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Post by slushpup on Jun 26, 2010 11:21:31 GMT 10
Storm Brewing In The Gulf Coast Guard officials are making preparations for what could turn into a hurricane. A tropical cyclone is forming south of the Gulf of Mexico and is headed toward the oil spill area. (June 25) The executive in charge of fighting a Gulf of Mexico oil spill acknowledged Monday everyone is frustrated at BP's failure to plug the ocean gusher more than a month into a disaster that is spreading damage in Louisiana's wetlands, including miring pelican colonies. Doug Suttles, chief operating officer at BP PLC, went on all three U.S. network morning talks shows with the same message: BP knows frustration is growing that it hasn't been able to halt the spill of millions of gallons of oil from a well that blew out after a rig explosion April 20 off the Lousiana coast. "We are doing everything we can, everything I know," Suttles said on the NBC "Today" show. The Obama administration questioned BP's competence Sunday, when Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar told reporters he was "not completely" confident that BP knows what it's doing. Gulf Residents Fear HurricanesAs the oil still gushes into the Gulf of Mexico and hurricane season looming, for many, the worst is yet to come. Kelly Cobiella reports. Video... www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6619265n&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CBSNewsGamecore+%28GameCore%3A+CBSnews.com%29beforeitsnews.com/news/51/131/Its_Raining_Oil_In_Florida_-_Sickness_Spreads.htmlIs It Raining Oil in Florida? This is Just the BeginningThe Greenpeace senior campaigner Lindsey Allen walks through a patch of oil from the Deepwater Horizon on the breakwater in the mouth of the Mississippi river where it meets the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana (SOTT.net) As early as May 9 it was announced that FEMA evacuation protocol for forest fires in and around Tampa, Florida could be activated at a moment's notice in the event of the oil slick approaching Florida's coastline. One proposal is to undergo a 'controlled burn' of surface oil in the Gulf to prevent the oil reaching Florida's coast. This would result in highly toxic fumes blowing ashore. In fact, toxic fumes have already been reported elsewhere as Gulf residents complain of breathing difficulties and nausea: Oil is semi-volatile, which means that it can evaporate into the air and create a heavy vapor that stays near the ground -- in the human breathing zone. When winds whip up oily sea water, the spray contains tiny droplets -- basically a fume -- of oil, which are small enough to be inhaled deep into the lungs. We know that's happening in the Gulf Coast, because people are reporting a heavy oily smell in the air. Already my colleagues in Louisiana are reporting that people in the coastal community of Venice, Louisiana are suffering from nausea, vomiting, headaches, and difficulty breathing. The following eyewitness account came to our attention yesterday: Hi all, Making this quick, don't feel well. About 4:15pm or so eastern, coming back from Tampa, Florida north on Veteran's Expressway...about 7 miles perhaps from SR 54...it sprinkled some gray watery and solid black oil on my car. Thought it was bugs, but so fast did not make sense and windshield wipers just smeared it. Got out of car at store and looked on the paint and solid black dots on my car...I touch? huh? it's wet? it's OIL!!!!! I had several folks verify it before I sprayed it off and it came off easier than the few love bugs. Two hours later still wet like OIL! nope, not water, smell it, OIL!!!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2010 19:31:49 GMT 10
Oh dear, just when you thought it couldnt get any worse, it does.
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Post by Wes on Jun 26, 2010 21:24:47 GMT 10
This can't be good. One disaster after another.
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Post by slushpup on Jun 27, 2010 3:31:45 GMT 10
www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20100626/gulf-oil-alex-100626/Tropical storm Alex puts oil cleanup in jeopardyCTV.ca News Staff Date: Saturday Jun. 26, 2010 10:01 AM ET A tropical storm is the latest bit of bad news for crews working to stop an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. The first tropical depression of the summer season -- dubbed Alex -- formed Friday off the coast of Honduras. It escalated to a tropical storm early Saturday -- one step below a hurricane -- with forecasters predicting the system could make its way to the Gulf in the next few days. Experts have worried for weeks that the massive cleanup process could be thrown off course by the advent of the hurricane season. As of early Saturday, Alex was on a track to avoid the massive spill area, National Hurricane Center forecaster Jack Bevins told the Associated Press. However that could quickly change. It's still unclear whether Alex will reach the affected area near the U.S. coast, and if it does, whether it will affect oil on and below the ocean's surface. A hurricane would throw a major wrench into BP's efforts. Removing the flotilla of boats and cleanup equipment alone would take about five days, and it would be about two weeks before work could resume, said Adm. Thad Allen, the Coast Guard officer who is heading up the clean-up efforts. It would also likely mean that a cap that has been siphoning oil from the well would have to be temporarily removed. The ships that have been processing and storing the crude as it is sucked up would also have to leave the area, meaning the well would be free to once again gush unchecked. A tropical storm could also damage hundreds of kilometres of boom, which has been put in place to contain some of the oil. Crews have tried a number of initiatives to halt the flow of oil from the well that exploded on April 20, from installing caps to trying to plug the well with garbage, but have so far been unable to completely halt the flow. The best hope purportedly lies in two relief wells that BP is currently drilling in an attempt to take pressure off the leaking well. That plan requires BP to drill through over two miles of rock from the ocean floor -- a tedious process that has been underway since early May. The wells should eventually intersect the ruptured well, at which point crews will pump heavy drilling mud into the fissure to block the flow of oil. The oil giant said Friday that plan is on target. The current weather situation comes after BP's top executive was publicly chastised by U.S. President Barack Obama, then demoted. Public frustration has been mounting as numerous attempts to stop the leak have failed, with an estimated 69 to 132 million gallons of crude oil believed to have spilled into the Gulf. On Friday, BP's stocks hit a 14-year low on the New York Stock Exchange. The company, which has lost more than US$100 million in market value, has spent $2.35 billion dealing with the disaster, with no end in sight.
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Post by Wes on Jun 29, 2010 12:11:52 GMT 10
Storm to hurt Gulf cleanup.A gathering storm was set to delay efforts to capture more oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, even as BP Plc said on Monday a relief well being drilled to end the leak for good was within 20 feet (6 metres) of the blown-out well. Separately, the New York Federal Reserve has been checking firms' exposure to the London-based energy giant to ensure the crisis, now into its 70th day, won't create another type of toxic spill -- to the global financial system. And Russia's government weighed in on the future of BP's chief executive, saying the gaffe-prone Tony Hayward was on the way out, a suggestion denied by the company. Two systems continue to siphon oil and gas flowing from the leaking Deepwater Horizon well. In the first half of Monday, about 11,070 barrels of oil were collected or flared. Kent Wells, BP executive vice president, said current siphoning systems should not be affected, based on projections for the path of Tropical Storm Alex to steer well clear of the rogue oil well off the Louisiana coast. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Centre said Alex was expected to become a hurricane on Tuesday, with winds of 96-110 mph (157-180 kph) by late on Wednesday before striking near the Texas-Mexico border and moving inland. But waves as high as 12 feet (3.7 metres) would delay this week's plans to hook up a third system to capture much more oil each day, Wells said. A relief well that BP started to drill on May 2 was within 20 feet (6 meters) of the blown-out well, Wells said. It will be drilled another 900 feet (275 meters) before intercepting the well, he said. Winds and high seas from Alex could also disrupt cleanup on the Gulf coast and push more oil towards the shoreline. "The winds and current are going to hamper some offshore operations and the current is going to be pushing things more onto shore," said Florida state meteorologist Amy Godsey. au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/world/7481689/storm-to-hurt-gulf-cleanup-and-ny-fed-checks-on-bp-risk/
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Post by slushpup on Jun 30, 2010 7:30:19 GMT 10
www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/42024/"Larger Than Average" Gulf Dead Zone PredictedTuesday, June 29, 2010 :: Staff infoZine Scientists are predicting the area could measure between 6,500 and 7,800 square miles, or an area roughly the size of the state of New Jersey. Washington, D.C. - infoZine - The northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone, an underwater area with little or no oxygen known commonly as the “dead zone,” could be larger than the recent average, according to a forecast by a team of NOAA-supported scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Louisiana State University, and the University of Michigan. Scientists are predicting the area could measure between 6,500 and 7,800 square miles, or an area roughly the size of the state of New Jersey. The average of the past five years is approximately 6,000 square miles. It is the goal of a federal state task force to reduce it to 1,900 square miles. The largest dead zone on record, 8,484 square miles, occurred in 2002. This forecast is based on Mississippi River nutrient flows compiled annually by the U.S. Geological Survey. Dead zones off the coast of Louisiana and Texas are caused by nutrient runoff, principally from agricultural activity, which stimulates an overgrowth of algae that sinks, decomposes, and consumes most of the life-giving oxygen supply in the water. It is unclear what impact, if any, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill will have on the size of the dead zone. “The oil spill could enhance the size of the hypoxic zone through the microbial breakdown of oil, which consumes oxygen, but the oil could also limit the growth of the hypoxia-fueling algae,” said R. Eugene Turner, Ph.D., professor of oceanography at Louisiana State University. “It is clear, however, that the combination of the hypoxic zone and the oil spill is not good for local fisheries.” Hypoxia is of particular concern because it threatens valuable commercial and recreational Gulf fisheries. In 2008, the dockside value of commercial fisheries was $659 million. The 24 million fishing trips taken in 2008 by more than three million recreational fishers further contributed well over a billion dollars to the Gulf economy. “As with weather forecasts, this prediction uses multiple models to predict the range of the expected size of the dead zone,” said Robert Magnien, Ph.D., director of NOAA’s Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research. “The strong track record of these models reinforces our confidence in the link between excess nutrients from the Mississippi River and the dead zone.” “The 2010 spring nutrient load transported to the northern Gulf of Mexico is about 11 percent less than the average over the last 30 years,” said Matthew Larsen, Ph.D., USGS associate director for water. “An estimated 118,000 metric tons of nitrogen in the form of nitrate were transported in May 2010 to the northern Gulf.” The collaboration among NOAA, USGS, and University scientists facilitates understanding of the linkages between activities in the Mississippi River watershed and the downstream effects on the northern Gulf of Mexico. Long-term data sets on nutrient loads and the extent of the hypoxic zone have improved forecast models used by management agencies to understand the nutrient reductions required to reduce the size of the hypoxic zone to the established goal. This year’s forecast is an example of NOAA’s growing ecological forecasting capabilities that allow for the protection of valuable resources using scientific, ecosystem-based approaches. An announcement of the size of the 2010 hypoxic zone, which is an annual requirement of the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force Action Plan, will follow a NOAA-supported monitoring survey led by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium between July 24 and August 2. Information on the extent of hypoxia will also be available on the NOAA’s Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Watch Web page, which displays near real-time results of the NOAA Fisheries Service summer fish survey in the northern Gulf of Mexico currently underway and scheduled to be completed by July 18. www.cop.noaa.gov/stressors/extremeevents/hab/features/hypoxiafs_report1206.aspxtoxics.usgs.gov/hypoxia/mississippi/oct_jun/index.html
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Post by Wes on Jul 1, 2010 12:41:12 GMT 10
Hurricane Alex strengthens off Mexico. July 1, 2010 Hurricane Alex has strengthened to a Category Two, as residents of the Mexican Gulf coast and south Texas braced for it to make landfall. Alex strengthened one notch late on Wednesday, after Mexico evacuated hundreds of people from fishing towns south of the US border. Alex has already disrupted oil clean-up operations off the coast of Louisiana, and US President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Texas late on Tuesday. Giant waves and strong winds are expected around the US-Mexico border as the storm churned westwards through the Gulf of Mexico, packing winds near 160 kilometres per hour. The storm was well southwest of the area worst hit by the massive BP oil spill - the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida - though its strong winds have already caused problems for the cleanup effort. It was not forecast to turn towards the spill, but severe winds have churned up waves that halted some cleanup operations and threatened to push more of the huge slick onto shore. au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/world/7494385/hurricane-alex-strengthens-off-mexico/
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Post by Wes on Jul 2, 2010 12:47:06 GMT 10
Weather hinders oil cleanup. July 2, 2010 Tropical storm Alex slowed oil spill clean-up and containment work in the Gulf of Mexico and drove more petroleum into fragile Gulf wetlands and beaches on Thursday, with any permanent fix to BP Plc's ruptured deep-sea well still several weeks away. More than 10 weeks into the crisis, oil continued spewing into the Gulf, clean-up success remained limited and a proposal by the Obama administration to halt all deep-water drilling for the next six months remained in limbo. Washington's attention has also been distracted by the recent firing of U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal as commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan and the fate of a huge financial reform bill. This week nature added to the problems as Alex crossed the Gulf. The storm made landfall as a hurricane over northeastern Mexico well to the west of the spill site, but its high winds and rough seas thwarted plans by BP to expand the volume of oil it is siphoning from the well. The bad weather also pushed more oil-polluted water onto the shoreline of the U.S. Gulf Coast and forced the halt of skimming, spraying of dispersant chemicals and controlled burns of oil on the ocean surface. "It has brought in oil, unfortunately, from the panhandle of Florida to Louisiana, right now, at a higher rate than it has been over the last few days," Robert Dudley, chief of BP's Gulf Coast restoration efforts, said of the storm's effect in a live PBS online interview. He said the storm had spawned waves of 8 to 12 feet (2.4 to 3.7 meters) in some parts of the Gulf. The worst oil spill in U.S. history, entering its 73rd day on Thursday, has unleashed an environmental and economic disaster of epic proportions along the Gulf Coast, idling much of the region's fishing and tourism industries, soiling its beaches and marshlands and killing wildlife. Millions of barrels of crude oil have gushed nonstop from the floor of the Gulf, about 50 miles off Louisiana, since an April 20 explosion that demolished the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and killed 11 crewmen. BP says the target date for two relief wells to intercept and plug the blown-out well remains early to mid-August. The British energy giant drew harsh criticism earlier in the crisis, but some of the political heat has cooled since President Barack Obama pressured the company to set up a $20 billion fund for damages and lawmakers hammered BP executives at congressional hearings. au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/world/7501270/weather-hinders-oil-cleanup/
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Post by brillbilly on Jul 5, 2010 2:27:07 GMT 10
The worst oil spill in U.S. history, entering its 73rd day on Thursday, has unleashed an environmental and economic disaster of epic proportions along the Gulf Coast, idling much of the region's fishing and tourism industries, soiling its beaches and marshlands and killing wildlife.
and now they get hammered with weather,bloody cruel timing
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