The Scale of the Deepwater Disaster

Originally posted by muzzleflash
This thread covers a super important issue.

The more I think about this, the worse I feel about it.

It truly is shaping up to be one of, if not the worst, disaster of it's kind.


Do they have any theories on how to "plug the hole" so to speak? I'd love to know their plan for stopping the leak.

Im afraid there isnt any way they can just "plug it." Even if there was some ingenious way of stopping it suddenly, it would probably be nothing more than the little fat boy plugging the hole in the damn with his finger.

Any solution at this point is going to be short term.

I say we round up the angry mobs, pitchforks, torches and all. We need to call out everyone who is directly responsible for this. Heads need to roll. People need to assume responsibility for their actions.

If my business installed a fire protection system which failed and flooded an office building, you can be damn sure I would be sued, if not arrested for negligence. Basically, my business would be dead.

Im afraid the government will protect who ever is responsible, mainly due to how much money is involved in the oil biz and how closely knit the big oil co's and government is.

It makes me sick. Sure, they say big profits come from big risks, but when you're not risking your own wealth and happiness, but an entire ocean, full of creatures and animals, as well as all the people who live on the gulf, to me is downright criminal!

i ask myself: why don't they put a security valve in the pipe when they put it down?too expensive and slowing the flow? isn't the sea too expensive?
for this, every oil company wich won't guarantee safety, should be banned.
i want my car not to run on oil anymore, i have a 1983 ford. what about a thread of techs already available (back engineering meyers watercar tech, veg oils etc...) wich can turn our motors away from oil?

Originally posted by mutante
i ask myself: why don't they put a security valve in the pipe when they put it down?too expensive and slowing the flow? isn't the sea too expensive?
for this, every oil company wich won't guarantee safety, should be banned.
i want my car not to run on oil anymore, i have a 1983 ford. what about a thread of techs already available (back engineering meyers watercar tech, veg oils etc...) wich can turn our motors away from oil?

Mabe the pressure was far greater than our technology? Yes Bp are massive on safety and have ALL the relevent safety valves to meet the guide lines !We havent herd the full story as of yet

All I have to say is the World, is crazy in 2010, I want to say life is getting worse..


I am not a big environmentalist, Yet this disaster is horrible. All I can say is allot of wildlife is going to be impacted. Not to mention our beaches are going to be effected as well.

Not to mention this thing is still leaking in the GULF.. With no real solutions, to stop it.

5000 feet deep, man the pressure down there is insane. It will be very hard for human's to go down their. I do not know what kinda technology we have and why was no contingency plan put in place for something like this happening.. I know we are not perfect as human beings but just wow. On a lighter note, perhaps now ALIENS, will reveal themselves to help save our planet.. Just saying its a opportunity. Yet oil spills have occurred before and in greater magnitude. I think Russia, in the past had a oil pipe leak for months.. So this kinda stuff has happened before, I guess the big deal is its right off of USA's coast. I hope and pray we get this fixed, I can just imagine how many things alive in the Gulf of mexico and around it are dying, not to mention the impact on beaches and the fishermen, and economy in general.. I am sure our gas prices will go up as well eventually..



[edit on 3-5-2010 by Bicent76]

Just read on the bbc Hayward added that the failure of the rig's "blow-out preventer" — a device that should have shut off the well when the rig exploded and sank — was "unprecedented in our industry."
"What has failed here is the ultimate safety device on a drilling rig," he said. "There are many barriers of protection that you have to go to before you get to this. It isn't designed to not fail."

For anyone who does not know the meaning unprecedented -
without previous instance; never before known or experienced

I have researched top secret black technologies and I do sincerely believe, based off of interviews and research that we possess technologies that are at least 50 years ahead of our most advanced publically available technologies.

If that is true, then that would mean that our Government has technology that could have potentially prevented this disaster, and at the very least, they can stop it or undo it. Yet i see nothing happening.

If we truly have such advanced technologies secretly hidden, wouldn't they at least secretly fix the problem? or secretly clean up the oil? Or will they secretly do all these things, but claim it was done with conventional technologies and take the "clean up money" and redirect it back into black projects?

And if there are extraterrestrials out there, what are they waiting for? are they giving us a chance to fix it first? or do they not care? or perhaps they did this in order to give them a platform to approach humanity?

It all just makes me wonder. Especially with how vulnerable our planet is, and I can only imagine if there were a coordinated terror attack that took out a dozen or two rigs, resulting in tens of millions of gallons of oil being dumped into our oceans simultaneously.

Hopefully this won't be such a disaster but it sure is depressing.

reply to post by loam


On my into work this morning, I happened across some people on their way to Floridas Emergency Operations Headquarters. (It is in my office complex.) I spoke with one of them for awhile, and they were fairly certain that the oil slick would reach Pensacola Florida rather soon. It will immediately affect marine operations and tourism in that area, and will begin to impact wildlife refugee zones on the barrier island immediately thereafter!

This area is home to the "whitest" beaches in the world! The sand is sugar white, it is pure quartz, and it bleaches from a pale pink to a bright white! The ocean is emerald green with 100's of feet of visibility during good weather.

Governor Crist called the meeting today from several different state agencies, and the Coast Guard to begin emergency planning.

This will be a disaster for the area. From Louisianna to Florida's Gulf Coast, it will destroy an already floundering economy, it will impact food supplies, it will impact taxes and unemployment. It will impact crime rates. It will impact the already battered real estate market. It will impact some very important wildlife refuges. It will impact the migratory regions and nesting regions of the Monarch Butterfly, the Federally Protected Canadian Geese, and 100's of other bird and wildlife species.

We also have storms in the area that could affect any containment efforts, and we are heading into the season of rough seas and thunderstorms every afternoon, not to mention hurricanes!

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by loam

 

This area is home to the "whitest" beaches in the world! The sand is sugar white, it is pure quartz, and it bleaches from a pale pink to a bright white! The ocean is emerald green with 100's of feet of visibility during good weather.

It is sad to think that soon these beaches will have water that is covered in oil.

Here is a beautiful shot of the area of Destin Florida, one of the areas that will be affected.


Also sad to think that there are probably warehouses full of oil booms and other supplies that could prevent much of the oil from reaching these snow-white beaches but they probably sit unused.

[edit on 3-5-2010 by DJM8507]

Originally posted by DClairvoyant

Originally posted by skeptic_al
reply to post by loam

 

Even at 25,000 barrels a day, that's ONLY 1.5 Olympic sized swimming
pools a day. That just doesn't seem a lot to me for a well that totally open ended.

A Broken Fire Hydrant can fill a Olympic Sized Pool in 11 Hours.
It just seem right that a Broken Hydrant woull fill nealy 2.5 Pools in 24 Hours.
And if you use the Figures from the Oil Company it's a couple of Backyard Pools.

I reckon, It's a case of Liar Liar Pant on Fire !!

An Olympic sized swimming pool measurements:

Specifications

The FINA specifications for an Olympic-size pool are as follows:

Length 50 m (164 ft)[1]
Width 25 m (82 ft)[1]
Number of lanes 8+2[1]
Lane width 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)[1]
Water temperature 25–28 °C (77–82 °F)[1]
Light intensity > 1500 lux (> 140 foot-candles)[1]
Depth 2.0 m (6 ft 7 in) minimum[1]
Volume 2,500 m3 (88,000 cu ft) or
2,500,000 L (550,000 imp gal; 660,000 US gal)
minimum, depending on depth[1]

en.wikipedia.org...

Therefore you mentioned 1.5 Olympic sized swimming pools doesn't sound like a lot of spillage, if it was oil instead of water....

Another way to look at it is to estimate that at 1 inch thickness, the surface area of a single Olympic sized pool is roughly 1 million square feet....or roughly 20 football fields, including the end zones.

If the spill rate is 25,000 barrels a day, then we are talking about 30 football fields per day.

If the spill rate is 50,000 barrels a day (strong evidence this is the actual flow rate), then we are talking about 60 football fields per day.

If the spill rate is the 100,000 suggested by Cmdr. Allen yesterday, then 120 football fields per day.

Look at Google maps and eyeball how large we are talking about.

Pretty damned scary, if you ask me.

Originally posted by DJM8507
and take the "clean up money" and redirect it back into black projects?

And if there are extraterrestrials out there, what are they waiting for? are they giving us a chance to fix it first? or do they not care? or perhaps they did this in order to give them a platform to approach humanity?

Why would/should they? This isn't there planet, it's ours and we need to take responsiblilty for it, Not some advanced alien race that may or may not exist!

reply to post by DJM8507


Thanks for the pic!

I lived in Destin for several years. Now I am a couple of hours away in Tallahassee. I still have plenty of friends and family members in Pensacola, Navarre, Ft. Walton Beach, and Destin. Apalachicola Bay is a huge Oyster harvesting ground. Destin is a "fishing village." There are great game fish, Sea Turtle nesting grounds, Manatees and plenty of other sea life.

This is EXACTLY why so many Floridians were against the drilling! There is so much to lose, and very little to gain?!? We drilled, gas prices didn't change, the economy is still failing, the real estate and job market still tanked, and now we will probably lose the beaches?

In my humble opinion. If they don't contain this, and if the summer is lost and the economic impact is felt, this will be the straw! The government will not survive a Katrina-type fiasco in this event. If they don't solve this problem, they will be out of chances and out of control!

Keep saying the 'Halliburton' over and over again. Rings a bell right?
They were in charge at the time of the explosion, I'm afraid.
They were the company in charge of pipe seal cementing at the rig site.
Needless to say they're not commenting right now.



[edit on 3-5-2010 by willywagga]

Yeah, the Halliburton connection is pretty unnerving. What was the name of Halliburton's other front? Oh yeah, Blackwater. Damn...

I was reading last night that there could be 200,000 barrels a day leaking.How could this be getting worst as each day goes by,it started a 1000 barrels a day.

I actually think it odd there hasn't been significant landfall yet.

Originally posted by loam

I actually think it odd there hasn't been significant landfall yet.

There have been prevailing winds from land to sea over the past few days. That is set to change before the coming weekend, and it will likely be reversed and driving the surface water/oil inland!

I don't know if that is the only reason, but it is one reason. Also, the Mississippi and other river mouths in the area create currents outward, so that helps a little bit. In general, the coastline current in the Florida Panhandle goes East to West toward Mobile Bay.

If I remember right, surface waters actually move towards the current or upstream in a lot of cases due to the flood dynamics and surface tension. I could be remembering that wrong. Its been a long time since my fluid dynamic clases.

In any case, the local state agencies here in my complex, and my department, expect it to reach the Florida shores before the weekend.

If nothing else works to stop this Gulf oil leak soon, what about the use of a multi-multi-bunker-busting "deep earth penetrating" navy or air force bomb to be used to cause the earth to collapse around this oil leaking pipe "deep below" the Gulf's rocky bottom ? Would this bombing cause a partial and temporary seal of this oil leak by allowing the weight of the earth to be used to seal this oil leak, until a better seal could be made later ( several or more probably many months later ) ? Or maybe nuke it to fix it ?

Originally posted by JamesTheScribe
reply to post by DClairvoyant

 

I don't think that "barrels" = "gallons." If I remember correctly, a barrel of oil is = to about 40 gallons (+/-).

The more I think about this, the more it seems to be a result of an intentional act. The environmental repercussions alone are mind-boggling...not to mention the economic impact.

I think this may be it folks. Not to monger fear, but it looks like we opened an artery that will have to bleed out...and by the time we learn how to stop the leak, it will be too late...if it isn't already.

Get gasoline now before demand goes up higher out of fear and we see another "shortage" occur. Make sure you have plenty of non-perishable food and fresh water supplies. All the positive thinking in the world won't weld a broken Earth. At the depth they drilled this one, you know that they had to expect the reserves to be MASSIVE in order to justify the expense of drilling that deep in the first place.

Lots more here than meets the eye...but we can prepare the best we can based on the available information.

Peace be with you all.

--J

Oops! I did c*ck that one up I mis-read the barrel's for gallons. The amount of reading up I've done today its no wonder I've c*cked up on that.

Originally posted by mutante
i ask myself: why don't they put a security valve in the pipe when they put it down?too expensive and slowing the flow? isn't the sea too expensive?
for this, every oil company wich won't guarantee safety, should be banned.
i want my car not to run on oil anymore, i have a 1983 ford. what about a thread of techs already available (back engineering meyers watercar tech, veg oils etc...) wich can turn our motors away from oil?

It did have such a valve, BOP. (Blow Out Preventer) It failed and they are still attempting to remotely activate it. (Bottom of sea bed. approx. 2 miles deep)

You can read more from this guy who is very knowledgeable.

Daddy Bare threads

[edit on 3-5-2010 by kinda kurious]

reply to post by trader21


No nukes! That would merely exacerbate the problem, But I do like your thinking.

How about a sub with non nuke torpedo?

Oh no, now I'm offering solutions....a dangerous thing.