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More Oil Arriving — Why Now?
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More Oil Arriving

Gulf Gusher symbolFirst off, Pensacola Pass was closed at 7PM CDT tonight to block any oil entering overnight. This has been expected all day because of the entry of oil through Perdido Pass with the tide, and the fact that there is a Huge plume of weathered oil 9 miles south of Pensacola Pass

A large plume of weathered oil has been found nine miles south of Pensacola Pass. The plume is two miles wide and goes south for 40 miles, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

An additional plume of non-weathered oil has been verified six miles south of Escambia County, the DEP said in a press release.

The communications screw-up over Perdido Pass is just the latest problem that is causing the officials from many of the counties on the Florida Panhandle to talk openly about a split from oil unified command, and is causing state officials to start talking about demanding that BP put a significant amount of money into an escrow account to cover the costs of defending the state from the slimy assault of BP’s Well from Hell.

This new wave of oil is the rusty-brown “mousse”, rather than the black weathered tar balls. As the Pensacola Beach Blogger noted, the new stuff looks a bit too much like chocolate. He is concerned with children who find it putting it in their mouths.

A lot of people [alas, not including me until now] have realized that the large litter box scoops are an effective way of picking up tar balls. I would think that “pooper scoopers” would also work without as much bending over, and either would be more effective than picking it up by hand.

8 comments

1 JuanitaM { 06.12.10 at 8:41 pm }

40 miles LONG! These plumes are just huge, aren’t they?

What am I saying? Of course they are – this well has been billowing out crude and gas for over a month and a half.

Has any of the rusty-brown stuff gotten to your beaches yet?

2 Bryan { 06.12.10 at 10:04 pm }

We’ve gone from the black to the chocolate tar balls, but it’s only a matter of time because the oil is still pouring out. This stuff is already in the water, so, even if they stop the flow tomorrow, it is going to come ashore. The only thing that would save the beaches now is a week of wind out of the Northeast, and that isn’t likely to happen unless a tropical storm pops up and goes ashore to the East of us.

The best we can hope for is to keep it out of the bays and wetlands.

3 JuanitaM { 06.13.10 at 9:17 am }

And there just seems to be no end to it.

You were right all along, BP is more concerned with retrieving the oil than they are with keeping the Gulf safe. That’s where the money is. That pipe won’t shut down until they’ve figured out how to get all that oil in their pockets. They’re going to need it for the lawsuits.

4 hipparchia { 06.13.10 at 12:14 pm }

We’ve gone from the black to the chocolate tar balls,

more like the melted chocolate gloop globs, id say.

5 Bryan { 06.13.10 at 1:34 pm }

Juanita, they just don’t understand what this looks like to everyone else. They keep altering their PR without solving the problem. The whole effort would seem to be the result of someone saying that they might as well make some money while they wait for the relief well to be drilled.

Truth be told, I thought it looked more like a sign that you needed to change the cat food and make a vet appointment. That’s my reaction when I see it in a litter box.

6 Kryten42 { 06.13.10 at 11:01 pm }

I saw 60 Minutes last night and they did a special on the disaster. A news crew were alowwed for the first time into the area where the rig went down, and into the Louisiana swamps and mashes covered in miles of toxic oil and muck. The reporter created a blog about it:
Michael Usher: Oil ‘like melted tar’

I hope a video of the program becomes available, it should! It was quite powerful, and very sad. However, there is a full transcript available:

The Poison Tide

This about sums it up for me, from a Luisiana Shrimper and Restaurant owner:

KINDRA ARNESEN: Can they fix it? Maybe in 30 years – good luck. They have murdered the Gulf.

MICHAEL USHER: Kindra Arnesen is one of thousands of locals whose lives face ruin. Why don’t you show me on board? Her family has fished these waters for two decades, now, their shrimping boat lies idle. More than 22,000 square kilometres of America’s most fertile fishing grounds have been closed. It’s a way of life that’s been ruined.

KINDRA ARNESEN: It is a way of life that has been ruined. They’ve killed a food source. The Gulf produces the best-tasting seafood you’ll ever eat.

MICHAEL USHER: Used to.

KINDRA ARNESEN: Yeah, used to, you hit the nail on the head – once upon a time. I guess that’ll be something in history.

MICHAEL USHER: That’s sad.

KINDRA ARNESEN: That’s heartbreaking. It’s disgusting.

A video would be better, her anger and disgust were very palpable and real.

And this:

MICHAEL USHER: Incredibly, 115 rig workers did survive, among them, chief electronics technician, Mike Williams, in charge of the rig’s computers and electrical systems.

MIKE WILLIAMS: I heard this awful hissing noise, this whoosh. And at the height of the hiss, a huge explosion. It’s just take-your-breath-away type explosions, shake-your-body-to-the-core explosions. Take your vision away, from the percussion, explosions.

MICHAEL USHER: It was chaos. All safety procedure went to hell, the life boats had been launched, leaving Mike and many others behind. He made a split-second decision to jump from the burning 10-storey rig.

MIKE WILLIAMS: I remember closing my eyes and saying a prayer, and asking God to tell my wife and my little girl that Daddy did everything he could. I made those three steps, and I pushed off the end of the rig. And I fell for what seemed like forever. A lot of things go through your mind.

MICHAEL USHER: Deepwater Horizon was BP’s crowning glory in the Gulf. The $400 million operation had drilled deeper than any oil rig in history – 10 kilometres straight down. And not a single worker had been injured in seven years. But there were problems, and a lot of pressure from management.

MIKE WILLIAMS: You always kind of knew that, in the back of your mind, that when they start throwing these big numbers around there was going to be a push coming, to pick up production and pick up the pace.

MICHAEL USHER: Critically, three weeks before the explosion, a crewman’s mistake damaged a crucial safety seal on a device known as the blowout preventer, designed to stop an explosion. The problem was discussed at a safety meeting onboard Deepwater Horizon. Mike Williams says the rig’s owner, Transocean, suggested a temporary shutdown. But BP, which owns the oil, demanded drilling continue.

MIKE WILLIAMS: I had the BP company man sitting directly beside me. And he literally perked up and said, “Well, my process is different, “and I think we’re going to do it this way.” So there was sort of a chest bumping kind of deal. The communication seemed to really break down as to who was ultimately in charge.

I really hope BP and those other companies responsible, are destroyed.

7 Kryten42 { 06.13.10 at 11:05 pm }

TONY HAYWARD: There is no-one who wants this thing over more than I. I would like my life back.

KINDRA ARNESEN: Me too! Me too! I’d love my life back. My restaurant remains closed because I don’t have time for my business right now. ‘Cause I have to take care of Tony Hayward’s business, because he can’t take care of it hisself! My heart says I’d like to spit in Hayward’s face, to be perfectly honest with you. He disgusts me.

MICHAEL USHER: The clean-up will take years, and BP has accepted full responsibility. So far, it has cost them $1.5 billion. Their headlong pursuit of profit now has them haemorrhaging money as fast as the oil gushing from their ruptured pipeline. But don’t expect sympathy from anyone around here.

KINDRA ARNESEN: Now their stocks are plummeting? Aw, you want a towel to cry on? Maybe you should use the one that’s soaked in my tears!

I’d love to leave Hayward in a room with Arnesen!! He wouldn’t last a minute, and it would be just what he deserves. I know that every time I see his face, I wish I was there with my trusty old Weatherby! I’d very soon wipe the smug smile off!

8 Bryan { 06.13.10 at 11:33 pm }

And, yet, the politicians in Louisiana and Mississippi are now complaining about the moratorium. They haven’t stopped the leak and these fools think that more wells should be drilled – it boggles the mind.

Florida is looking at almost 200K lost jobs and over $10 billion in losses. We have never profited from the oil industry, but we are expected to put up with their mistakes? I don’t think so!

If British Tory politicians like the new PM, Cameron, and London mayor, Johnson, keep leaping to the defense of BP, people may decide that it isn’t just a problem with a corporation, but with a foreign government.

I have a news flash for the clowns trying to drum up sympathy for the BP shareholders – the system is called capitalism. You went for the profit, and now you have pay for the risk. BP has wiped out peoples’ businesses and way of life – they aren’t interested in the financial hardships of shareholders.