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Oil Spill Disasters....

EasyEd said:
Hey All,

Top Kill and apparently junk shots which I saw mentioned yesterday both are failures. Now they will apparently cut the riser (pipe) which will increase oil flowing into the gulf so they can attempt another capping. Hope no one is planning a vacation on the Gulf of Mexico this summer.

This isn't funny anymore.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill

-Ed-
Click to expand...

Nope, never been funny, but I understand what your point is. It is now getting very serious. The next option is likely not to finish until sometime in August.

BP has, in the words of Chuck Yeager, "royally screwed the pooch!"

That's also why my view of this has taken a decided turn toward anger. These latest failures to stem the leak combined with the revelations that this accident was caused in major part by outright negligence has made me rather angry.

Ken
 
EasyEd said:
Hey All,

Redriver what you said is totally correct. Why is BP or any company drilling in waters so deep when they have no engineered plan for a worst case scenario given the potential consequences?
Click to expand...

There were several engineered plans in place to deal with this kinda thing. I was just reading in the first hand accounts how the dopy and slow-acting Captain of the vessel waited too long to throw a switch that would've severed and capped the well immediately. He also corrected a woman for sending out a distress call after the explosions.

EasyEd said:
I'd like to see a full accounting from today right back through the Bush/Cheney administration and earlier if warranted about the "coziness" of government and oil. Let's see some accountability.

-Ed-
Click to expand...
Stuff like that never amounts to more than a politically motivated witch hunt. Every politician with every party in every serious position has some sort of connection to the large energy conglomerates, because the energy conglomerated want it that way.
 
Context Gentlemen....context, that's why I started the thread.

When you're in the midst of something it's very hard to see the forest for the trees.

Again:

Ixtoc leak in 1979 -- 126 million gallons
Exxon Valdez -- 11 million gallons
Gulf War -- 462 million gallons
Deepwater Horizon -- don't know yet...it's said to have exceeded Exxon Valdez as of the 29th of May. The last official estimate was 8.5 million gallons (no one's going to make any estimates for a while).

Not funny, certainly, but not the end of the world.

BTW, one reason we drill to 5000 feet, is because we can't drill to shallower depths and in other places like the North Slope and in the Atlantic. They've been placed off limits due to environmental concerns.

Do you see the irony?
 
TeaSea said:
Context Gentlemen....context, that's why I started the thread.

When you're in the midst of something it's very hard to see the forest for the trees.

Again:

Ixtoc leak in 1979 -- 126 million gallons
Exxon Valdez -- 11 million gallons
Gulf War -- 462 million gallons
Deepwater Horizon -- don't know yet...it's said to have exceeded Exxon Valdez as of the 29th of May. The last official estimate was 8.5 million gallons (no one's going to make any estimates for a while).

Not funny, certainly, but not the end of the world.

BTW, one reason we drill to 5000 feet, is because we can't drill to shallower depths and in other places like the North Slope and in the Atlantic. They've been placed off limits due to environmental concerns.

Do you see the irony?
Click to expand...

Agree, not the end of the world. But, I still want to see outright negligence sanctioned in criminal court. These guys made a lot of premeditated errors that likely prevented the rig crew from sealing the well head before the gas pocket exploded and killed them.

Even if it weren't for the ecological damage, these decision makers should be prosecuted for their negligence merely for getting those men killed.

Ken
 
Personally,
I don't think an accurate analysis can be made until after the thing is plugged (with the assumption that it can & will be plugged)
 
Panther_99FS said:
Personally,
I don't think an accurate analysis can be made until after the thing is plugged (with the assumption that it can & will be plugged)
Click to expand...

You're right about that Panther...we really won't know until much later where we are, or where we'll be....

But it will be plugged. Of that I'm certain.

And we'll still need oil....I'm certain of that too.
 
I suppose the real irony is that George 'Dubya' Bush could probably have dealt with this 10 times better than Obama, given his connections in the oil industry.
 
There's no question that the spill is being "dealt with" by the best means possible, and nobody could be doing more, or cause more to be done - it's in nobody's interest to let the oil gush.
That's not the issue.
It's that it happened at all.
No amount of spin is going to change the fact that this is a biggie.
The fact that it will be "only" halfway up (down?) the rankings of the worst man-made oil spills doesn't make it Good in any way.
There is a cost beyond destroying Louisiana ecosystems and livelihood, too.
Oil is a precious resource: letting it spill into the ocean is really stupid.
Burning it off when the world is trying to curb carbon emissions is even more stupid.

As with all disasters, what is really important is taking the lessons to heart, to prevent it ever happening again.
 
jmig said:
Ken, I think he was criticizing Wikipedia as a source more than Teasea. I agree with him on Wikipedia. My wife is a university professor and Reference Liberian. The Profs, will not allow Wikipedia to be used as a source, because of its unreliability.

I find it good for general information and a broad brush overview. However, specific facts should be checked with an authoritative source before relying on them.
Click to expand...

My wife brought home a set of encyclopedias from my sister-in-law. I decided to read up on my favorite topics.

In the section on reciprocating steam engines, it says that they were unsuccessfull in building condensing steam engines because they could not seperate the oil from the condensed water before returning it to the boiler.

Well, there are thousands of past and current steamship, steamboat, and stationary plant designers, builders, and operators who would disagree with that, as they have been doing just that for over a hundred years....

Wikipedia allows information to be posted on subjects that would never make a printed encyclopedia. (I was actually disappointed with the amount of coverage the set had on engineering topics; it seemed to lean more towards the arts, history, and politics.) The ideal would be to have a subject matter expert write each article; but there is no screening process.

-James
 
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