tagged w/ macondo
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The first photographic PROOF that BP's Macondo well is again leaking, released just hours ago. BP continues to deny (where have we seen this before?), but we will see what happens once these pictures get out...
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8.19.11
This morning I set out on a long flight to investigate reports of oil sightings near BP’s Macondo well, the site where the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank into the Gulf killing 11 workers and spewing at least 4.9 million barrels of oil. Whenever I here reports like this I tend to get antsy and want to fly out to see for myself so I can document and report back. So, thanks to the generous support of Lamar Billups, I was lucky enough to fly again with Bonny Schumaker of the nonprofit On Wings of Care and GRN’s Canvass Director, Tarik Zawia. It was a long and productive flight so there are lots of things that I could write about. Nevertheless, I will cut to the chase and just highlight the most important things.
First, we spotted oil on the surface above the exact location where the Deepwater Horizon and Macondo well are located, in Mississippi Canyon Block 252. Take a look at the captions in the photos for coordinates. Obviously, from the air I cannot confirm that the oil is BP’s and from there Macondo well. I can only report that I spotted oil above that location. I reported this to the National Response Center and had a lengthy conversation with a Coast Guard official. Notice that the oil seems to be clustered in round formations. I have no idea why or how this could happen and neither could the USGC official. The formations are clearly rainbow in color and in some cases have also a brownish tint. Take a look... http://www.flickr.com/photos/healthygulf/
[[This is a comment from original post: "The individual round or circular sheen patterns are due to droplets of oil falling (or rising) to the surface of the water. The time between the drops and the movement of current spaces out the sheen caused by the droplets so that the sheens are separated and do not connect. Shorter time between drops or slower water movement the sheens would be connected. If the first pic is Macondo area the droplets are rising from bottom. (nothing in sight to drip oil on the water) The roundel sheen near the work vessel is probably hydraulic fluid dripping off the crane."]]
Second, we spotted an oil slick near the Taylor energy leak that has been leaking since 2004. The last time I visited this site was in the spring (with Bonny) and there were no boats or rigs nearby. I posted a blog about the leak then, but if you missed it please have a look here (link on original post). I also filed a report with the National Response Center and filed a Freedom of Information Act Request with the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement seeking any and all information on the leak, particularly what was being done to stop it and enforce the Clean Water Act fines and penaltied that should be levied. Today there was, once again, activity at the location. Go figure. It looks as if there is a submersible deployed from the vessel just above where the leak is emanating from.
Third, we spotted two or three leaks in and around Breton Sound. I say maybe two or three because two of the leaks may be connected. With at least two of the leaks there are clear sources [for] the oil. Again, check the photo captions for coordinates.
Finally, the best news of the day was that we spotted 4 Whale Sharks and three Sperm Whales! It was nice to see something spectacular and happy. We also saw Bottlenose dolphins, Hammerhead sharks, sting rays and lots of schools of fish! By far, that was the highlight of the day.
I have a feeling this is not the last we will be hearing about what all was documented today and I am sure lots of questions will be coming my way once this blog gets posted and reposted (please share!). In the meantime, take a moment to help protect the Gulf and those amazing creatures we spotted today by taking action on our action page, http://www.Bpdrillingdisaster.org. If anything, today’s multiple oil sightings just screams for the need for a Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council to watchdog what is going on out there.
Jonathan Henderson is the Coastal Resiliency Organizer for Gulf Restoration Network.
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BP denies everything: http://www.chron.com/news/article/BP-denies-report-of-oil-leak-in-Gulf-2122732.php
Government resumes leasing Gulf for deepwater oil drilling: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/19/gulf.lease.sale/The first photographic PROOF that BP's Macondo well is again leaking, released... more
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Video: Time for a reminder of what oil expert Matt Simmons was saying just weeks before his mysterious death a year ago.
BP HIRES FLEET OF 40 SHRIMP BOATS TO LAY BOOM AROUND OLD DEEPWATER HORIZON SITE
Oil from the Macondo Well site is fouling the Gulf anew – and BP is scrambling to contain both the crude and the PR nightmare that waits in the wings. Reliable sources tell us that BP has hired 40 boats from Venice to Grand Isle to lay boom around the Deepwater Horizon site – located just 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The fleet rushed to the scene late last week and worked through the weekend to contain what was becoming a massive slick at the site of the Macondo wellhead, which was officially “killed” back in September 2010.
The truly frightening part of this development, as reported in a previous post (see below), is the oil may be coming from cracks and fissures in the seafloor caused by the work BP did during its failed attempts to cap the runaway Macondo Well – and that type of leakage can’t be stopped, ever.
Catch up on how this could possibly be happening – again – by reading or re-reading my July 25 post below. Stay tuned as we will be all over this story as it continues to develop.
Is BP’s Macondo Well Site Still Leaking? Fresh Oil on the Gulf Raises Concerns and Haunting Memories
Fresh oil is surfacing all over the northern quadrant of the Gulf of Mexico. Reports of slicks that meander for miles and huge expanses of oil sheen that look like phantom islands are becoming common, again. Fresh oil, only slightly weathered, is washing ashore in areas hit hardest by last year’s massive spill, like Breton Island, Ship Island, the Chandeleurs and northern Barataria Bay. BP has reactivated its Vessels of Opportunity (VoO) program to handle cleanup. It’s a sickeningly familiar scene that has fishermen, researchers and public officials searching for answers, as haunting memories of last year’s calamity come roaring back.
The fifty-thousand-dollar question, of course, is where is all the new oil coming from?
One theory: The Macondo Well site, located just 40 miles off the Louisiana coast, is still leaking untold amounts of oil into the Gulf. Some argue that the casing on the capped well itself is leaking. Others believe oil is seeping through cracks and fissures in the seafloor caused by months of high-impact work on the site, including a range of recovery activities (some disclosed, some not) as well as the abortive “top kill” effort.
In January 2011, a prominent “geohazards specialist” wrote an urgent letter to two members of Congress – U.S. Reps. Fred Upton, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and John Shimkus, chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and Economy – suggesting that the Macondo site is leaking oil like a sieve. Here’s an excerpt from that letter (see it in its entirety at link below):
There is no question that the oil seepages, gas columns, fissures and blowout craters in the seafloor around the Macondo wellhead… have been the direct result of indiscriminate drilling, grouting, injection of dispersant and other undisclosed recover activities. As the rogue well had not been successfully cemented and plugged at the base of the well by the relief wells, unknown quantities of hydrocarbons are still leaking out from the reservoir at high pressure and are seeping through multiple fault lines to the seabed. It is not possible to cap this oil leakage.
BK Lim, the letter’s author, has more than 30 years of experience working inside the oil and gas industry for companies like Shell, Petronas and Pearl Oil.
More from Mr. Lim’s letter:
The continuing hydrocarbon seepage would have long term, irreversible and potentially dire consequences in the GOM (Gulf of Mexico)…
The letter is dated Jan. 14, 2011 – and we’ve been seeing more and more evidence that the scenario Mr. Lim describes is indeed taking place deep below the Gulf’s surface.
For example, on March 28, 2011, Paul Orr and his team from the Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper – an organization I’ve worked with frequently over the course of the last year – conducted a 50-mile boat patrol and sampling tour of Breton Sound, which lies just off the southeast coast of Louisiana. The excursion was prompted by multiple, increasingly frantic, reports of oil in the area by fishermen and others, including On Wings of Care pilot Bonny Schumaker, who has dozens of Gulf flyovers under her belt.
Mr. Orr took a sample from the southern end of Breton Island National Park – and sure enough, lab-certified tests results established a fingerprint match to BP’s Macondo Well (see link to my previous post and test results below).
The most alarming part of the finding was not simply that the Breton Island sample had BP’s fingerprint on it, but that the test results were nearly identical to those from the fresh oil seen in the early days of the BP spill – instead of the heavily weathered and degraded oil we’ve come to expect in recent weeks and months.
Those test results seem to disprove the other theory surrounding this spate of recent “fresh oil” reports. That is: All the oil BP strategically sunk to the seafloor with nearly 2 million gallons of toxic dispersant is beginning to break free and rise to the surface en masse, and in turn, blacken the coastline with fresh oil. According to civil engineer and petroleum expert, Marco Kaltofen, oil that has been lying on the seafloor for several months would be much significantly more weathered than the fresh oil we’re seeing more and more of.
As you’ll notice from the histograms, the Breton Island sample mirrors the submerged oil sampled from Pensacola Bay on Nov. 5, 2010 (see link to original post with histograms below) and a sample taken from Panama City Beach on July 14, 2010. You don’t have to be a marine biologist to see that this is the same oil with nearly identical weathering.
So we had fresh oil with BP’s signature on it coming ashore in March – more than eight months after the Macondo Well was capped. And since then, members of my team and other researchers have reported fresh oil, of the “only slightly weathered” variety from Grand Isle to Pensacola. One charter boat fishing captain, who frequents the waters around Louisiana’s barrier islands, is describing the current, hauntingly familiar situation on the Gulf as the “second wave” of the BP disaster.
Read my entire July 25 post (with referenced documents) here: http://www.stuarthsmith.com/is-bps-macondo-well-site-still-leaking-fresh-oil-on-the-gulf-raises-concerns-and-haunting-memories
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scl2dgK_-NwVideo: Time for a reminder of what oil expert Matt Simmons was saying just weeks... more
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The Wall Street Journal reports that BP’s lawyers helped prepare its internal investigation into its Gulf of Mexico drilling disaster, according to the report's lead author, raising questions about the study's impartiality.The Wall Street Journal reports that BP’s lawyers helped prepare its internal... more
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Propublica’s Marian Wang reports that even as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calls for more research into the long-term effects of the chemical dispersants BP used in the Gulf, representatives of BP and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been dispatching public relations officials to local schools to do what they refer to as dispelling myths about dispersants and subsurface oil.Propublica’s Marian Wang reports that even as the U.S. Environmental Protection... more
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Levels of some cancer-causing oil compounds rose significantly in the waters off the Louisiana coast during the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Oregon State University researchers.Levels of some cancer-causing oil compounds rose significantly in the waters off the... more
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A White House commission appointed to investigate the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico found that the Obama administration lost the public trust and may have sabotaged clean-up operations by grossly underestimating the amount of oil gushing from BP's broken Macondo well.A White House commission appointed to investigate the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf... more
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The clean up and repair work for the BP oil spill has been delayed after a potential tropical storm threatens the area. It sounds like ships and workers are taking this week to leave the area before the storm hits, which the BBC states has already caused flooding in Haiti.
"Engineers were obliged to suspend work on the first of two relief wells that are being drilled down to the source, setting back the final procedure to plug it."-Guardian
It is currently reported delays could take 2 weeks before work can continue.The clean up and repair work for the BP oil spill has been delayed after a potential... more
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