The Gulf Spill: No End In Sight

Update:

So its been over 2 months now since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sunk resulting in 11 casualties and a massive oil spill.  Every since oil has continued to gush from approximately a mile below the ocean surface.  So far all containment efforts have either failed or not met projected recovery estimates.  At best BP has been able to recover maybe half of the oil spilling from their well, using the latest containment cap solution, and not the 90% that they had forcasted that they would be able to by this point. This is also exacerbated by continual blunders on BPs part to keep the containment cap in place, or to get one in place to begin with.  The other little tid bit is that there is great uncertainty at the amount of oil being released into the Gulf.  Estimates range from 30-60,000 barrels a day or approximately 1.25 to 2.5 million gallons a day.  The oil will continue to leak into the Gulf until relief wells are drilled in August, more than a month away.  Already, an estimated 40-110 million gallons have been spilled into the Gulf. This spill will likely take the place as the worse oil spill in history that was not deliberately set into motion, however based on the court hearings and as evidence comes to light we may find that it was somewhat deliberate due to gross negligence on behalf of BP. (BBC, NYT)

Oil has now washed ashore on the coast of every state in the Gulf.  Birds, turtles, fish, sharks, marshes, developing and young animals, and all the little organisms in the ocean that these creatures ultimately feed on to survive are being affected, poisoned, killed by the impacts from the millions upon millions of gallons of crude oil spewing from the ocean floor.(CSM)  This link will explain more than you ever wanted to know.

To top it off, as if the above news was not good enough, well guess what....It Hurricane Season! So what this means is that BP will be unable to capture any oil or make progress drilling their relief wells during times when tropical storms threaten the area.  So, expect oil to be spilling, lots of it, unmitigated, for days and days on end. You know, seems to me to be pretty much the same news that we have been hearing for the last 2 months. All I have to say is pretty awesome, thanks BP, my hat's off to you! (Wall Street Journal)

The Gulf Oil Spill

Ok so I am back after a long dry spell. I guess you could call it a lapse in motivation, fueled by a decrease in free time, or what have you, not really important. So a little disclaimer on this blog post…for those who know me, I am an environmental consultant by trade, I studied biology and environmental studies in college and have degrees in both. By trade I do toxic waste mitigation and clean up work, largely revolving around petroleum pollution, spills, groundwater and soil contamination, and that sort of thing. While I am no expert by any means, I do have some knowledge and experience on the subject. Further, I chose my college courses based on my personal interests. That being said I have spent a lot of time studying various aspects of the natural world, oceans, creatures, geographical areas, and on and on. This brings me to the topic of this blog and likely a few more to come, which is the oil spill which has and continues to occur in the Gulf of Mexico. I don’t think that there are many people out there that will disagree with me when I say that this is a very, very unfortunate turn of events for the people who live in that area, the people who derive their income from fishing or ecotourism or some other related trade, the companies involved, the environment which is being subjected to incredible stress and pollution, the government, the surrounding states and countries and all of the species of plants and animals which will be affected by this catastrophe.

The Gulf Spill

On April 20^th, a deepwater oil exploration rig, Deepwater Horizon, caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico, and eventually sunk on the 22^nd, Earth Day, which set into motion the oil spill that is now occurring. 11 people were killed in the incident. The fire that occurred burned for 2 days, and led to the sinking of the oil rig. (Timeline of events and images).

What we are seeing now is and will likely be the largest oil spill in this nation’s history. Exxon Valdez was big; this will be even larger in a matter of days and will likely continue to get larger due to unsuccessful effort to cap the oil well. What we are witnessing is a release of an estimated 5,000 barrels of crude oil, unrefined oil, a day. (A barrel of oil, abbreviated bbl, is equivalent to 42 US gallons.) The BBC has produced a great map of this incident and many articles and even video coverage of the situation. (Map/Article)

The entire outcome of this situation is a little uncertain at this point. What we do know is that BP is taking full reasonability for the cleanup efforts, and rightly so. BP was leasing the rig from a company called Transocean, who was in charge of the drilling activities under BP supervision, which sank causing this oil spill. Further, BP owns the oil well, and the area of ocean where the oil well is located, approximately 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. We know the extent of the spill. We know that it will make it to shore. The extent of the pollution and spill will have to be assessed as events unfold. So far over 1.6 million gallons of oil have been spilled and the oil continues to flow out of the well.

Nothing good will come from this. However, what is nice to see is that BP is taking responsibility, and has been very responsive toward the situation. BP has brought members of the Big 5 (ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips), the army, and the government together along with help from local fishermen to try and mitigate this mess. However, I don’t see this being a successful venture being as oil continues to flow from the well.