernando, Mississippi said the current approach is not working and they have a way to help.

Frustration is mounting as the massive oil leak grows and millions of gallons continue to threaten the gulf and the shoreline.

Larry Matthews, president of Hydrasep, said his company was ready to step in with a revolutionary piece of equipment.

"We can process 1.2 million gallons of sea water every 24 hours," Matthews said. "We can get the oil recovered, we can help do something, but it sits right here."

The device built and designed by Hydrasep siphons off and captures the oil from contaminated water, leaving the water clean and over 99 percent pure.

Matthews said the current national focus was in the wrong place.

"We hear about the government worried about how it happened," Matthews said. "There's time for blame later on, let's fix the problem."

Hydrasep recently received a call from the Mississippi Governor's office asking them to meet with a company they have contracted to help with the spill.

Matthews said he was ready to go at a moment's notice.

"I would say if this device is one of the fixes we've got to move quicker because the oil is still contaminating the gulf," Matthews said.

Matthews said he has pumps ready in various sizes. He said the current process is a start but not a solution.
"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/API_oil-water_separator
 
During the cold war it was sobering to pull out a map and draw a destruction circle when either side fielded a bigger nuclear bomb. Now as we often hear, there's an app for that.

Now there's also an easy way to view the area of the Gulf spill. http://paulrademacher.com/oilspill/

Here's a blast simulation for a 10 megaton nuclear blast centered on San Francisco, followed by the area of the Gulf spill centered on the same area.

10MTbay.jpg


bayspill.jpg
 
mwalsh said:
evnow said:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/5/11/11558/1890

Now I've read that, and understand what proper booming is, ......what a bunch of fucking arseholes BP execs are! Not that there was much doubt of that prior to my learning what proper booming is.

You might want to follow-up with these booming papers provided by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

http://www.dec.state.ak.us/spar/perp/star/07containment.pdf

This appears to be the method being used in the Gulf:
http://www.dec.state.ak.us/spar/perp/star/16exclusionboom.pdf

What the video shows is 'diversion boom' placement. This technique is used in rivers or other areas where there's a steady current.
http://www.dec.state.ak.us/spar/perp/star/field/Section B-Part III Mechanical-Diversion Boom(FG).pdf

I still haven't found anything that shows the V-shaped booms along a shore.

Andy
 
AndyH said:
I still haven't found anything that shows the V-shaped booms along a shore.

Andy

What the dkos poster says makes sense - If you leave the oil in the sea - at one time or other it will skip the boom and come ashore. If you direct it to a place and collect it - then it can be safely disposed.
 
AndyH said:
I still haven't found anything that shows the V-shaped booms along a shore.
evnow said:
What the dkos poster says makes sense - If you leave the oil in the sea - at one time or other it will skip the boom and come ashore. If you direct it to a place and collect it - then it can be safely disposed.
No disagreement from me! I just wanted a second opinion. ;)

Here's another doc from Alaska that appears to pick-up where the earlier docs stop. Not only does it provide more complex techniques, but it also includes surface skimming and gated U-boom 'concentrator' booming (page 13).
http://www.dec.state.ak.us/spar/perp/grs/se/separt2.pdf

This seems to confirm the technical aspects of the dkos/video person.

I hope the top-kill process works. The next thing that needs to die in the Gulf is that well.
 
Can anyone comment, why wasn't this "top kill" thing (or the "junk shot") attempted sooner? Were they holding out hope they could save the well? Except for the problems with the leak it does look like they hit a good spot.
 
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