Oil Spill Update: May 31st 2010

The newest update is that British Petroleum’s ‘top kill’ (animation, description from engineers) and ‘junk shot’ will join ‘top hat’ in the list of failed attempts. Early news of the ‘top kill” teetered for a few days between progress, stopping of the leak, progress, hesitation, and failure with no one really knowing the answer until BP’s statement of failure yesterday.  With out further ado the news round for the last few days.

• Who comes up with the procedure names for BP?  John Stewart proposes a few of his own. Neilhimself on twitter, “Vaguely disappointed to learn that BP’s “top kill procedure” will leave its entire executive strata alive”
• Louisianans dependent on shrimp season for income blast BP for killing their economy.  Best quote of the week: “Down here, we know how to deal with Mother Nature. But how do you deal with pure evil? That’s what I want to know.”
• BP’s top official upgrades the oil spill impact to “environmental catastrophe“.  No shit, really?  I hadn’t realized!
• Worst headline of the week: “Oil is going to flow for a while” in light of the failed ‘top kill’ attempt.
• Worst quote of the last week: “It’s a tribute to everybody that we only have 107 miles of shoreline oiled and only 32 acres of marsh.” Where as I praise the efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard, pardon me if I don’t start celebrating that only 107 miles of shore line and only 32 acres of marsh are ruined. Especially as the number of oiled birds and aquatic animals is rising as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill expands.  As the Gulf fishery closure is expanded to 54,096 sq. mi. – 22% of Gulf federal waters.   As carnage overwhelms the the wildlife of Grand Isle, one of my favorite places in the world.
• The newest “fix” procedure will require removing the broken drilling piper and capping the remaining valve with a siphon that would take oil to the surface.  The syphon will not form a perfect seal with the valve and some oil will continue to leak.  BP acknowledges themselves the new procedure is dicey and there will be ‘no certainty’ on outcome. Most likely scenario? Oil coming up until August when the relief wells are finished. On twitter, TheOilDrum noted “BP is now only drilling one relief well–imagine missing and other fixes fail. Come on guys.”
• Brian Merchant at TreeHugger lists 8 Shocking Things I Witnessed While Covering the Gulf Spill. Number One: thousands of dead fish washing ashore. On the flip side, Max Fischer at the Atlantic Wire lists 6 Reasons We Can’t Fix The Oil Spill.  Part of that list includes our limited knowledge of the deep sea.
• AP reports that a 22-mile oil plume was found under the Gulf surface. At the Gulf Oil Blog from the University of Georgia Department of Marine Sciences, you can find the most convincing evidence to date that deep waters do in fact contain oil. That deep-water plume may be leading to a  huge undersea ‘dead zone’. Of course, BP is disputing any claims by any scientists stating a deepwater plume exists. Thankfully, Asylum provides fun ways to measure to the size of the oil spill.
• Dr. Tom Linden at the University of North Carolina at Chapel argues that BP should put $200 billion into an escrow account to pay for claims that the federal government, not BP, considers “legitimate”.

• Will the oil spill reach the Florida Keys, the east coast, and come visit me in North Carolina? Some say yes, others no.
• How bad is the oil spill?  A Q&A at the Christian Science Monitor.
• Could a secret Saudi Arabian oil spill hold the fix for the Gulf of Mexico?
• BP seems keen on censorship.  They are blocking media from oil spill sites. Pulitzer-winning photographer Ted Jackson says access being “strangled off.” How does any cooperation, especially an international one, have the authority to prevent anyone from entering public lands?.  BP also tells the wildlife rescue group IBRRC to remove list of bird casualties fr their website. And to top things off nicely, the BP CEO is caught on tape ordering media to get away from oil-coated beach.
• Clifton Wiens reminds us on the twitter the name given to the BP deepwater spill site when it was a prospect was Macondo, the same name as the cursed town in Marquez’s “100 Years of Solitude.”
• SFriedScientist on Twitter states,  ”Marine conservation will be divided into “before spill” & “after spill” for the next century” Let’s hope that A.S. is more enlightened than B.S.   Check out SFS for a list of the bloggers and twitterers you need to follow other than DSN and myself, DrCraigMc, on Twitter. Also make sure you check out a blog from scientists at the oil spill site amid “a city of ships”

• The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute sends its autonomous underwater vehicle to study the Deepwater Horizon oil plume.
• New pictures of the oil rig burning and sinking from National Geographic
• As Gulf workers sicken, BP refuses to reveal formula for dispersant.
• Drill, baby, drill…oil executives sexed regulators.  You can’t make this stuff up! And we wonder why the oil industry isn’t better regulated.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, Obama fires head of the Minerals Management Service who oversees offshore drilling.
• Despite Obama’s original intent to allow for more offshore drilling, he has now decided to keep the ban on deep water drilling. Wonder why?
• A judge modifies the legal order limiting claims against the Deepwater Horizon owner.
• A video from the Ocean Futures Society taken by scuba divers in hazmat suites shows the oil spill from below the surface. You can go behind the scenes with the divers.
• You should read this. Why banning BP stations for the oil spill won’t work.  One reason is your likely only hurting local business owners.
• Thanks GOP for continuing to block oil spill liability legislation! Grand Old Party indeed!
• Need a website widget to tell you how much oil is spilled in the Gulf?

Finally, I present this set of pictures.  After viewing them I didn’t know whether to weep or vomit.  And sometimes because you need to laugh to keep from crying…”You know what the say about the ocean, once it goes black it will never go back”.