Oil spill: How bad it could get

This is soooo sad...I am in utter disbelief that something this terrible has happened....I wonder what will happen when the oil source from this well is depleted...I don't think it will be a happy occassion...

We haven't seen the worst of it I'm afraid.......

BP oil spill well could be fixed by late July, managing directory Bob Dudley says in interview

BY Sean Alfano
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, July 8th 2010, 10:48 AM

More than 140 million gallons later, BP is beaming with optimism that its blown-out underwater well spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico will be fixed before the end of July.

The oil giant’s new point man for the disaster pumped out some good news Thursday, telling the Wall Street Journal "it's possible to be ready to stop the well between July 20 and July 27."

However, Bob Dudley, the BP managing director who replaced CEO Tony Hayward as the face of the catastrophe, prefaced his remarks with, "In a perfect world with no interruptions."

And an "interruption" can come quick soon, as the BP head noted that a major storm or hurricane could derail his prediction.

The dates Dudley mentioned are significant.

July 20 is when UK Prime Minister David Cameron meets with Barack Obama about the spill, and on July 27, BP releases its second-quarter earnings.

BP has been feverishly trying to drill a relief well to stop the flow completely as vessels skim the Gulf of Mexico’s surface for oil.

Prior to Dudley’s comments, BP and the U.S. Coast Guard said the relief well could be finished by mid-August.

A spokesman for the oil company downplayed the July dates, and stuck with the August deadline.

"It is true that we are proceeding on exactly the same schedule as before, which means that it is most likely to happen in the first half of August," Andrew Gowers said in an-email to the Washington Post.

"You will note Bob Dudley's comment to the Journal that it is theoretically possible but UNLIKELY that it could happen a bit sooner," he added.

The well has been leaking since the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon well exploded off the Louisiana coast on April 20, killing 11 workers and triggering the worst oil disaster in U.S. history.

Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/07/08/2010-07-08_bp_oil_spill_well_could_be_fixed_by_late_july_managing_directory_bob_dudley_says.html#ixzz0t6i5yMq8

Seems that this just goes from bad to worse..However I would appreciat it if everyone reading this would spread the word that the West Coast of Florida has managed to escape the tar ball invasion...that is to say from Clearwater/Dunedin on SOUTHWARD...the St. Pete beaches have been untouched and I believe Sarasota/Ft. Meyers/Naples is still beautiful...I have heard on the radio that our beaches have been ruined...This falsehood is cooling the tourists that would normally come at this time of year...Yell it from the rooftops...don't believe what you haven't experienced for yourself, re: the conditions of Florida beaches...They are still beautiful...Take it from one who knows...

Estee-I just hope they get that thing fixed & soon. I'm glad your area is still clean and I really hope it stays that way.

Shedd staff helps sea turtles hurt by oil

July 8, 2010
BY KARA SPAK Staff Reporter

A Shedd Aquarium veterinary technician has joined the team in New Orleans caring for endangered, injured sea turtles left homeless by the Gulf oil spill.

Mayela Alsina is working in New Orleans at the Audubon Aquatic Center, the home for sea turtles, dolphins, whales and manatees affected by the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Alsina will be in the Gulf Coast for two weeks, and other Shedd staffers may make similar trips in the coming months, said Ken Ramirez, Shedd's executive vice president of animal collections and training.

The project's goal is to rehabilitate the sea turtles and eventually reintroduce them to a cleaned-up Gulf of Mexico, Ramirez said.

"If there are turtles that cannot survive on their own, they will probably find homes at zoos and aquariums like the Shedd," he said.

About 600 sea turtles were affected by the oil spill, many of them washing up on shore, dead. Sea turtles, hunted for years for soup meat and also unintentionally caught in fishing nets, were already endangered before the spill.

Ramirez said scientists are carefully monitoring nests of turtle eggs along the Gulf Coast.

After the young turtles hatch, they head out to sea, instinctively navigating a dangerous world of predator birds and powerful ocean waters.

"It's a miracle of life to watch these sea turtles survive," Ramirez said of the hatchlings. "The real tragedy would be if they come out to sea and encounter a huge oil spill. They wouldn't be able to survive that."

The aquarium staff has some experience dealing with marine wildlife and oil spills.

Kenai, a sea otter from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill scene, lives at the Shedd, one of only two otters from the disaster still alive in the United States, Ramirez said.

http://www.southtownstar.com/news/2476610,CST-NWS-shedd08.article

Official: Gulf spill could be contained by Monday
Combination of new cap, ship could collect all leaking oil

msnbc.com news services
updated 1 hour 28 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS — The BP oil leak could be completely contained as early as Monday if a new, tighter cap can be fitted over the blown-out well, the government official in charge of the crisis said Friday in some of the most encouraging news to come out of the Gulf in the 2½ months since the disaster struck.

If the project planned to begin this weekend is successful, it would simply mean no more oil would escape to foul the Gulf of Mexico. The well would still be busted and leaking — workers would just funnel what comes out of it to tankers at the surface. The hope for a permanent solution remains with two relief wells intended to plug it completely far beneath the seafloor.

"I use the word 'contained,'" said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen. "'Stop' is when we put the plug in down below."

Crews using remote-controlled submarines plan to swap out the cap over the weekend, taking advantage of a window of good weather following weeks of delays caused by choppy seas.

The cap now in use was installed June 4 to capture oil gushing from the bottom of sea, but because it had to be fitted over a jagged cut in the well pipe, it allows some crude to escape into the Gulf. The new cap — dubbed "Top Hat Number 10" — is designed to fit more snugly and help BP catch all the oil.

During the installation, the gusher will get worse before it gets better. Once the old cap is removed, oil will pour into the Gulf unhindered for about 48 hours while the new one is put in place, Allen said.

BP also worked on Friday to hook up another containment ship called the Helix Producer to a different part of the leaking well. The ship, which will be capable of sucking up more than 1 million gallons a day when it is fully operating, should be working by Sunday, Allen said.

The government estimates 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons of oil a day are spewing from the well, and the existing cap is collecting about 1 million gallons of that. With the new cap and the new containment vessel, the system will be capable of capturing 2.5 million to 3.4 million gallons — essentially all the leaking oil, officials said.

The plan had originally been to hook up the Helix Producer and install the new cap separately, but the favorable weather convinced officials the time was right for both operations.

"Everybody agrees we got the weather to do what we need," Allen said. He said the calm weather is expected to last seven to 10 days.

In a response late Friday to Allen's request for detailed plans about the new cap, the Helix Producer and the relief wells, BP managing director Bob Dudley confirmed that the leak could be contained by Monday.

But Dudley included plans for another scenario, which includes possible problems and missteps for the installation of the cap that would push the work back until Thursday.

The past 80 days have seen the failure of one technique after another to stop the leak, from a huge containment box to a "top kill" and a "junk shot." The latest approach is not a sure thing either, warned Louisiana State University environmental sciences professor Ed Overton.

"Everything done at that site is very much harder than anyone expects," he said. Overton said putting on the new cap carries risks: "Is replacing the cap going to do more damage than leaving it in place, or are you going to cause problems that you can't take care of?"

Containing the leak will not end the crisis that began when the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. The relief wells are still being drilled so they can inject heavy mud and cement into the leaking well to stop the flow, which is expected to be done by mid-August. Then a monumental cleanup and restoration project lies ahead.

Some people in Louisiana's oil-soaked Plaquemines Parish were skeptical that BP can contain the oil so soon.

"Too many lies from the beginning. I don't believe them anymore," oyster fisherman Goyo Zupanovich said while painting his boat at a marina in Empire, La.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38166486/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/

I sure hope, for the sake of the people who live & work down there, as well as for all the wildlife & their habitats, that this cap holds.

No promises as BP to test new cap for oil leak

Jul 13, 2010 11:42am

(NECN/CNN: New Orleans) - BP prepared today to begin tests to see if the new cap on the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico will hold.

The oil giant expects to know within 48 hours if the new cap, which was affixed Monday after almost three days of work a mile below the gulf's surface, can stanch the flow.

National Incident Commander Thad Allen said that after that time officials may know whether pressure has been relieved, but he emphasized that the operation is extremely complicated.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration issued a revised moratorium
on deepwater offshore drilling Monday to replace the one that was
struck down by the courts as heavy-handed. The new ban, in effect
until Nov. 30, does not appear to deviate much from the original
moratorium, as it still targets deep-water drilling operators while
defining them in a different way.

* Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

http://www.necn.com/07/13/10/No-promises-as-BP--to-test-new-cap-for-o/landing.html?blockID=270561&feedID=4215

Julie wrote:My Mom told me about this poor little baby dolphin who ended up dying.

Obviously I am very late to respond to this as I just found thr RC site, yes the dolphin died and the very same day a captain of a boat in Alabama committed suicide. I live on P-Cola Beach and was out there when this happened, everyone was crying including grown men, news anchors etc., this was the really only bad time we got hit. LA and MS are in really bad shape but it's rebounded here very quickly. I snorkeled about 5 hrs every weekend and would swim every day when I got home after work, we have abundant marine life return once the water cooled to the 80's, it was 91 most of the summer.....this was way to hot and decreased oxygen levels, but once it did get to the 87 degress temps the dolphin, manta rays, turtles,ghost crab, pompano and all marine life was thriving. Here is a picture and I think you can see the pompano in it, and the manta rays in some of these.... but with a mask on it was amazing to witness all summer. No one here will ever forget the day the dolphin died and the momma dolphin was circling and looking for her baby for hours, but to my knowledge the necropsy came back negative. Still, a intense summer but we were the lucky ones out of everyone that was hit.

IslandGirl, thanks so much for the updates and for the pictures. I can see the pompano in the first picture and the second one is such a relaxing scene. I'm glad to hear that the sealife is rebounding from this terrible tragedy. I wish the baby dolphin would have lived, I hate when animals die, especially due to something like this. I hope you post more pictures as time goes by.

Julie wrote:IslandGirl, thanks so much for the updates and for the pictures. I can see the pompano in the first picture and the second one is such a relaxing scene. I'm glad to hear that the sealife is rebounding from this terrible tragedy. I wish the baby dolphin would have lived, I hate when animals die, especially due to something like this. I hope you post more pictures as time goes by.

Your welcome If you have a FB a/c I have 2 open albums that show the beach here and the conditions. It is intensely serene and peaceful, and I loved when the weekend would roll around and I could spend hours lost in schools of fish, nobody around just me and the animals. I had to get a shot or two of Patron that day, it was June 23rd or 24th and it was the big hit the beach took, mostly west of the pier on Ft. Pickens road and the east where I lives escaped far better due to the currents near the west end drawing the oil into the bay and sound. I have never seen so many ppl on the beach as I did that day (other than blue angel weekend) and news anchors were a dime a dozen, but everyone was distraught about the dolphin:( I will gladly post more pictures for you and next yr I am investing in a digital underwater camera, there is really no way to explain what I see other than to photograph it, so I will. Such a senseless disaster and the ppl in LA and MS are really suffering. We escaped unscathed for the most part and the tourist I spoke with never even noticed.

These are some of my favorite photos I took here ....we are so blessed

IslandGirl, thanks for the added pictures. I do not have a FB acct, but do appreciate the ones you put here. I would love to see the underwater pictures, once you get the underwater camera.

btw, Welcome to RC!!!

Oh my, you are blessed! It's so beautiful........thank you for sharing! I'm glad your area went unscathed, that was a miracle.