NRO Planet Gore
http://www.nationalreview.com/planet-gore
05/19/10 02:00 PM bttt UPDATE from 9:30 AM below.
Confirmed: Florida Tar Balls Not From BP Spill
http://www.nationalreview.com/planet-gore/55814/confirmed-florida-tar-balls-i-not-i-bp-spill/greg-pollowitz
May 19, 2010 2:00 PM By Greg Pollowitz
Washington Post has the details here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/19/AR2010051901429.html?hpid=topnews
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Where’s the Spill Headed Next?
http://www.nationalreview.com/planet-gore/55789/wheres-spill-headed-next/greg-pollowitz
May 19, 2010 9:30 AM By Greg Pollowitz
AP:
WASHINGTON – Scientists are anxiously awaiting signals about where a massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico may be heading, while containment of the looming environmental catastrophe proves elusive.
With fears growing that the gushing well could spread damage from Louisiana to Florida, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a Senate panel Tuesday that his agency had been lax in overseeing offshore activities and that may have contributed to the disastrous spill.
“There will be tremendous lessons to be learned here,” Salazar said in his first appearance before Congress since the April 20 blowout and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 people.
Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told another committee that the growing size and scattershot nature of the spill were creating “severe challenges” in containing it and cleaning it up. He called it more complicated than any spill he’s ever seen.
“What we’re basically trying to do is protect the whole coast at one time,” Allen said.
Watching MSDNC yesterday, they seemed to lead off each hour with the story of tar balls that had washed up in the Florida Keys and were hyping this as evidence of the spill’s impact, although it’s unlikely that they’re actually from the BP disaster. I’m not trying to minimize the impact of what’s happening, but honest reporting is what’s needed. Not hype.
05/19/10 09:30 AM
BTTT
Where are the news stories?
About Those Oil Rig S.W.A.T. [S.W.O.T.] Teams…
http://www.redstate.com/vladimir/2010/05/23/about-those-oil-rig-swat-teams/
The ‘cozy relationship’ meme is a lie and a slur on the reputations of some good people - both in government and in the private sector.
Posted by Vladimir
Sunday, May 23rd at 10:29AM EDT
7 Comments
With great fanfare, President Obama dispatched Interior Department “S.W.A.T Teams” to all 29 active deepwater drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Their charge:
Perform a thorough, complete drilling inspection of each deepwater rig.
Key on the BOP [blowout preventer] test time frame, leaks and resolution, discrepancies, and repairs.
Make sure well control drills were performed as required by 30 CFR 250.462. What’s that? You missed the results?
Well, you came to the right place.
From a May 12 press release from the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command: http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doc/2931/548791/
MMS has completed its inspection of deepwater drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and no major violations were found. … The inspections of deepwater drilling rigs found Incidents of Non-Compliance (INC) on two rigs. Those violations were corrected and no other violations were found. To view the inspection report, click here. http://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/upload/05-11-10-MMS-Deepwater-Horizon-Rig-Inspection-Report.pdf
[emphasis added]
I’ll recap to save you the trouble.
Twenty-nine rigs were inspected. Twenty-seven were INC-free. Evidence of the “cozy relationship”? No, I imagine that these inspectors went loaded for bear.
Two rigs received a total of four INCs; one of them received three.
The rig with one INC was the Development Driller II, one of the Transocean rigs drilling a relief well for BP at MC 252. Paperwork revealed that proper blowout preventer testing procedure was not followed. BOPs are tested every 14 days, and the tests should alternate between the main and the backup activation panel. DD II function tested the backup panel, but conducted the pressure test from the main twice in a row.
Not a trivial violation, but not one that should be ignored, especially under the circumstances. It’s what operators call a “good INC”.
The other rig:
The Transocean Nautilus working for Shell, received three Incidents of Non-Compliance:
A warning INC for having some flammable material [I heard it was a paper coffee cup. - ed.] in the scrap metal bin of the safe welding area. Corrective Action Taken: the material was removed at the time of the inspection.
A warning INC for having a 6-inch x 12-inch hole [in the deck grating, a step hazard] by the mud pump suction pipe. Corrective Action Taken: additional grating was place over the hole.
A warning INC for having expired eye wash bottles. Corrective Action Taken: the eye wash bottles were replaced.
Few large-scale industrial operations could withstand the level of highly-charged scrutiny involved in these inspections and come away with such a clean bill of health.
Where are the news stories?