Join NRDC Experts As They Document the Impacts of the Catastrophic Gulf Oil Spill
Posted May 2, 2010 in Health and the Environment, Moving Beyond Oil, Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Disasters are incredibly disorienting, particularly ones that unfold in slow motion, as is the case with the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It started with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20 that has left 11 people missing and presumed dead, and 17 people injured. The nation watched in horror as the rig burned and then sunk. We watched the news for assurances that a massive oil spill would be averted by fail-proof rig safety features and a prompt and effective containment response by BP.
For two days, things were quiet. Then, on April 24, the Coast Guard confirmed that as many as 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) per day were leaking from the twisted pipe that had carried oil from the wellhead to the oil rig, and which was now lying in tangled knots on the bottom of the seabed, some 5,000 feet below the surface of the ocean.
Four days later, after reporting from SkyTruth demonstrated that the area of the spill was vastly larger than would be expected from 42,000 gallons per day, the Coast Guard confirmed at least five times as much oil was leaking, and revised their estimates to over 200,000 gallons per day. A leaked government memo indicates now that a worst case scenario, which is possible though not certain (though see SkyTruths new blog), could result in a seemingly impossible spill rate of upwards of 6 million gallons per day. Under the worst case scenario, either the wellhead or the riser pipe, both of which are likely restricting the flow of oil, could deteriorate, leading to a volcano-like gusher shooting directly into the Gulf seas.
As it is, BP, even with the help of our federal government, is unable to contain the spill, now estimated at close to 4,000 square miles, at current rates. To date, they have not been able to trigger the shut-off switches that could stop the flow of oil. Furthermore, BPs ability to contain the spill has failed; chemical dispersants have only been applied to a small fraction of the spill area, big seas are pushing oil up and over booms placed to keep the oil from coming on shore, and burning the oil on the surface of the ocean has not yet been scaled up due to weather conditions. Oil hit the Mississippi Delta on late Thursday night. Endangered sperm whales have been sighted within the oil slick, and the first widely-reported wildlife victim of the oil spill is a Northern Gannet. A marine mammal rescue center is readying their facilities for injured marine mammals.
There is no doubt. This spill is will result in economic and environmental devastation on an unprecedented scale in one of the most ecologically complex regions of our country.
This disaster touches on every aspect of NRDCs work. We need to understand the effects on oceans, water, air, wildlife, fish, wetlands, coastal communities, and public health. The spill has implications for how our nation will produce energy. It will be a deciding factor for how and where and if we will drill for oil off our coastlines in the future.
That is why I am headed to New Orleans tomorrow to join a small team of NRDC experts who arrived this weekend. Our mission is to obtain a first-hand account of the oil spill as it spreads through the Gulf seas and onto the marshes and shores of the Gulf states. NRDC is one of the oldest and most effective environmental advocacy organizations in the country. What we learn over the next several days and weeks will inform our work, and likely the work of many others, for years to come.
Who is being affected? How? What are the short-term effects? What are the anticipated long-term effects? What areas are being hit? Which species are most vulnerable now and over time? Are clean-up and rescue efforts effective? How do we make sure a catastrophe like this never happens again?
These are the questions my colleagues and I will be asking. We’ll be taking video, posting photos to our flickr account, blogging, tweeting and facebooking. We’ll be talking to fishermen, to shrimpers, to our partners doing important work to rescue wildlife, protect marshes and protect people.
We invite you to leave comments telling us what other questions we should be asking, who we should be talking to, where we should go. For this is our opportunity to create a record, one that we can use in the days, weeks, months and years to come. One that will become instrumental in NRDC’s work to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life depends.
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Comments
Jeff Nordahl — May 3 2010 08:54 AM
Great summary!
Curious about what technically went wrong with the equipment - why did the shut off fail? And why aren't there double, triple, quadruple, redundancies built into the mechanics of the rigs to ensure the rigs can be capped when disater strikes.
Aren't there any laws or regulations about this....with the potential for epic disaster, shouldn't there be more redundancies built into the machanics of the oil rigs. Or did all of the redundancies fail?
There are hundreds of rigs still out there operating - so what are the plans to ensure this never happens again...seems very careless and reckless right now.
Wish you the best with your mission! Hope the devastation is not as bad as it sounds.
Tom Manning — May 3 2010 10:18 AM
Replying to Jeff about the technology that failed: Saturday's N.Y. Times has a very good depiction and article about the blowout preventer that has failed to function and shut off the flow. The preventer is a large device with multiple technologies for shutting off a blowout. They all have failed here. This particular preventer was tested ten days before the explosion and passed.
Radio Green Earth — May 3 2010 02:35 PM
Regan:
Great stuff! Please contact Radio Green Earth with your findings. We would love to interview you on air to get the real story.
Radio Green Earth is a weekly environmental radio show produced for public radio focusing on environmental education. Introduced in January 2009, the show is owned and produced by the Green Earth Environmental Education Foundation (Foundation) located in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The Foundation is an IRS 501(C) (3) non profit corporation. We currently air on WXEL 90.7 FM, South Florida’s NPR affiliate, on Saturdays at 5 pm. You can visit us online at www.radiogreenearth.org to get a feel for our mission and format. You can also download Podcasts of any of our previous shows.
We help listeners become more informed on sustainable practices, how to reduce their environmental footprint, and live more eco-responsible lifestyles. We do this through interviews with the industry’s best: government policymakers, educators, scientists, authors, top vendors, and experts.
David Morgan — May 3 2010 10:56 PM
This is not the first time this has happened. There was a similar spill in the gulf in the seventies or eighties. Does anyone remember how that one was contained, or if it was. Did it just run out?
Is there any estimate of how long this could go on if they are unable to stop it?
Gary A Anderson — May 5 2010 08:14 PM
The Eleven: Oil Spill Heroes!
Is BP gambling with the lives of marine to human species?
By Gary A. Anderson
We vacuum our carpets to clean the debris from within, we vacuum spills off the floor with the Shop Vac, underwater vacuums aid in finding artifacts for treasure hunters to archeologist and giant vacuums with blowers suck up sand in beach retention. Why not vacuum small areas of oil up before they violate our beaches and estuaries? Oh, well what do I know! In a previous life I worked as a Commercial fisherman as well, Roustabout to Mud Engineer in the oil patches from Texas to Louisiana and across the deep blue into the North Sea. The fisherman who make up our fishing industry all along the Gulf Coast are waiting in peril as these slicks creep to the beach contaminating all that it touches. In Louisiana, this could mean a $2.4 billion loss in the fishing industry. Shrimpers, as do crabbers, netters, long liners, mullet fisherman and even possibly those that harvest crawfish are at risk, along with area recreational anglers to Charter Captains. In Louisiana to Texas, many of the commercial anglers partake in working the oil patch during the winter months as a supplement income. Others participate in making a living in our exploration of oil. Eleven of the employees of British Petroleum, BP, on board Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Mississippi Canyon 252 block, lost their lives in an attempt to stop the disaster before it escalated. Oil spill Heroes in doing a job nobody wants to do but does because it is a responsibility, in possibly losing your life in manually operating the BOP!
It is an economic catastrophe from tourism to fishing, an ecological disaster to our coastal wetlands, breeding areas to estuaries, which are nurseries for fish, crabs, oysters and shrimp coupled with an oily nightmare to the migrating waterfowl and other birds. This oil and devastation on birds during nesting season, is an invitation to future generations leaving developing eggs vulnerable to mutation or death. This escalates to mammals as turtles, dolphins and whales breathe in this oily film when they surface for air and just as with the birds mutated, offspring or death is imamate.
In my interpretation of this BP Oil Spill, a number of questions come to mind. Back in the day as a mud engineer with Dresser, one of the things one did was watch out for bubble ups, flares or a condition of back flow in the mud pits which would indicate a hitting of an gas, saltwater or oil pocket. Upon this scenario, heavier mud added to the pit, suppresses the backflow, of whatever is causing the problem. If this bubble up, caught not in time or the mud is not of a viscosity to apprehend the problem, a “Blow Out” can occur. We have all heard the term “BOP” on the news and CNN. The BOP is a term meaning Blow Out Preventer. In an emergency such as a backflow of the mud flowing backwards up the drill columns collar, called a “Blow Out”, an automated system employs a mechanism called the Blow Out Preventers to shut down the flow by placing an off switch on the collar, above the waterline, much like turning off you outside faucet. The wheel or faucet handle is generally about six feet round or larger and when the problem occurred on Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, eleven men probably lost their lives in manually turning the wheel in an attempt to save the well. God rest their souls as all that perished, volunteered to turnoff the valve and they did not die in vain, they are heroes.
During an incident such as this their names living in infamy, as most were evacuating the well as in SOP, Standard Operating Procedure, took place. Like drawing straws to participate in a dangerous event, someone must stay behind with the mud engineer in trying to save the well. In my conclusion, the wellhead fractured either because of human mistake; a manufacture defect in the well housing called a collar, the BOP itself or sabotage. BP is not a stranger when it comes down to possible not so safe safety performance and deadly accidents as is evident from the 2005 Texas City refinery explosion with fifteen dead along with one-hundred and seventy or so injured. Time heals and goes on but let us not forget: The Eleven; Oil Spill Heroes!
“FISH ON!”