Massive Gulf Coast Oil Spill

[SuperBalla]

Balla, the military is assisting (Coast Guard). They have all the resources they need for this. Take it from someone very familiar with these ships' capabilities, there's no need for the Navy to be there.

 

Yea, I know they have played a huge role.

 

 

Didn't say that, nor do I think that.

 

Cool, I figured that

[nuke'em ttg]

good ta see ya brack Balla, do ya have time ta change yer avatar......please

[rattsass]

This whole idea is several exits past retardville. Saying that government regulation is the fix is akin to hiring the proverbial fox to tend the chickens.

 

"The MMS considers a backup BOP actuation system to be an essential component of a deepwater drilling system," the March 2000 notice said, "and therefore expects OCS operators to have reliable back-up systems for actuating the BOP."

 

But MMS left it up to the companies to decide what kind of backup system to have. And Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) wants to know why. Nelson has warned others about the possibility of spills for years as he fought growing pressure to allow drilling off the Florida coast. Now, he has gone from warning to pointing.

 

Nelson has asked the Interior Department's acting inspector general, Mary Kendall, to investigate why the service did not require drillers to use a specific type of backup system used in other major offshore drilling countries, a remote-control shutoff called an acoustic switch. He has raised the prospect that lobbying by the oil and gas industry kept regulators at bay on the issue.

[SuperBalla]

9:22 am, WWL radio reported, oil sheen spotted in the Breton Sound. I have grown up fishing there. My Dad currently has a fishing camp there, we pay a lease on. It is tough to accept and it is considerably frustrating to watch. Rajn, what is your news saying about the effects to MS/Pearl River Line- out to your area?

[peepinmofo]

Domestic Terrorism?

 

http://pesn.com/2010/05/05/9501645_No_joke...ted_TransOcean/

[rajncajn]

9:22 am, WWL radio reported, oil sheen spotted in the Breton Sound. I have grown up fishing there. My Dad currently has a fishing camp there, we pay a lease on. It is tough to accept and it is considerably frustrating to watch. Rajn, what is your news saying about the effects to MS/Pearl River Line- out to your area?

So far nothing has reached us yet. As for the affects it will have, it depends on the amount that will make it here & obviously varies greatly depending on that.

[bushwacked]

"BP's policies are as rusty as its pipelines," Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, told BP executives during a heated September 2006 hearing. "I'm even more concerned about BP's corporate culture of seeming indifference to safety and environmental issues.

 

BP, the most important oil company in Alaska and the corporation at the heart of the Gulf of Mexico oil-drilling disaster, has struggled with perhaps the oil industry's worst environmental and safety record of the last decade.

[Perchoutofwater]

BP, the most important oil company in Alaska and the corporation at the heart of the Gulf of Mexico oil-drilling disaster, has struggled with perhaps the oil industry's worst environmental and safety record of the last decade.

 

Barton is a sleaze ball. He may be correct in what he said, but I'd take it with a grain of salt. Barton is in bed with the oil companies, just not the particular oil company in question.

[SuperBalla]

Oil leak video with ROV

[i_am_the_swammi]

For those interested, here is a link that is updated daily with, among other things, updates on the containment, and future trajectories:

 

Oil Slick Trajectory

 

My buddy is a weatherman on a Dallas TV station, and is reporting that if the new trajectories are correct, and the slick moves southward, it will catfch a current and move to the east, affecting both the Florida Keys and the eastern seaboard.

[Square]

This whole idea is several exits past retardville. Saying that government regulation is the fix is akin to hiring the proverbial fox to tend the chickens.

I guess I'm confused then (I went to public school). So, if government regulation isn't a fix, what are the alternatives for an industry as large as oil? As I see it, you either have to A ) increase regulation, B ) decrease regulation, or C ) leave it the same. Personally, I don't know if disasters like this are going to be less likely if B or C happen. But you are saying A is not a fix. What would your suggestion be?

[tbimm]

For those interested, here is a link that is updated daily with, among other things, updates on the containment, and future trajectories:

 

Oil Slick Trajectory

 

My buddy is a weatherman on a Dallas TV station, and is reporting that if the new trajectories are correct, and the slick moves southward, it will catfch a current and move to the east, affecting both the Florida Keys and the eastern seaboard.

Yup. I had mentioned the other day that what I have been hearing and seeing here puts Fl in line for a good bit of this. If there is good news in that it would be that it gives everyone a good bit more time to try to use containment techniques.

[tbimm]

This may be the most important piece of the puzzle.

 

If this thing doesn't work I am afraid that we are in for a long oily summer.

[SuperBalla]

Vault-funnel is in place = hope

 

[bpwallace49]

Vault-funnel is in place = hope

 

 

:fingerscrossed:

[Jimmy Neutron]

I guess I'm confused then (I went to public school). So, if government regulation isn't a fix, what are the alternatives for an industry as large as oil? As I see it, you either have to A ) increase regulation, B ) decrease regulation, or C ) leave it the same. Personally, I don't know if disasters like this are going to be less likely if B or C happen. But you are saying A is not a fix. What would your suggestion be?

 

I'm not sure the oil companies are broken. I am sure that our government is broken. Most everybody agrees with this, but many are apt to give a broken government more power because they simply don't know what else to do and the world is a scary place.

 

This is the second large oil spill in 20 years. Yes, Prince William Sound and now the Gulf are terrible accidents. They are also statisical anomalies - very expensive ones that are bound to up the safety practices of every oil co out there.

[Kid Cid]

I'm not sure the oil companies are broken. I am sure that our government is broken. Most everybody agrees with this, but many are apt to give a broken government more power because they simply don't know what else to do and the world is a scary place.

I <3 Jimmy.

[westvirginia]

I <3 Jimmy.

 

+ a bazillion

[bushwacked]

So, we shouldn't have govt regulate oil companies because we know that govt is broken but we don't know that oil companies are? That's brilliant. <3!

[rattsass]

So, we shouldn't have govt regulate oil companies because we know that govt is broken but we don't know that oil companies are? That's brilliant. <3!

I think this spill is pretty clear evidence that the oil companies are broken. They are the ones sending their maggot lobbyists to bend the governments arms behind their backs to allow them save a few bucks on a safety device that could have prevented a disaster. If a company is pulling in profits by the billions and they choose not to spend a lousy half million on making sure this didn't happen, I'm sorry, that is an industry that demands regulation.

 

There are limits to our technology, and the oil industry has just exceeded those boundaries. Unless we all want to end up swimming in a black muck, we might want to put the brakes on.

 

We'll see people screaming for more regulation as this thing spreads up the eastern seaboard this summer. And we'll still see the maggot lobbyists fighting it tooth and nail. And they will probably still be trying to figure out how to close this leak up.

[rajncajn]

Cofferdam isn't working. Ice crystals form in the port & prevent it from being pumped out. I hear the slick will reach the barrier islands by tomorrow & reach our shore sometime next week.

[SuperBalla]

Never thought of this...

[SuperBalla]

Still leaking

[rajncajn]

Still leaking

Golf balls & tires will save us.

[Azazello1313]

 

edit to add huffpo story...

 

Could a flash of inspiration save the Gulf Coast states and sea life from the British Petroleum oil spill? Take a look at the six-minute YouTube video posted by the Walton County (FL) Sheriff's Department on its website. What looks like "a coupla good ole boys demonstrating how hay and straw could be used to pick up an oil spill" is actually Darryl Carpenter, Vice President of Florida-based CW Roberts Contracting and sub-contractor Otis Goodson stirring up a FIX for BP's oil spill.

 

Darryl Carpenter came up with the idea of using hay to soak up the oil spill from the ocean, while driving to a job site last Monday. The next minute he was on the phone with sub-contractor Goodson to ask: "Can you fill a large pan with water and oil, then grab a handful of hay and stir it in? Strain out the hay, then call me back and tell me what's left in the pan.

 

Eureka! Carpenter had found a solution. Goodson called back elated to say: "You're not going to believe how this works!" The hay had soaked up all of the oil in the pan. The water looked clear again. The Walton County Sheriff's real-time video confirms this.

 

In a scene reminiscent of a primetime cooking show, the Carpenter and Goodson video shows how Coastal Bermuda and Bahia hay could be scattered over the surface of the ocean with hay blowers to absorb the oil. To start, the two men pour oil into two large pans of water, stir in the hay, add a little "wave action," then skim off the oil-soaked hay.

 

The audience watching the Walton County video included representatives from BP, the Coast Guard and the Sheriff's office. CW Roberts then asks BP and the Coast Guard for the chance to do a 10-acre live demonstration in Gulf waters. They were told that approval has to come from higher up.

 

Will it come in time?

 

"We work along the whole Gulf of Mexico coastal area in Florida," says CW Roberts president, Charles Roberts. "We have everything mobilized. We can have boats and equipment on the water in less than a half-day. We have been getting calls from all over, from people who want to supply the hay. We want to be given the chance to see if it works. If it works on 10-acres, then give us a bigger assignment."

 

CW Roberts, a 700-employee contracting firm with headquarters in Tallahassee, Florida, and offices located all along the Gulf of Mexico from Destin to Fort Meyers, is now under contract with the Walton County's Office of Emergency Management to protect their beaches from the oil spill. A major component of their protection strategy is the use of bales of hay to keep the oil spill from reaching the Walton beaches.

 

As the oil spill moves closer to land, Roberts says: "We want to be given a chance to show that this simple strategy just might solve the problem. It's so simple that I think it scares people."

 

To jump start the process, the company is organizing another demonstration this Saturday morning to show how a hay blower and a conveyor can be put out on a boat to both distribute the hay, then pick it up. Shrimp boats can also be mobilized to pick it up with their nets, says Darryl Carpenter.

 

In fact, the idea of mobilizing a statewide group of hay farmers, a fleet of shrimp boat owners, and a network of 700 CW Roberts employees to solve a problem of catastrophic proportions -- that has challenged BP, the Coast Guard and the U.S. Government -- may be just the type of heroism the Gulf Coast and America needs right now.

Edited May 12, 2010 by Azazello1313