Posted on 05/09/2010 9:33:00 PM PDT by valkyry1
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – Concern grew Sunday that the US Gulf coast is facing a whole new level of environmental disaster after the best short-term fix for a massive oil spill ran into serious trouble.
BP's giant containment box lay idle on the seabed as engineers furiously tried to figure out how to stop it clogging with ice crystals.
The British energy giant, which owns the lion's share of the leaking oil and has accepted responsibility for the clean-up, has tried to banish the notion that the dome is a "silver bullet" to end the crisis.
But should efforts fail to make the giant funnel system effective, there is no solid plan B to prevent potentially tens of millions of gallons of crude from causing one of the worst ever environmental catastrophes.
Untold damage is already being done by the 3.5 million gallons estimated to be in the sea so far, but the extent of that harm will rise exponentially if the only solution is a relief well that takes months to drill.
This could be risky as experts have warned that excessive tinkering with the blowout preventer -- a huge 450-ton valve system that should have shut off the oil -- could see crude shoot out unchecked at 12 times the current rate.
There are also fears the slick, which covers an area of about 2,000 square miles (5,200 square kilometers), could be carried around the Florida peninsula if it spreads far enough south to be picked up by a special current.
"If this gusher continues for several months, it's going to cover up the Gulf coast and it's going to get down into the loop current and that's going to take it down the Florida Keys and up the east coast of Florida,"
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
So I guess the answer to the question of off-shore drilling safey is “We don’t have a clue how to stop one of these things if it goes bad”.
You oughta read your own postings:
"Your report makes it sound pretty dire. It's a scenario," he said, "It's a regular daily briefing sheet that considered different scenarios much like any first responder would."
This is called "speculation".
I've followed environmental science issues since the 1960's (did my dissertation research on trace environmental analysis). In that time period, I have learned that there is ONE THING that is true about EVERY news story about an "environmental disaster", and that is that in every case, the real facts are so over-hyped as to not be in the realm of possibility. If you discount the news stories by anywhere from 90-99%, you'll come close to the truth.
Thanks for your input.
Nah. You're safe. The spill is slightly to the east of the mouth of the Mississippi, and moving east.
I was mocked when I posted an article a week ago that said the same thing. The part about Republicans that kill me is they reject out of hand anything that says sometimes big business makes mistakes, or worse, does anything for money including ruin lives and trash the environment.
Compared to what you F’N idiots export on a daily basis...far less damage will be done by the Oil Well."
Can you show me where there was any mention of NY or CA in the article and how your inane comments have any bearing on the topic?
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