Wednesday, June 23, 2010
If this were China, people would have been executed by now.
My favorite place in the world has been destroyed. I'm sickened, for the people who live and work there, for myself, and for the dolphins that used to jump in the waves. I wonder if I'll ever be able to go back.
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17 comments:
It is so sad... I mean the kind of sad that confuses your emotions.
Yes you will be able to go back. When I was in high school there was an oil spill on the Delaware river. I was able to walk down to the river to see and smell the mess. I could see oil seeping out of the rocks and sand into the water.
All the plant life that touched the water had died. It was really quite bad.
I walked back there about 2 years later and everything had grown back. There was no trace of it at all.
You will be able to go back. The only questions is how soon will BP and the US gooberment get their, "poop in a group," and get the thing plugged.
"That terrible Nobody! How much he has to answer for. More mischief is
done by Nobody than by all the world besides. Nobody adulterates our
food. Nobody poisons us with bad drink. Nobody supplies us with foul
water. Nobody spreads fever in blind alleys and unswept lanes. Nobody
leaves towns undrained. Nobody fills gaols, penitentiaries, and convict
stations. Nobody makes poachers, thieves, and drunkards.
Nobody has a theory too--a dreadful theory. It is embodied in two
words--_Laissez faire_--Let alone."
S.Smiles 1892
I think you give too much credit to China.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_in_China
It is sad to see this happening in the US, however it's even sadder to see much worse happen in Niger and seeing nothing being done about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_the_Niger_Delta#Oil_spills
I was thinking about those dolphins while watching the 1963 movie "Flipper" on TCM tonight, but also wondering if any of the places in the Keys that were shown in that film remain unspoiled by condos.
The best thing about that photo is that it frames the oil with one reason we were drilling for it in the first place: vacation condos.
It is terrible. I hope faded is right, but I fear he/she is not. The oil may not be apparent on the surface to the eye, but they are still finding oil where the Exxon Valdez spill took place today.
This is a disaster of maximum proportion. It's heartbreaking.
[sigh] There are no words for how obscene the whole debacle is.
I also especially liked the dolphins.
The real disgusting part of this was the fact that it could have been avoided. The technology of blow preventers works if you are prepaired. Blowout preventers have stopped several blow outs since 1978.
The last well blow out like this was in 1978 in the Gulf of Mexico. It was a Pemex (Mexican State Oil Company) well that blew out. It fouled all of the Gulf Coast of Texas and parts of Mexico. The Gulf recovered completely from it. Interestingly enough the biggest help in that clean up was a hurricane. The wave action emulsified the oil and that disbursed it.
When you read the tech data on this blow out, it turns out that all three well cut off systems were not working. Two of the three systems are supposed to operate when they sense a sudden pressure change in the well or the control commands from the rig above stop arriving.
The batteries that run the electrical cut off system were allowed to run down so there was no power. The second system was hydraulic and designed to do the same thing. Some one did not check the pressure charge on the hydraulic system. The pressure was to low to operate the cut off.
The third system is mechanical and can activated by an R.O.V. That did not work and I have no information why.
I am not going to speculate on the details as to why conditions at the well got to the state they were in at the time of the blow out.
I suspect many of them will be social in nature. I make this comment based on the fact that I went to work for Union Carbide three weeks before they gassed Bopal India.
There was a company wide attitude about maintenance that was quite cavalier. If that attitude existed in the Bopal plant I can see how the accident would have ocured.
The plant I worked in had a process that would explode if cooling was lost and everyone took for granted that the protection systems would work. During the 2 years I worked there, nobody ever tested them.
If you do not respect the technology you are using the technology will beat the snot out of you. You will with that it had killed you.
My brother works on the North Slope up in Alaska and he was not at all surprised it was at a BP well. Apparently BP is notorious up in Alaska for always cutting corners and doing very shoddy work.
A typo in my last post. The sentance, "You will with that it had killed you." should read, "You will wish that it had killed you."
There was a suggestion from the Russians on how to close the leak. Use a small (10 kilo ton)nuke suspended just off the sea floor. It would compress the sea floor and close the well head. The fellow writing the article said it was done by the old Soviet Union when they had a problem like this and it worked nicely.
Any problem can be fixed, but at what cost?
I am sure some people will be upset withme just for writing this. I will put on my fire suit now.
Here in Louisiana I've heard some discussions about nuking it. Would it be done right is the question.
I've also heard BP is notorious for shoddy work in Alaska.
Apparently the people on the DH knew the blowout preventer was faulty and there were huge arguments about whether they should go ahead or not. It seems that the rig owner wanted to fix it and BP wanted to take the chance.
Here is a link to a Wall Street Journal Article on BP safety.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703964104575335154126721876.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
Hi. I'm a visitor of your blog from halfway across the globe. I wanted to ask a favor...
If you are friends with Cranky Epistles at all, could you please pass her a msg for me-
UNBLOCK YOUR BLOG! =(
I do not know her personally, but have derived some pleasurable moments from reading about her experiences. My scientific mind is often blown away by her imaginative one. I miss her blog. Tell her I am not some scary stalker next door (even though you can't verify this, I thought I'd still make the pitch). I'm 25 yrs old, and in medical school. My life is depressing. And I need blogs like hers to get by. Please tell her that.
I also like your blog. You should update more often though. Thanks!
My favorite place in the world is at Perdido Beach, about 25 miles west of Pensicola. There is a beach house, built by my great-grandfather 80 years ago. I have visited almost everyone of the 50 summers I have been alive. Including this year.
The scene, on this bay just off the Gulf, is beautiful and sad. There are booms off the beach, and booms closing the entrances to the lovely local creeks. Oil still gets though, and the fire department of this very tiny town rushes to clean it up. There are much fewer pelicans than in other years. In fact, they are outnumbered by helicopters that rush back and forth checking the scene.
There are fewer dolphins sighted in the bay, but we saw several fishing up the creeks. The osprey are still about, fishing and feeding their nestlings. Are they killing the baby birds by feeding them?
The scene is very quiet. Most boats come from the creeks, and those creeks are closed with booms. There are no boats fishing in the bay. There are fewer families there enjoying the beach, and almost noone swimming. I was one of the few.
This just one more problem the area will have to overcome. There was hurricane Ivan, in 2004, that hit the area hard. In prior years the beaches have been covered with seaweed. There have been a large number of catfish washing up dead on the beach. There were jellyfish invasions. On the next visit, these problems were gone. Except for Ivan, which took three years to recover from.
Please visit the Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi beaches again! The people who live and work there need your business! It is a depressing scene for them, like another hurricane, but slower.
What completely innocent said. :)
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