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AP reports that the containment cap has been replaced, after a robot bent on human destruction bumped it out of alignment. While the cap was off for a day, at least 40,000 and probably more like 100,000 barrels of oil gushed into the water unchecked. But I want to focus on this piece buried in the AP story:
While the cap was off, clouds of black oil gushed unchecked again at up to 104,000 gallons per hour, though a specialized ship at the surface managed to suck up and incinerate 438,000 gallons.
The oil-burning ship is part of an armada floating at the site of the rogue well some 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, and the scene below the surface is no less crowded. At least a dozen robotic submarines dangle from ships at the surface on mile-long cables called “umbilicals,” with most of the undersea work taking place within a few hundred yards of the busted well.
We haven’t heard a lot about this specialized ship that’s burning 438,000 gallons of fossil fuels a day into the atmosphere. While that’s not a lot in the grand scheme of things – more fossil fuels are burned in large cities during a single morning commute – this is pure crude, and seemingly no sanctions are being placed on anyone for burning up the atmosphere in this fashion.
This is at least the second ship burning oil, and it’s been deployed for at least a week, with a capacity of up to 10,000 barrels (600,000 gallons) a day. Who is allowing BP to just burn oil at the surface of the water? You guessed it, the Minerals Management Service, which authorized burning up to 12,000 barrels.
Clearly there are a lot of trade-offs here, and you have to weigh burning oil against allowing it to wash ashore. But do we know anything about the effects of this on the environment? The MMS seal of approval shouldn’t exactly comfort anyone. Nor should BP’s claims:
BP said the burner used for the operation has “very high” combustion efficiency and is not expected to cause much smoking. Respirators have been distributed to personnel working in the area.
But we know that BP has under-reported pollutant exposure, and that they have not distributed enough respirators to cleanup workers in other parts of the Gulf. So I don’t buy it.
I’ll be digging into this a bit more…
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The other interesting slant in this piece is the term “rogue well.” Language creates perception, so I guess BP would have us believe this well went bad all by itself.
It seems like we’re always stuck between two miserable choices, doesn’t it?
i wish i had the money to leave this country,it has broken my heart
The real story of how the Smoke Monster got created.
Why isn’t all of this fuel being collected instead of burned?
The Tragic Manicheanist.
Not enough storage, up in smoke is better than in the water.
True, in a “being punched in the nuts is better than being shot in the face” sort of way.
So, where’s the picture of this special ship? I just see a view of an oil slick burn on the water surface that seems not a very efficient way to manage the spill, not to mention environmentally friendly. There is a ship that’s burning off gas captured at the wellhead supposedly.
Smoke goes up, gets into clouds, rain falls.
More carcinogens into the system, one way or the other.
Thanks for this David, look forward to learning more.
What the Bad Guys aren’t expecting but surely comes with this “Operation Toxic Soup” is that people are WAKING UP quickly and have begun to take action. The REVOLUTION is beginning. This video is a glimpse of the people rising up in the Gulf regions:
http://video.godlikeproductions.com/video/Kindra_Arnesan_-_Quoted_on_PBS_Newshour_6232010
Please dig some more, endangered sea turtles are being burned alive in BP’s cleanup efforts. There is a pilot project in place to increase biological observers on boats near those “Burn Boxes.” Just so we hear more about this burning ‘solution’.
BP Blocks Sea Turtle Rescue, Wildlife Photos, and Interviews
http://seaturtles.org/article.php?id=1660
It’s as if BP were a government contractor with all the power and none of the responsibility.
There are reports of oil rain in Louisiana. If true, I wonder if the burnoff might be the reason. Anyone have first hand experience with the oil rain?
You have to wonder what all this burned-up carbon does for the breathability of the air at the surface of the water.
Reuters is reporting on a research team from Texas A & M that has found incredibly high levels of methane within a 5 mile radius of the broken well head.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65L6IA20100622
THANK YOU THANK YOU. IMHO this is a chance to leverage Big Ag against Big Oil
David, A greater danger involving Corexit 9500, and as outlined by Russian scientists in this report, is that with its 2.61ppm toxicity level, and when combined with the heating Gulf of Mexico waters, its molecules will be able to “phase transition” from their present liquid to a gaseous state allowing them to be absorbed into clouds and allowing their release as “toxic rain” upon all of Eastern North America.
Among serious other ecological disasters, ConAgra cannot make any money if oil and dispersents are raining on the Eastern half of the U.S.
I hate Big Ag, but they might be of help in this.
Plenty of good links in Mary Mccurrrins Seminal thread from speakingupnow.
Apologies for all the errors in this post.
We probably need a huge shop vac effort. U.S. Navy and all available vessel sucking the oil, methane, water, mixture out and separating it. AFAIK, dispersants make it tougher to pick up the oil.
I will gladly defer to others who know a lot more.
Not enough storage? How do you know?
Why not take this shit all to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and dump it there? I don’t recall that being full. This buring it away is simply insane.
Honestly, the three Stooges, Marx Brothers and Keystone cops could all do better than all these bozos; and no disrespect to bozo. I cannot find names descriptive enough for BP and MMS.
That link is a gateway to horseshit. I am not saying that more calamity is yet to come (I am sure it is), but I need to see better reporting than that place on the worst.
Everyone needs to view this video ASAP
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385×478663
Amazing video. Sickening how corrupt this country is.
Here is Linda Arnesen @ the Gulf Emergency Summit. Well worth the 15 minutes…. Dang jedimenbcko19 got it first… Dam good video!!
Who’s allowing BP to build an artificial island in Alaska, so they can get around the offshore drilling ban? Yeah, guess who….
This stinks to high heaven — while BP fouls the Gulf of Mexico, they are preparing to start drilling their LIBERTY WELL placing their drilling rig on a gravel island that they built so they can call it ONSHORE DRILLING!
A New York Times article said that BP’s Liberty project was exempt from the Obama administration’s recent moratorium on drilling in Arctic waters and was treated as an onshore project because the project sits atop an artificial island built by BP.
The NYT also said that federal regulators had in 2007 allowed BP to write its own environmental review for the project rather than conducting their own independent analysis.
Well…this is 2010 — what about that New Sheriff in Town?
You actually have to show it. Until you do, I will go with my horsesh*t.
OT, I am the last one to want to overstate the case.
It starts the first paragraph with this “dire report”, with a general link to the MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION, not to the report. Where is the report? this is from MAY 24th, BTW. It’s a month later. Where’s the report? So far, this is just hearsay. Then from there it goes on with all these deadly problems, citing links, that are, well, useless or add nothing to what it being postulated.
I feel this will keep on getting much, much worse, but, if this EU Times is going to say all this, they should try to back it up with something besides chicken little postulating. Maybe the oil dome will collapse which will crack the earths core and blow the planet apart, too! That’s just speculation even though fears of a collapse of the dome have been postulated. I could link to them but it would not make my speculation of the planet blowing apart any more probable than the movie 2012 happening in real life.
It starts the first paragraph with this “dire report”, with a general link to the MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION, not to the report. Where is the report? this is from MAY 24th, BTW. It’s a month later. Where’s the report? So far, this is just hearsay. Then from there it goes on with all these deadly problems, citing links, that are, well, useless or add nothing to what it being postulated.
I feel this will keep on getting much, much worse, but, if this EU Times is going to say all this, they should try to back it up with something besides chicken little postulating. Maybe the oil dome will collapse which will crack the earths core and blow the planet apart, too! That’s just speculation even though fears of a collapse of the dome have been postulated. I could link to them but it would not make my speculation of the planet blowing apart any more probable.
Look around the site, also. Some articles you will know, but a many have an odd Libertarian/teabagger slant to them. For example, Obama Democrats have Declared War on the States which in the first paragraph promotes “Former Marine and Constitutional Democrat Tim Curtis” in FL, whatever that is/means. There’s this article which seems to suggest France is half black and half arab, if I read that right.
As I said, it’s a horseshit site, IMO. Take it with a big grain of salt.
David:
In addition to the particulates generated by the burning of oil, you might want to read about the effects of flaring and venting the huge amounts of gas, estimated to be 40% of what’s coming up from the Macondo well. See, e.g., Gas Flaring Emission Contributes to Global Warming.
Fight, no problem. I appreciate the intelligent and helpful response.
I and most people at FDL want to get it right. Overstating and misstating hurt our long term goals.
I think the questions about evaporation and degradation of U.S. agricultural resources are genuine. I hope DDay has time to research it as that will put pressure on USDA and EPA.
OT, wrt GHSs, burning the methane is a plus over releasing it directly into the atmosphere.