Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

ziggy wrote:Indeed very complicated. The ocean floor is only 5,000 feet though (I say that with absolutely no idea if that is too far to send dive crews).

Yes, it is too deep for humans. Everything they're having to do down there has to be done by little machines (robots) "steered" by remote control. We get so much coverage of this here because we're so close. It is my understanding that we've been offered all kinds of assistance and equipment from a lot of other countries. No one knows how to stop plug this . . . it has never been done before at this depth.

I wish they would try more ways to soak up the oil. If this thing was plugged tomorrow, there's still a lot of oil that needs to be absorbed. It isn't just going to disappear.

Ugh. The oil is now reaching parts of Dauphin Island, Alabama. Dauphin Island is a barrier island three miles south of the mouth of the Mobile Bay.

Kay wrote:Ugh. The oil is now reaching parts of Dauphin Island, Alabama. Dauphin Island is a barrier island three miles south of the mouth of the Mobile Bay.

Oil will be here this afternoon.

Sorry about the oil comming.
Take a picture if there is anything to take a picture of.

Scott wrote:Sorry about the oil comming.
Take a picture if there is anything to take a picture of.

I will try. I guess the "good news" is that the oil that is sheen which broke off from a larger blob. The larger blob is still 55 miles out.

Kay wrote:

Kay wrote:Ugh. The oil is now reaching parts of Dauphin Island, Alabama. Dauphin Island is a barrier island three miles south of the mouth of the Mobile Bay.

Oil will be here this afternoon.

What happened?

Scott wrote:

Kay wrote:

Kay wrote:Ugh. The oil is now reaching parts of Dauphin Island, Alabama. Dauphin Island is a barrier island three miles south of the mouth of the Mobile Bay.

Oil will be here this afternoon.

What happened?

Nothing yet. The closest sheen if four miles off of Pensacola Beach and six miles off Navarre Beach. For some reason the two counties' emergency management services had cased operations when the oil was staying out in the Gulf. I don't know if the shift in the winds was sudden and it was unexpected when it got so close, but they've now reactivated. At least they've had a month to get ready and get some cleanup personnel trained and in place. There are booms everywhere. There isn't anything else to do but wait, and figure out how to clean up what comes ashore. And again, this is just some oil that broke off the larger "pieces" out in the Gulf. It'll be worse if/when that stuff comes in.

BP was able to saw off the broken pipe coming out of the ocean floor. Unfortunately, it is an irregular cut, so it will make capping the pipe more difficult. They should know within 24 hours if it will stop the spill. (I think it is weird to call it a "spill" since it is really spewing oil out of the ground.)

In my totally non-professional opinion, it seems like the majority of the efforts are going towards stopping the leak, as perhaps it should. Maybe once it is stopped, then there will be more efforts toward the cleanup. I just don't know what is going to happen to all that oil out in the deep waters. Lord help us if we have a hurricane in the Gulf.

I am leaving in a couple of hours to chaperone a middle school field trip to Universal Studios in Orlando. We're taking a charter bus, riding eight hours to get there, doing the park all day, and getting right back on the bus and riding eight hours to get home. I will update about the oil spill Saturday night. Unless I'm in jail after murdering the busload of kids. Then you can discuss my crime in this forum.

Well it is here. It started off as small tar balls washing up. They were easy to pick up. Now there is oil washing up that is described as being like melted chocolate in consistency. The oil has come into Perdido Pass and Pensacola Pass, which are inter-coastal waterways. The inter-coastal waterways connect the gulf to the bays, sound, rivers, etc. If a lot of oil is allowed to come in, it will go into all those different bodies of water.

As typical, it is somewhat of a cluster-fuck because federal, state and county agencies are all involved, but none seem to be working with each other. The local Florida government did not know oil had come into Perdido Pass until the Unified Command announced it at a press conference (the pass is half Florida's, half Alabama's). The local government is in charge of some waterways and have closed them. The Coast Guard is in charge of the inter-coastal waterways and have closed one but not the other. The locals wants it closed now and large booms set up. These agencies are scrambling to try to get things in place, even though they've had 52 days to prepare. Some of the booming systems are failing totally, or only capturing a portion of the oil.
The thicker oil is expected in the next few days.