Many in Gulf are outraged at reports of vanishing oil

Yahoo News ^ | 30 July 2010 | Brett Michael Dykes

[Jack Hydrazine]

Now that BP engineers have managed to place a cap on the company's bleeding well in the Gulf, the sprawling oil slicks seem to have retreated from the water's surface, claimed many media reports this week.

"Where is all the oil?" an AFP headline asked. Time magazine ran a piece suggesting that the environmental impact of the spill has been "exaggerated." The New York Times ran a story that said the "Gulf oil spill is vanishing fast." And this very news organization ran a story suggesting that oil-gobbling microbes are eating up a lot the oil.

These reports have angered many — particularly those close to the disaster who are still, well, seeing lots of oil.

[dalereed]

“and about 1/2 a tanker on the west coast”
Until they put in the oil platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel and Seal Beach plus the Long Beach Oil Island there was probably more than 10 tankers of oil seeping each day.

In the 40s you couldn’t go to a beach in Southern California without getting covered with tar and it never hurt a damn thing!!!

[gitmo]

When I was in graduate school we studied reports of a lake that had been overloaded with mercury in the 1970’s. The mercury levels were the highest ever recorded.

The analysis was that since mercury is an element and cannot degrade into some other substance, the levels would never drop. The statements were that people would see the same levels in the lake for hundreds or thousands of years.

Within a few months, the levels were back down to what was normal for that area.

The mistake, of course, was viewing the lake as a closed system. Birds, insects, and other critters come in an out of the local community and they transport the mercury out of it.

[TigersEye]

Nature healed what man inflicted in 1979 Gulf spill Read more: June 10, 2010

" "A lot of the fishermen around here will tell you that the fish never came back,'' says Vega Morales. ``They'll say, `Oh, in the old days, you could catch fish with your hat, it was so easy.' That's how we are, always talking about the one that got away. But the truth is, after maybe nine months or so, it was back to normal." " (Ixtoc 1)

"Soto, who followed the fish and shrimp population off Mexico closely, found to his surprise that for most species the numbers had returned to normal within two years."

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Oil Cleanup Expert Comments on Gulf Spill

"Every year 2 million to 12 million tons of oil naturally seep from the ocean floor and into the sea. In fact, many of the deposits in the Gulf of Mexico were discovered by observing these oil seeps, which is why the hydrocarbon degraders are everywhere, waiting for their “dinner” or fuel. Fishermen should be prepared for the extra catches that are coming because after every major oil spill there’s an explosion of local fish."

"But before a fish explosion can happen, the microorganisms need to be able to get to the oil and digest it. Since oil and water don’t mix, adding a dispersant will accelerate the breakdown of the oil, making it more available to the microorganisms."

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1979's Ixtoc oil well blowout in Gulf of Mexico has startling parallels to current disaster

"Even with those obstacles, fishers still managed to amass an impressive catch in 1979 -- when oil was gushing into the Gulf."

"Researchers in Campeche found shrimping that year enjoyed a high. The total tonnage of seafood caught in the Gulf of Mexico grew by 5.9 percent compared with the previous 12 months, and octopus capture in the Bay of Campeche beat the previous record by 50 percent."

"Tunnell's follow-up research into life near Texas beaches showed that organisms whose populations were apparently reduced by the massive spill replenished themselves within a few years."

[Ptarmigan]

Let’s not forget the 11 people who died in the explosion. Also, it shows the dangers of complacency right there. They turned off the alarm because of false alarms and not wanting to be woken at 3 AM.

[Kirkwood]

“I was recently speaking with the owner of a fairly large business close to Grand Isle, La. I said, “I’m sorry for all the problems with the oil spill.” I got back a, “What problems? This is the best year we’ve had since Katrina.”

Who was that? Name of the person and name of the business.

[ArmstedFragg]

You can reduce those figures considerably because close to a million of those four million barrels never got into the Gulf.

[Theo]

I love “oil-gobbling microbes.”

[beckysueb]

Still is. My daughter in laws family live in Alaska. They are natives. They got in on the lawsuit after the Valdez spill and are still drawing pretty hefty quarterly checks and will for the rest of their lives.

[TigersEye]

I love “oil-gobbling microbes.”

AKA fish food.

[Paradox]

I did the same calculations in an older thread and came up with something like a single drop of crude in a 10,000 gallon pool. Still a vanishingly small number. Of course, its worse than that, yadda, yadda, but it still should give some perspective.

[goat granny]

oil gobbling microbes are great, I always use to day just get them to cr*p out gold and it solves lots of problems..

[virgin]

Actually, the action of the Gulf Stream should have that oil rapidly on it’s way to Cape Cod in time for Michelle’s vacation.

[luvbach1]

So what will become of the $20 billion slush fund extorted from BP?

[Wonder Warthog]

"The “plumes” of Corexit have been confirmed, and further information as to the fate of the deep oil combined with Corexit are lacking. Corexit has been described as the most toxic of all dispersants, and several times more toxic than oil."

The fate of the different ingredients that comprise Corexit are well known, as is that of oil. Corexit naturally decomposes with a half-life of 10-20 days. The oil is eaten by bacteria. And yes, some green propaganda "does" describe Corexit "as the most toxic of all dispersants, and several times more toxic than oil". Which, of course, is not true. The hoopla about Corexit "toxicity" is simply more green scare propaganda.

[Wonder Warthog]

"I believe we’re going to regret ever allowing them to use these dispersants."

When the science is sorted out, we will find that the use of Corexit resulted in a more rapid natural cleanup of the spilled oil than has ever been accomplished before.

[erlayman]

I hope you are right OA But BP has bought up a lot of scientists and academics so you’ve got to be careful about who you believe.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-29/house-democrats-warn-bp-against-muzzling-spill-science-advisers.html

House Democrats investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill warned BP against suppressing scientific analysis by its consultants.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, and Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, raised concern that the company is imposing confidentiality agreements with scientists in a letter to BP America Chief Executive Officer Lamar McKay.

“Any effort to muzzle scientists or shield their findings under doctrines of legal privileges could seriously impede the recovery,” the lawmakers wrote today in their letter. “The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is not a private matter.”

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/07/bp_buys_up_gulf_scientists_for.html

For the last few weeks, BP has been offering signing bonuses and lucrative pay to prominent scientists from public universities around the Gulf Coast to aid its defense against spill litigation.

BP PLC attempted to hire the entire marine sciences department at one Alabama university, according to scientists involved in discussions with the company’s lawyers. The university declined because of confidentiality restrictions that the company sought on any research.

The Press-Register obtained a copy of a contract offered to scientists by BP. It prohibits the scientists from publishing their research, sharing it with other scientists or speaking about the data that they collect for at least the next three years.

[Wonder Warthog]

I’m basing my opinion on peer-review published studies done years in the past, not input from “TV (or blogosphere) talking heads”. There is ONE “talking head” that I give credence to, and that is Dr. Ed Overton at LSU. He has the scientific and experiential credentials to “know what’s what”. I’ve known Ed for years, and he’s not about to tailor his opinions in contradiction to his knowledge of science (nor will I).

Here are the facts. A lower limit for spilled oil is 220MM gallons. It is known that 2MM gallons of dispersant has been applied. Which means that the dispersant level IN THE OIL is about 1%. The highest concentration of oil I have seen reported in the sub-sea “plumes” is 5 ppm (parts per million), which means that the Corexit concentration is around 50 ppb (parts per billion). Now, Corexit is NOT a single chemical compound, it is a mixture of surfactants and stabilizers, which means that the concentration of any single component is about 10 ppb. If you check to toxicity tables for dispersants, Corexit is LC50 on the order of 2-5 ppm (parts per million). So the level of Corexit EVEN IN THE PLUMES is well below the tested toxicity levels. And the amount of Corexit drops rapidly with time due to its unstable character in aqueous media and to simple dilution and dispersion.

You can find dispersant toxicity here:

http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/content/ncp/tox_tables.htm

[donozark]

As I stated on another thread, BILLY the EXTERMINATOR on A&E HDTV showed lots of oil in the water and on small islands in Louisiana. One area it was like a thick blanket.
Face it all, if W was still in charge, we would see TONS of oil pictures. But media is concerned this spill is hurting Obambi (and it is) so they are down playing it.

[norwaypinesavage]

"Can we stop panicking and acting stupidly, and get back to work?"

But, but, but, but. A bird or two has died. We must all stop using oil and go back to living on 2 acres of prairie land with only a hoe and rain to sustain our sustenance.

[erlayman]

Tell that to shrimpers and anyone else who were exposed directly to a mixture of oil and Corexit dispersant in the Gulf of Mexico and suffered symptoms such as extreme itching, blisters, welts, sore throats, ear bleeds, bronchitis, muscle spasms, heart palpitations, headaches that last for weeks and bleeding from the rectum.

It may be as this marine toxicologist (Dr. Susan Shaw) has testified: “This stuff is so toxic — combined, it’s not the oil alone, it’s not the dispersant — the dispersed oil that still contains this stuff, it’s very, very toxic and it goes right through skin.