Posts Tagged ‘oil slick’
Oil Sheen Sighted in Gulf of Mexico Raises New Questions About Last Summer’s Spill
Reports of a new oil sheen first surfaced on Aug. 18, close to the site of last year’s devastating spill. BP and Coast Guard officials deployed two submersible vehicles to the site, but BP said a visual inspection indicated there was no oil released from the Macondo well. The Coast Guard said last week that the oil was the result of natural seeps and/or permitted releases at other oil drilling sites, according to the in Mobile, Ala.
Reporters from the Press-Register took some samples of their own and sent them to Louisiana State University, where scientists confirmed the oil was Louisiana sweet crude. It was chemically similar to the oil from the Macondo well, but remains unclear whether that is the source, according to the newspaper’s account.
Volunteers with the Gulf Restoration Network and a group called On Wings of Care have been taking aerial photos since Aug. 19, finding a variety of oil slicks in several spots in the Gulf. Bonny Schumaker, founder of On Wings of Care, said the group has posted several flight logs with dozens of pictures of the sheens. Check it out .
Natural seeps have occurred in the Gulf of Mexico for millennia, so it’s certainly possible that they are causing these new sheens. But several scientists said their location — right near the Macondo well — is intriguing.
There are a few explanations beyond natural seeps, including the possibility that oil has been leaking from the broken riser pipe that connected the Deepwater Horizon to the well. Neither the pipe nor the well has been salvaged, the Press-Register points out. Or, heavier hydrocarbon constituents could have settled on the bottom during the spill, and as , lighter-density hydrocarbons are now slowly making their way to the surface. The most troubling possibility, the newspaper says, is that the oil is leaking out of the ground beneath the capped wellhead.
As we wait for more answers, let’s hope that is not the case.
[via ]
Aerial Tankers Attack Massive Gulf of Mexico Oil Slick with Dispersant
Two Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft will help contain what may be the greatest oil spill disaster in history
Two of four modified C-130s have deployed to the Gulf of Mexico from the 757th Airlift Squadron at Youngstown ARS, Ohio. They typically spray pesticides or fire retardant using the Modular Aerial Spray System (MASS), although other Air National Guard units have the Modular Aerial Fire Fighting System (MAFFS). A newer MAFFS 2 version can dispense 30,000 pounds of retardant in just 3 to 5 seconds from one nozzle at almost 14,000 pounds of thrust. Last year, PopSci took a tour of a that uses similar technology.
Such flying behemoths are just the latest weapon being thrown into the desperate battle to . The Macondo well has been spilling an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil per day into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank on April 20. Controlled burning has only had limited impact on the spill, and have failed to activate a cutoff valve to cap the undersea well leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
BP has corralled almost 106,000 gallons of dispersant -- one third of the world's supply -- to try and break up the oil slick. But the unfolding disaster has already shut down fishing between the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana and Florida's Pensacola Bay. That area provides the majority of U.S. production of oyster and shrimp, as part of the $1.8 billion seafood industry in the Gulf that's second only to Alaska, reports.
As if to underline the magnitude of the event, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has an for anyone with a tech solution to the oil cleanup problem. Just make sure to note the cost, because BP already faces perhaps the most expensive oil cleanup ever -- and that's not including the collateral environmental damage which may very well cripple the Gulf fishing and tourism industries.
[via ]