Oil spill from rig explosion getting bigger by the day. Bigger than Valdez?

[WS65711]

Obama visited today.......... and BP staged a "cleanup" for the TV cameras and Prez . . . [^o)]

http://www.wwltv.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/JP-Officials-Presence-of-hundreds-of-cleanup-workers-likely-a-staged-event-95149564.html

[WS65711]

Sorry . . . double post.

[wheelman]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/37368377#37368377

[JL Sargent]

Watched Wheelman's link. Interesting that all this happened in '79 too!

Today they are sawing the pipe with a diamond bandsaw or similar and the saw blade is now stuck in the pipe. I read last night that two relief wells are being drilled too but the earliest they expect those to be functional is early Aug. That of course means two more months of oil leaking into the gulf! What a diseaster!

[JL Sargent]

Yeah, its a disaster with severe medical implications! []

[Marvel]

No doubt this is a huge disaster. The following link has some interesting figures. The Exxon Valdez was a small spill compared to many others, but it hurts more when it is in your own yard.

http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/oceanography-book/oilspills.htm

(opens in a new tab/page/window...)

Bruce

[BigStewMan]

Yeah, its a disaster with severe medical implications!

It's been reported that oil cleanup workers are getting sick. It is said that BP will not allow any cleanup worker on their payroll to wear a respirator. The reasons and implications are all too familiar, and all too obvious. I find it hard to imagine any human agreeing to do this work without protection. I suspect that 2 years from now, a big story will be the huge number of people with some strange chronic lung disease. They will sue BP, and BP and the government will say these people are "crazy" and making up illness. A lot of lives will be ruined.

i must be a little slow today. why wouldn't BP want responders to wear respirators?

[sunburnwilly]

Something to chew on .http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/us/03nuke.html

[dgoreck]

Man, no one hasmentioned the Ixtoc spill in the Gulf from 1979.... it is scary how much the news has avoided this. Just watch this clip. This and the Valdez have nothing in size to compare against from 30 years ago.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/05/27/4370011-oil-spills-then-are-oil-spills-now

[JL Sargent]

Man, no one hasmentioned the Ixtoc spill in the Gulf from 1979.... it is scary how much the news has avoided this. Just watch this clip. This and the Valdez have nothing in size to compare against from 30 years ago.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/05/27/4370011-oil-spills-then-are-oil-spills-now

Wheelman linked to a comparison story on the previous page

[Marvel]

Have a look at my previous link. The Exxon Valdez spilled 37000 tonnes of oil. There have been three ships which spilled 230K+ tonnes of oil, and maybe a good six over 100K+ tonnes. The Valdez is way down on the list.

The link also has some interesting info on how oil breaks up in the water, the volatiles disappearing rather quickly.

Here's a 1978 spill off the Breton coast (227K tonnes of crude):

http://www.cedre.fr/en/spill/amoco/amoco.php

Bruce

[Chris A]

Man, no one has mentioned the Ixtoc spill in the Gulf from 1979

I had just moved to Galveston Island and was living on Seawall Blvd. by April 1979. The Ixtoc I leak produced tar that floated around the Gulf and up on the beaches for years, washing up after storms and hurricanes until at least when I left the area in 1984. The good thing was that the Texas coast was far enough away that the light petroleum components dispersed in Mexican waters much more evenly before reaching the Texas coast, leaving the heavier tar to float around. It got the where is wasn't worth it to go the the beach, even though I lived across the street from it. The tar that would build up on your feet and everything that you set on the beach (for instance, racing catamarans) and took lots of baby oil in the shower to get off, not to mention the effect on the sewage system. Yuck! I spend most of my sail racing and cruising time in Galveston Bay. Happy memories there.

The cost of offshore oil has always been high in terms of human costs. I remember those days most because it wasn't unusual to talk to someone who had a relative or friend who had been hurt or killed offshore. It has always been an extremely dangerous business. Anyone that says that drilling offshore is "low risk" and "well within the state of the art" - well, my advice is to start listening to other people that are telling you otherwise. I think we need to be aware that this activity will always have significant environmental and human cost.

Chris

[Tarheel]

Little of any value to add other than like most of you I am sickend by the toll it is taking on the marshes, water, and particularly the wildlife. I have to change channels when the oil soaked pelicans are shown stumbling through the goop on the nightly news. It is very sad but that feeling eventually gives way to anger. I hope for a resolution as quickly as possible so the clean up can commence and that the marshes can be given a chance to recover.

A sad, sad, situation[]

[JL Sargent]

Finally at least a little good news about this.

"BP chief executive Tony Hayward told the BBC on
Sunday that over the last 24 hours, the cap placed on the gusher near
the sea floor trapped about 420,000 gallons of oil."

What's still unclear is how much continues to escape.

[colterphoto1]

has anyone traded in their gas-guzzler, driven less, taken up recycling, any activity that might lessen our dependence on petroleum products?

[JL Sargent]

Here is what I've done:

Traded in a Chevy diesel that got 14 for a Chevy gas that gets 18.

Drive much less since fuel has been over 2.00 gal. No joy riding these days.

Recycle all motor oil.

Patronize the closest first if possible.

Question: Is any oil from the gulf actually is used to make gas or motor oil for cars? Seems like sweet crude from across the pond is what's preferred for such. Or better yet, where does the gulf oil go?

[Marvel]

has anyone traded in their gas-guzzler, driven less, taken up recycling, any activity that might lessen our dependence on petroleum products?

What mileage do you consider gas guzzling? I have a '98 Blazer that get's 20 mpg. I got more until they started putting alcohol in the gas. It's long been paid for. I can't justify the cost of any new car.It has 212k miles on it.

I normally drive my late wife's '02 Dodge Stratus, which gets 28+ mpg. It consistently got 31mpg before alsohol was added. I hate the car, and should have it traded off this week.

Bruce

[Islander]

has anyone traded in their gas-guzzler, driven less, taken up recycling, any activity that might lessen our dependence on petroleum products?

Moving to a smaller town did it for me. When I lived in Toronto, I was filling up my van twice a week, but since I moved to the Island, I only fill up once a month or so, and recently went nine weeks without buying gas; that's no gas bought in March or April of this year. Living downtown means everything is within a few blocks, so I only need to hit the highway to go to Costco or some other big store on the outskirts of town, or if I'm showing visitors around.

Banks, grocery stores, movie theatres, used vinyl shops, bookstores, all less than five blocks from my front door.

[Olorin]

has anyone traded in their gas-guzzler, driven less, taken up recycling, any activity that might lessen our dependence on petroleum products?

My gas guzzler is my only car and it only goes about 8,000 miles a year. Given the projected mechanical life of the vehicle, if I keep it in California and it doesn't rust, it will last longer than I do. When I take that fact and add that it takes more energy to manufacture a Prius than my car will use over the rest of its lifetime, replacing the Land Cruiser doesn't make sense from an environmental or personal economic perspective. I've looked pretty hard at this and I haven't found an angle that makes buying a new car look any different.

Now I might buy a 10 year old Miata if I can find one in decent shape that has a hard top. The bulk of it's carbon footprint -- again, manufacture -- was put down a decade ago, and it will get 30 mpg on the highway. The sticker is that at $3/gal, every $3,000 I spend on a car that gets 30 mpg takes 2.5 years to pay back in fuel savings, and of course insurance and registration make that longer.

As for recycling, yes, I'm a supporter and have done it for years. I replaced all the incandescents in my house with CFLs a couple years ago, for whatever that's worth. I do my best to use as little electricity as I can; I have my windows open and AC off long after all the neighbors are running theirs. My stereo is on a lot, but I use solid state amplification that doesn't double as a space heater. []

[Olorin]

On a lighter note, this is funny no matter who you are:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/massive-flow-of-bullshit-continues-to-gush-from-bp,17564/?ref=d