The chemicals BP is now relying on to break up the steady flow of leaking oil from deep below the Gulf of Mexico could create a new set of environmental problems.
Even if the materials, called dispersants, are effective, BP has already bought up more than a third of the world’s supply. If the leak from 5,000 feet beneath the surface continues for weeks, or months, that stockpile could run out.
On Thursday BP began using the chemical compounds to dissolve the crude oil, both on the surface and deep below, deploying an estimated 100,000 gallons. Dispersing the oil is considered one of the best ways to protect birds and keep the slick from making landfall. But the dispersants contain harmful toxins of their own and can concentrate leftover oil toxins in the water, where they can kill fish and migrate great distances.
The exact makeup of the dispersants is kept secret under competitive trade laws, but a worker safety sheet for one product, called Corexit, says it includes 2-butoxyethanol, a compound associated with headaches, vomiting and reproductive problems at high doses.
“There is a chemical toxicity to the dispersant compound that in many ways is worse than oil,” said Richard Charter, a foremost expert on marine biology and oil spills who is a senior policy advisor for Marine Programs for Defenders of Wildlife and is chairman of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council. “It’s a trade off – you’re damned if you do damned if you don’t -- of trying to minimize the damage coming to shore, but in so doing you may be more seriously damaging the ecosystem offshore.”
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_________________ True scientists don't manipulate complex data to get a simple answer they wanted to achieve from the start. That's not science.
TimeVirus Galactic Overlord
Posts: 26139
Posted: Sat May 01, 10 8:48 pm Post subject:
Now consider eco friendly bio-remediation techniques and ponder why we don't use them instead:
The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound released 10.8 million gallons of oil -- or almost 250,000 barrels of oil. But natural oil seeps off California release up to 80 times that amount. And natural seeps in the Gulf of Mexico release twice the amount as the Exxon Valdez every year.
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_________________ True scientists don't manipulate complex data to get a simple answer they wanted to achieve from the start. That's not science.
NukeDaddy Infinity Agent
Posts: 2608
Posted: Mon May 03, 10 5:35 pm Post subject:
I don't see the only option being a thermonuclear device....
_________________ "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like force, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." - George Washington
TimeVirus Galactic Overlord
Posts: 26139
Posted: Mon May 03, 10 11:59 pm Post subject:
I can't think of a case where a nuke has ever has been used to seal a well.
_________________ True scientists don't manipulate complex data to get a simple answer they wanted to achieve from the start. That's not science.
The National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) has offered to assist the US in efforts to prevent an ecological disaster caused by the spreading oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Following an explosion on a BP-operated oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico last month, at least 210,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) of crude oil are thought to be spilling into the water every day.
NIDC managing director Heidar Bahmani announced the firm's readiness to use its decades-long expertise to fight the oil slick, the company's public relations office told Press TV.
"Our oil industry experts in the field of drilling can contain the rig leakage in the Gulf of Mexico and prevent an ecological disaster in that part of the world," Bahmani said.
Overlooking the new US drive for slapping more UN sanctions on Iran over its civilian nuclear program, the company said that there is an urgent need for action to protect the nearby coasts from the advancing oil spill.
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_________________ True scientists don't manipulate complex data to get a simple answer they wanted to achieve from the start. That's not science.
BP's chief executive officer Tony Hayward repeatedly told Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep Monday that his company will pay all "legitimate claims" rising from its responsibility for the dynamic disaster from the free-flowing oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from his company's destroyed drilling project.
The current federal cap of $75 million in economic damages on what oil companies must pay certainly wouldn't be too challenging for a company the size of BP.
But $75 million wouldn't go very far considering the amount of economic losses that may be experienced by the fishing and tourism industries alone, sectors responsible for billions of dollars of annual economic activity.
So several Senate Democrats have introduced legislation that would raise that cap to $10 billion.
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_________________ True scientists don't manipulate complex data to get a simple answer they wanted to achieve from the start. That's not science.
WASHINGTON — Since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded on April 20, the Obama administration has granted oil and gas companies at least 27 exemptions from doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico.
The waivers were granted despite President Barack Obama’s vow that his administration would launch a “relentless response effort” to stop the leak and prevent more damage to the gulf. One of them was dated Friday — the day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he was temporarily halting offshore drilling .
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_________________ True scientists don't manipulate complex data to get a simple answer they wanted to achieve from the start. That's not science.
TimeVirus Galactic Overlord
Posts: 26139
Posted: Sat May 08, 10 9:06 am Post subject:
Southern Boys Show US Government How to Clean Up Oil With Hay!
_________________ True scientists don't manipulate complex data to get a simple answer they wanted to achieve from the start. That's not science.
Lizard Entropy Engineer
Posts: 816
Posted: Sat May 08, 10 10:15 am Post subject:
TimeVirus wrote:
I can't think of a case where a nuke has ever has been used to seal a well.
I seem to remember reading that the Russians have done it several times.
_________________ I will show you fear in a handful of dust
appel Infinity Agent
Posts: 3114
Posted: Sat May 08, 10 8:32 pm Post subject:
Say hello to the Gulf of Toxico (as opposed to Mexico).
_________________ Fighting the system since 1st grade.
Hannigan Reality Coordinator
Posts: 1029
Posted: Sun May 09, 10 6:08 am Post subject:
It was a conspiracy to ruin Jesse Venturas fishing and surfing.
_________________ True scientists don't manipulate complex data to get a simple answer they wanted to achieve from the start. That's not science.
TimeVirus Galactic Overlord
Posts: 26139
Posted: Fri May 14, 10 9:09 pm Post subject:
Although it seems like nothing is getting accomplished in the Gulf, and the situation is getting worse every day, the government has been involved in the clean-up effort since the beginning. They said that, as proof of their involvement, nothing has really been accomplished and the situation is getting worse every day.
-–Jay Leno
_________________ True scientists don't manipulate complex data to get a simple answer they wanted to achieve from the start. That's not science.
In a recent New York Times’ article “Less Toxic Dispersants Lose Out in BP Oil Spill Cleanup”, journalist Paula Quinlan questions why BP is using the 100 % toxic, 54 percent effective dispersant Corexit to clean up the oil when twelve other dispersants proved more effective in EPA testing.
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_________________ True scientists don't manipulate complex data to get a simple answer they wanted to achieve from the start. That's not science.
The U.S. government suppressed health information after 9/11. For example, as Newsday noted in 2003:
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, the White House instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to give the public misleading information, telling New Yorkers it was safe to breathe when reliable information on air quality was not available.
That finding is included in a report released Friday by the Office of the Inspector General of the EPA.
Because the government lied about the health risks involved, many heroic first responders didn't use any real precautions, and so have gotten sick and died. And see this.
The same thing appears to be happening in connection with the Gulf oil spill.
Specifically, marine toxicologist Ricki Ott writes:
Local fishermen hired to work on BP's uncontrolled oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico are scared and confused. Fishermen here and in other small communities dotting the southern marshes and swamplands of Barataria Bay are getting sick from the working on the cleanup, yet BP is assuring them they don't need respirators or other special protection from the crude oil, strong hydrocarbon vapors, or chemical dispersants being sprayed in massive quantities on the oil slick.
Fishermen have never seen the results from the air-quality monitoring patches some of them wear on their rain gear when they are out booming and skimming the giant oil slick. However, more and more fishermen are suffering from bad headaches, burning eyes, persistent coughs, sore throats, stuffy sinuses, nausea, and dizziness. They are starting to suspect that BP is not telling them the truth.
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_________________ True scientists don't manipulate complex data to get a simple answer they wanted to achieve from the start. That's not science.
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