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could stopping the OIL LEAK be as simple as this?
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05-30-2010, 03:34 PM
Why don't they retry the top kill? "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" comes to mind. The only real solution beyond that is going to be the relief well, and it will take almost 3 months to complete. We already have one of the biggest environmental catastrophes—ever—on our hands at the one month mark; if the well keeps gushing for an additional 3 months, the whole Atlantic ocean might be poisoned.
05-30-2010, 04:19 PM
Marc Anthony wrote: Not likely. Natural oil seeps put much more oil into the ocean than the BP gusher: http://pecancorner.blogspot.com/2010/05/...seeps.html BP is trying a new 'containment' method now, which involves cutting the pipe and dropping a collecting structure over it. The big problem appears to be a high amount of natural gas in the formation, which is blowing the oil out at high pressure. In the meantime, I wonder why they don't try this method of getting the surface oil up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5SxX2EntEo AFAIK this is not a joke. Probably not practical to spread hay over the entire surface area, but near the coast it might work to help prevent beach and marsh contamination. /Mr Lynn
05-30-2010, 05:49 PM
mrlynn wrote: Discussed about 10 days ago. http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1,939257
05-31-2010, 01:09 AM
GGD wrote: I missed that interesting discussion. Not sure of the upshot, but sounds to me like the hay method might have some use near shore, to make the oil more easily collectible from beaches as it washes up. It could then be burned in waste-energy plants, if any exist thereabouts. Obviously it would be impractical over very large areas, and maybe even in marshes or on non-sandy shorelines (no way to pick it up). /Mr Lynn
05-31-2010, 05:17 AM
mrlynn wrote: Not likely. Natural oil seeps put much more oil into the ocean than the BP gusher: You're way off with that factoid. Even assuming the numbers in that link are correct (and they appear to be a bit high, but correct order of magnitude), the sum total of all natural seeps in all waters surrounding the entire north american continent is about 130,000 gallons per day, distributed over a vast area. Just the single BP well is putting out oil at a rate of 500,000 to 800,000 gallons per day into a relatively closed basin (the Gulf of Mexico). You're right that it won't "poison the whole Atlantic Ocean", but it is going to cause vastly more damage than natural seeps. In the meantime, I wonder why they don't try this method of getting the surface oil up: Hay and other absorbents are being used along the coastlines. There's a massive downside to using absorbents though...transport to the spill, transport from the spill, and disposal of a much larger mass of contaminated material than the original spill. Absorbents have very limited useability, primarily to protect sensitive receptors (e.g. wetlands and other wildlife resources). They are absolutely useless and create more of a problem than they solve if used on open water. |
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