Posted on 05/28/2010 8:33:18 AM PDT by Military family member
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A team of scientists and engineers, including Purdue University mechanical engineering professor Steven Wereley, released figures Thursday (May 27) showing that at least 12,000-19,000 barrels of oil are flowing daily into the Gulf of Mexico in the aftermath of an April 20 oil rig explosion.
That means the BP PLC oil spill off the coast of Louisiana has already surpassed the Exxon Valdez as the worst in U.S. history, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Using the most conservative estimate, 450,000 barrels of oil, or 19 million gallons, have leaked into the Gulf since the accident that sank the Deepwater Horizon oil rig five weeks ago, the USGS reports. Under the higher estimate, more than 700,000 barrels of oil, or 29 million gallons, may have spilled to date.
(Excerpt) Read more at wabashvalleyjournalonline.com ...
Shouldn’t all the efforts be on “plugging the goshdarn pipe” and cleaning up after ourselves?
Instead of counting pixels in his office and pretending to be part of the “effort”, he should be at the beach with rubber gloves and a bottle of Dawn detergent.
FROM MY DAUGHTER WHO LIVES IN LOWER ALABAMA: The oil is still over 25 miles off shore from here and that is the “light” oil, broken up and not thick like you have seen. The winds have kept it off shore and in international waters only for most of the Gulf of Mexico beaches and only the currents have started to carry small amounts down and around Florida but it is my understanding that the oil remnants that are in the currents are minimal and keep moving out toward the atlantic where they are broken down further. I think this is a lot of hype to get people to react and freak out. It works for some folks but if you visited any of the beaches east of the Louisiana marshes that have been affected you would never know that there was even a problem in the Gulf.
...a major event like this oil spill will provide opportunities for years to come...there’s plenty of room for grants, studies, papers, research and books...the professoriat will not let this crisis go to waste.
And the article itself is quite misleading, as they say that the BP spill is "the worst in US history", which it "might" be, but it is nowhere close to being the worst to happen in the Gulf of Mexico. THAT was Ixtoc, off the coast of Mexico, and which was many times larger, and in a more environmentally sensitive area (shallow water). Studies of that spill showed essentially full recovery after two years.
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