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Here are links for May 4, 2010 to news, wildlife rescue, state and federal sites, volunteer sites and others. As always, I will update them as the information becomes available. Your links and information are needed. They will be included on the next day’s post. Science and Twitter were added as new categories today.
Huffington Post by Dan Froomkin
NOAA Warned Interior It Was Underestimating Threat Of Serious Spill
NOAA is the nation’s lead ocean resource agency, and the warnings came in its response to a draft of the Obama Administration’s offshore oil drilling plans. The comments were Web-published in October by the whistle-blowing group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
……as I recall when Bush tried to weaken the authority of NOAA by hiring incompetent people a mass resignation was threatened. Bush backed down. NOAA is good people.
Oiled Wildlife Care Network Blog by Mike Ziccardi
"Lastly, we finally have great news on the training front. After a complete re-review by OSHA of the “paraprofessional” training program, health and safety trainings will begin tomorrow, and will be fully in operation Wednesday."
….. Mike Ziccardi is my hero. Please go to his blog and comment. Mr. Ziccardi is working long hours and is leading the bird rescue effort.
News Updates:
Deepwater Horizon Response
Gulf Restoration Network
Skytruth
NOLA.com
al.com
http://www.pnj.com Pensacola FL
http://www.sunherald.com Biloxi/Gulfport MS
http://www.al.com/press-register/ Mobile AL
Reuters
New York Times
Science:
Ocean Circulation Group University of South Florida
Activism:
Volunteer or Work:
Wetlands International
Volunteer Florida
Volunteer Louisinana
emergency.Louisiana.gov
OilSpillVolunteers.com
Pascagoula River Audubon Center
Mobile Bay National Estuary Program
Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana
Help Rescue Wildlife:
Oiled Wildlife Care Network Blog-U.C. Davis This is information from the front lines in LA.
Florida Shorebird Alliance
The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies
Tri State Bird Rescue and Research
IBRRC International Bird Rescue Research Center
Facebook/Louisiana Dept of Wildlife and Fisheries
California Department of Fish and Game, Office of Spill Prevention and Response
Wildlife Health Center, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine
Federal, State, Information, Fact, Sites:
Volunteer Florida
Volunteer Louisinana
LA Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Projected Trajectory
U.S.Coast Guard District 8 Flicker Site
Deepwater Horzon Incident Site
NOAA
NOAA Environmental Modeling Center
Environmental Economics Blog
Environmental and Urban Economics Blog
Twitter Oil Spill
EPA
Health Related Concerns:
Hazwoper Certification:
(Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response)
There are many places across the country to take this course.
National Environmental Trainers, Inc. Martinez, GA
Safety Council Baton Rouge, Addis, Gonzales, LA
MSU/Safety and Environmental Training Courses MS
Osha Compliance Safety Training Folsom, CA
Twitter:
28 Comments
Very helpful – thank you Mary.
License to Spill: Cheney, BP, and the Gulf of Mexico
Hat tip to Michael Laverdiere for the link.
Can someone tell me if this is credible?
Mother of all gushers could kill earth’s oceans
http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Mother_of_all_gushers_could_kill_Earths_oceans/
GOP story to discredit us Pressure not Hal blew up the oil drilling rig. No mention of Hal heating up concrete igniting frozen gas on sea bottom.
A pocket of high pressure oil blew up an the oil drilling rig despite the tons of water between the ocean’s bottom and the oil drilling rig?
eCHAN yesterday said a nut called on in on TV? saying the same thing. Any Nuke would turn all that surface oil into smoke all at once. We would have to evacuate how many states?
That much heat on the ocean floor should ignite more frozen gasses and maybe the entire oil deposit.
To lessen radiation a fusion bomb could be used but the Electro Magnetic Pulse released from a fusion bomb that close to America would shut off all electricity for several states.
This engineer has no understanding of science, seems to be trying to protect Hal, and smells like GOP Agent Provocateur.
Rove really needs to hire better Sci Fi writers.
I am open to the idea that if we don’t plug this oil leak in 6 months yes big parts of the oceans will die. Given the gulf currents America and Canada’s east cost fishing would be dead.
From the site a list of topics
Directory
Energy Topics
• Alt Fuels
• Anti-Gravity
• Batteries
• Betavoltaic
• BioDiesel
• BioElectricity
• Biomass
• Body Electric
• Brown’s Gas
• Cold Fusion
• Electric Vehicles
• Electrolysis
• Electromagnetic
• Engines
• Fuel Cells
• Fuel Efficiency
• Fusion
• Geothermal
• Gravity Motors
• Human Powered
• Hydroelectric
• Hydrogen
• Joe Cells
• Lightning
• Magnet Motors
• Nanotechnology
• Nuclear
• Nucl. Remediation
• Oil
• Peak Oil
• Piezoelectric
• Pipe Pressure
• Plasma
• Power Factor
• River
• Salt Water Mix
• Solar
• Solid State Gen.
• Stirling Engines
• Tesla Turbines
• Thermal Electric
• Tidal
• Vortex
• Waste to Energy
• Wave
• Wind
• Wireless Electricity
• Zero Point Energy
• MORE . . .
Thanks.
Sorry hit submit too soon there are a bunch of iffy categories but Cold Fusion is at best a theory. Anti Gravity the same there are green energy sites and then there are well less serious sites.
No Problem as far as destroying the oceans claim go maybe Kirk could speak to that it sounds possible but I’m not qualified to judge.
No problem you have a pipe straight from the well to the platform so pressure was directed to the rig.
Listening to the interview from the rig worker 1) this is deep water a mile down not the normal close to the surface 2) pressure at that depth plus three miles of rock is 20/30 thousand pounds per square inch with the rig built to handle 60,000# so there may be more pressure than they can handle, remember air pressure on the surface is 15# a square inch.
This could be the final curtain on mans arrogance raping Mother Earth like she was some kind of a hussy.
Mary, this is a great piece of work and info gathering. Thanks.
Considering our usual expertise, we would probably drop the bomb on Miami. Talk about Mad Scientists…
That site is a scare monger site that doesn’t use science to make it’s arguments. There have been similar gushers that ran for months, but this one is the only one that threatens “our” beaches, and “our” businesses.
I’ve been reading at the http://www.theoildrum.com/ There are ecoscientists, and very experienced contract oil men in the hanging out in the comment section.
Mary’s link info says 30,000 feet of rock . . . that’s 5-6 miles.
The more I read about this, the more it all blows my mind.
Pressure at 5K ft. down, surrounded by water is insane.
Add 30K of earth crust bedrock? Beyond comprehension, that kind of pressure.
If nothing else about this disaster, I’m learning things I knew nothing about other than common knowledge.
Bottom line? With suggested 6 billions of oil an gas down there in the Tiber Field, leaking now BEST CASE at 200K per day, if even 1 billion of that shit gets out, I’d give odds it would easily dead zone the Gulf, and severely destroy oceans.
I’ll be REAL interested to see what Pups have to say about Mary’s link up there that she asks Pups to give feedback on, cuz that’s some serious engineer talk at times, with really disastrous end results for the entire planet.
Mary’s excellent links to local resources have become the basis for our Volunteer Page on the FDL Oil Spill coverage.
Thanks Mary and keep up the good work.
Recommended Senator Mary ☺☺☺♫♫♪♫ ♪ ♫!!
This doomsday scenario is one of many theoretically possible outcomes based on the little evidence we have, but it’s not possible to assign a probability to it until we know more. I regard it as an attention getter to get people to pay attention and not assume this isn’t a big deal.
There likely was a huge explosion, or increase in pressure at the well head on the sea floor that is responsible for the failure of the safety devices that supposedly never failed before and the blast or pressure continued up the riser pipe to the rig on the surface a mile above. Something ignited the natural gas at some point and the rig caught on fire and sank 2 days later. As it sank, the riser pipe was bent or crimped in several places and holes formed from which oil has been leaking.
Until we know the amount of oil in the Tiber Field, the oil pressure and volume of oil vs. gas in the riser pipe, and whether it has been increasing and, if so, by how much, we can’t draw many conclusions.
We do know a couple things. The oil and gas will continue to blow out of holes in the riser pipe and probably create more holes as time passes and it wont stop until the pressures equalize or the drill ole is blocked. Depending on the volume of oil in the field, how much is released into the Gulf, and the conveyor belt effect of the currents and where they take it, this gusher could pollute an awful lot of ocean.
If the pressure in the riser pipe is substantial, it might make it impossible to place and maintain a dome structure over the pipe. Working with any kind of explosive at 5,000 foot depth in close vicinity to pressurized natural gas in a liquid or solid state that warms enough to turn into a gas is extremely dangerous because, if too big an explosion could detonate the field and too small could substantially increase the blow out.
That is an OUTSTANDING find!
Yer a saint for sharing that, thanks so much.
Now, as to the scare monger site, and some of IT’S predilictions . . .
We’re pretty sure 200K is the flow rate per barrell per day.
We know it’s likely been that since at least Day 2 or more.
We’re told it’s going to be 3-6 months to slow (not stop) the flow.
We’re told, the ‘leak’ could easily become LARGER.
We’re told there’s 6 Billion Barrels under the Tiber Field.
18 Million Gallons Leaked In 3 Months.
That’s a BEST case scenario, as in the ‘leak’ don’t blow up and a bigger hole is created by nature or by man.
Have you read at your link, any predictions of what the spill CAN do to The Gulf in terms of destroying it, and beginning to destroy the Atlantic Seaboard?
As to the Australian Disaster, About 125,000 Gallons Per Day Was That Flow.
I didn’t dig too deeply to see how LONG that flow was sustained, or if it increased or decreased.
Another large spill was somewhere off Africa, but I can’t seem to find it easily . . . . don’t know if it was West or East Side of Africa, even.
So, I guess I’m saying, we SHOULD be a bit paranoid, scared, and mongered given I don’t think the planet HAS seen anything as potentially scary as this one.
5,000 feet of seawater, and 30,000 feet of rock drilled into what we’re being told is a reservoir of 25,000 sq miles or so, with 6 billion gallons of gas and oil and the pressure they hold, and the pressure they are UNDER.
And as has been said, as gas and oil rise . . . . it expands.
I can just SEE a ship on top of this bell cap being prepared have just ONE little spark in the wrong place and going boom, also.
Thanks again for your link, it’s a gem!
May dawg help us all, the Gulf, the oceans and such.
Cuz this really does look like it’s a singular event in terms of its scope and potential to turn bad.
Way to go Mary and FDL!!!
Thanks for the announcement EG!
Thanks for that reply, ‘preciate the info.
In regards to this:
Hasn’t it been reported the Tiber Field has about 6 Billion Gallons of product? Oil/Gas?
I don’t have a link, but that info was floating about 3 days ago.
Think it came from one of the EARLY links to a credible site that was tracking this from the get go?
Skytruth. Wasn’t that where that number came from?
As to pressures inside the field, and at well head depth, aren’t those already known surely, by BP, and haven’t SOME scientists/pro’s in the field already discussed these issues? I’d be incredibly surprised if that info wasn’t already out in the open somewhere . . . .
Your thoughts?
We also should not forget to consider the possible effect of adding a substantial amount of natural gas to the atmosphere. It’s a lot more dangerous for global warming than regular old CO2.
Methane is is one of the most dangerous green house gas. Many times greater than just plain old co2.
Yes, I recall reading that, although I suspect it’s just a ball park guestimate. It’s a helluva lot whatever it is.
I haven’t seen any numbers.
It would have been standard operating procedure for BP to have interviewed the survivors before the Coast Guard arrived at the scene, if possible. Don’t know if that happened, but I haven’t come across any articles relating what they supposedly said. Apparently, they aren’t talking.
I don’t know the sequence and timing of critical events. I’d like to know the answers to the following questions.
1. Who was the first person to become aware of a problem and when did that happen?
2. Where were they and what did they do when they became aware of the problem?
3. Were alarms involved and if so, what were they?
4. Did all alarms function in proper fashion?
5. Who was in command and when was that person notified about the problem?
6. Did that person do or say anything?
7. What was it?
8. When did the explosion happen?
9. What caused it?
11. If efforts were taken to correct an initial problem before the explosion, did those efforts play a role in causing the explosion?
12. When was the order to abandon the rig given and who gave it?
13. Was the order given before or after the explosion?
14. Where were the 11 missing and presumed dead workers when the explosion happened?
15. Were they together?
16. When people abandoned the rig, did they get into boats in an orderly fashion or jump into the water?
17. Were all of the survivors wearing life vests or survival suits?
18. Did the crew practice any abandon ship drills before the incident?
19. Were the life vests easy to find and put on?
20. When did the Coast Guard arrive?
21. Was the crew actively drilling for oil when something went wrong?
22. Why and where were they going to store it?
23. How were they going to shut down the flow of oil and did they have any trouble doing that?
24. What was the pressure and rate of flow in the riser pipe?
25. Did an explosion occur at the well head on the sea floor?
26. What disabled the automatic shut-off valves?
27. Were they tested before they were installed?
Here is an interview with a survivor from the rig explosion.
http://www.drillingahead.com/video/transocean-survivor-interview
Interesting!
Thanks for the link. The witness described the cause of the accident as an unexpected and extremely powerful kick up the riser pipe of natural gas pressurized at 30,000 to 40,000 PSI. The natural gas was under so much pressure that it blasted all of the seawater out of the mile long riser pipe to the surface with sufficient force to splash against the ceiling of the rig 240 feet above the end of the riser pipe. Since natural gas is heavier than air, invisible, and odorless, it began to settle and collect invisibly in low areas all over the rig until a spark, perhaps caused by static electricity, ignited the gas and blew up the rig. He said the 11 men were working together on the main floor near the mouth of the riser pipe, which is a low spot, and were immediately incinerated inside the blast.
The circumstances he described sounded to me like ultrahazardous and unpredictable activity that can literally blow up in your face no matter how careful you are because of the high pressures. Although he reached a different conclusion, I think the risk of causing massive destruction and death is too high to justify further deep water drilling.
Thank you so much Mary. The coverage of the oil hitting land looks very bad.