From
April 30, 2010
The massive oil spill pouring from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to reach the Louisiana coast today, threatening hundreds of species and prompting an environmental catastrophe.
As BP faced growing accusations that it had tried to play down the scale of disaster after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank last week, the US authorities said that five times more oil was surging into the Gulf from the seabed than had been calculated previously.
President Obama was briefed on the disaster and ordered Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary, and Ken Salazar, the Interior Secretary, down to the Gulf Coast today.
Mr Obama also ordered the US military to get involved in the increasingly urgent effort to contain the disaster, an operation now involving 1,100 people and more than 70 vessels. Last night the Governor of Louisiana declared a state of emergency.
At a White House press conference, Mrs Napolitano and Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama’s spokesman, made clear that, under US law, BP was responsible for the spill and the cost of the clean-up, on a day in which the British company’s shares tumbled.
Mrs Napolitano declared the spill one of “national significance”, which allows the federal Government to use resources and personnel across America to deal with the growing emergency.
With winds pushing an enormous slick about half the size of Wales towards shore today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that each day the rig’s broken drill pipe was spewing 210,000 gallons of oil — 40 road tankers — into the sea. The previous estimate was of 42,000 gallons a day.
US experts are now fearful that it could take weeks, or even months, to shut off the ruptured pipe — yesterday a third leak was discovered — meaning that within two months the spill would surpass the 11 million gallons that leaked from the Exxon Valdez tanker in the notorious spillage off the Alaska coast in 1989, America’s previous worst oil disaster.
News that five times more oil was pumping into the Gulf was delivered by Rear-Admiral Mary Landry at an awkward news conference where tensions and disagreements between the US Coast Guard and BP over the scale of the disaster were laid bare.
The Gulf Restoration Network, an environmental campaign group, warned that the leak could eclipse the Exxon Valdez disaster, and accused BP of trying to cover up the scale of this spill.
“This underscores our concerns that BP is influencing the spin on this oil drilling disaster, and obfuscating the truth to protect their brand,” said Aaron Wiles, the group’s campaign co-ordinator.
“We remain terrified about the scale of this disaster, as it’s clear that there are not enough containment resources to effectively protect the Gulf Coast,” he added.
It also emerged yesterday that the oil rig did not have a remote-controlled shut-off switch used in other oil-producing nations, such as Norway and Brazil, which could have closed down the well after the explosion.
The device, known as an acoustic switch, is not required under US law, but the lack of one added to questions about BP’s operation of the Deepwater Horizon. It exploded 50 miles off the Louisiana coast on April 20. The cause of the blast, which killed 11 of the 111 workers on board and set the rig ablaze before it eventually sank, has yet to be determined.
Mr Suttles said that Deepwater Horizon was equipped with other safety devices that should have prevented this type of spill, in which the oil is coming out of fractures on a severed pipe connected to the wellhead, 5,000ft below the surface.
As dawn broke yesterday in the oil industry hub of Venice, 75 miles from New Orleans and not far from the mouth of the Mississippi, crews loaded orange oil booms on board a supply boat at Bud’s Boat Launch.
There, local officials expressed frustration with the pace of the Government’s response and the communication they were getting from the Coast Guard and BP officials.
“We’re not doing everything we can do,” said Billy Nungesser, the president of Plaquemines Parish, which is sited on both sides of the Mississippi at the tip of Louisiana.
Dozens of vessels were trying to contain the spill, using a variety of methods. Crews triggered a series of controlled fires to burn off the thickest parts of the slick, while booms, skimmers and chemical dispersants were trying to stop the rest from reaching shore. Heavy seas, forecast to last into next week, are hampering the operation.
BP was due to start drilling a new “relief” well that would allow them to stop the flow from the seabed, although officials said that it would take at least two months to complete.
A separate effort was also under way to try to place a dome on the ruptured wellhead but that, too, could take weeks.
BP has also tried, unsuccessfully, to close the wellhead using submersible robots.
More than 400 species are threatened by the oil, including wading birds and sea otters. The Gulf’s abundant oyster and shrimping grounds are also in danger of severe damage.
The vast and ecologically delicate Louisiana wetlands, already damaged by hurricanes, could face catastrophe if they become clogged up by oil. The 100-mile by 45-mile slick also threatens the coasts of Alabama and Mississippi.
Marine and coastal life from the smallest plankton to the resident sperm whales will all be affected, experts say. Valuable fisheries for oyster and menhaden fish are at risk, as is the breeding of endangered turtles and bluefin tuna.
If the slick spreads, the rare manatees of the Florida panhandle could be under threat.
Much depends on where the slick ends up and the success of the efforts to contain it.
If it is taken by the Gulf’s defining current, which is known as the Loop, the oil may also reach the Florida Keys and endanger the region’s coral and resident marine populations.
The type of oil leaking from the sea floor is complicating matters. It is called sweet crude, which contains heavy compounds, known as asphaltenes, that do not burn easily or evaporate, even on the warm Louisiana coast.
With light crude, both burning and chemical dispersants work well, but neither tactic is very effective against sweet crude, raising fears that nothing can be done to stop the oil reaching shore.
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7112157.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2
As BP faced growing accusations that it had tried to play down the scale of disaster after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank last week, the US authorities said that five times more oil was surging into the Gulf from the seabed than had been calculated previously.
President Obama was briefed on the disaster and ordered Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary, and Ken Salazar, the Interior Secretary, down to the Gulf Coast today.
Mr Obama also ordered the US military to get involved in the increasingly urgent effort to contain the disaster, an operation now involving 1,100 people and more than 70 vessels. Last night the Governor of Louisiana declared a state of emergency.
At a White House press conference, Mrs Napolitano and Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama’s spokesman, made clear that, under US law, BP was responsible for the spill and the cost of the clean-up, on a day in which the British company’s shares tumbled.
Mrs Napolitano declared the spill one of “national significance”, which allows the federal Government to use resources and personnel across America to deal with the growing emergency.
With winds pushing an enormous slick about half the size of Wales towards shore today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that each day the rig’s broken drill pipe was spewing 210,000 gallons of oil — 40 road tankers — into the sea. The previous estimate was of 42,000 gallons a day.
US experts are now fearful that it could take weeks, or even months, to shut off the ruptured pipe — yesterday a third leak was discovered — meaning that within two months the spill would surpass the 11 million gallons that leaked from the Exxon Valdez tanker in the notorious spillage off the Alaska coast in 1989, America’s previous worst oil disaster.
News that five times more oil was pumping into the Gulf was delivered by Rear-Admiral Mary Landry at an awkward news conference where tensions and disagreements between the US Coast Guard and BP over the scale of the disaster were laid bare.
The Gulf Restoration Network, an environmental campaign group, warned that the leak could eclipse the Exxon Valdez disaster, and accused BP of trying to cover up the scale of this spill.
“This underscores our concerns that BP is influencing the spin on this oil drilling disaster, and obfuscating the truth to protect their brand,” said Aaron Wiles, the group’s campaign co-ordinator.
“We remain terrified about the scale of this disaster, as it’s clear that there are not enough containment resources to effectively protect the Gulf Coast,” he added.
It also emerged yesterday that the oil rig did not have a remote-controlled shut-off switch used in other oil-producing nations, such as Norway and Brazil, which could have closed down the well after the explosion.
The device, known as an acoustic switch, is not required under US law, but the lack of one added to questions about BP’s operation of the Deepwater Horizon. It exploded 50 miles off the Louisiana coast on April 20. The cause of the blast, which killed 11 of the 111 workers on board and set the rig ablaze before it eventually sank, has yet to be determined.
Mr Suttles said that Deepwater Horizon was equipped with other safety devices that should have prevented this type of spill, in which the oil is coming out of fractures on a severed pipe connected to the wellhead, 5,000ft below the surface.
As dawn broke yesterday in the oil industry hub of Venice, 75 miles from New Orleans and not far from the mouth of the Mississippi, crews loaded orange oil booms on board a supply boat at Bud’s Boat Launch.
There, local officials expressed frustration with the pace of the Government’s response and the communication they were getting from the Coast Guard and BP officials.
“We’re not doing everything we can do,” said Billy Nungesser, the president of Plaquemines Parish, which is sited on both sides of the Mississippi at the tip of Louisiana.
Dozens of vessels were trying to contain the spill, using a variety of methods. Crews triggered a series of controlled fires to burn off the thickest parts of the slick, while booms, skimmers and chemical dispersants were trying to stop the rest from reaching shore. Heavy seas, forecast to last into next week, are hampering the operation.
BP was due to start drilling a new “relief” well that would allow them to stop the flow from the seabed, although officials said that it would take at least two months to complete.
A separate effort was also under way to try to place a dome on the ruptured wellhead but that, too, could take weeks.
BP has also tried, unsuccessfully, to close the wellhead using submersible robots.
More than 400 species are threatened by the oil, including wading birds and sea otters. The Gulf’s abundant oyster and shrimping grounds are also in danger of severe damage.
The vast and ecologically delicate Louisiana wetlands, already damaged by hurricanes, could face catastrophe if they become clogged up by oil. The 100-mile by 45-mile slick also threatens the coasts of Alabama and Mississippi.
Marine and coastal life from the smallest plankton to the resident sperm whales will all be affected, experts say. Valuable fisheries for oyster and menhaden fish are at risk, as is the breeding of endangered turtles and bluefin tuna.
If the slick spreads, the rare manatees of the Florida panhandle could be under threat.
Much depends on where the slick ends up and the success of the efforts to contain it.
If it is taken by the Gulf’s defining current, which is known as the Loop, the oil may also reach the Florida Keys and endanger the region’s coral and resident marine populations.
The type of oil leaking from the sea floor is complicating matters. It is called sweet crude, which contains heavy compounds, known as asphaltenes, that do not burn easily or evaporate, even on the warm Louisiana coast.
With light crude, both burning and chemical dispersants work well, but neither tactic is very effective against sweet crude, raising fears that nothing can be done to stop the oil reaching shore.
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7112157.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2
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