Posted on 05/27/2010 2:03:28 PM PDT by moose2004
Yes. Can I provide a link, probably not. I look through a LARGE number of documents in the course of a day. If I tried to save the URL's of all of them, I'd need a separate hard disk just to hold them. BUT, the info I found was straight from the Pelican's personnel (captain??? I don't recall exactly who).
Oh, I suspect some oil also made its way ashore around Ixtoc. The one thing I have not yet located is a science study of the immediate vicinity of the Ixtoc well itself.
But such documentation "does" exist for the Persian Gulf "Saddam Hussein" spill. The worst affects were seen in the salt marshes, which took up to ten years to recover....BUT...the magnitude of the oiling was hugely greater than Ixtoc was or BP is likely to be. Beaches were completely covered up to the high-tide water marks with al layer of oil, and oil seeped down into the soil to a depth of 60 cm.
In areas where the oil coverage was not total, recovery was a lot faster.
http://www.c-3.org.uk/Multimedia/Reports/Gulf%20war_Poonian.pdf
If you happen to find it I’d appreciate it. I read a contentious inteview with Pelican crew in which they didn’t back down - NOAA and they seem to have an argument going. The crew did say that it would be week(s) before full analysis was complete.
Actually you’re pointing me to questions about the plumes origin and composition is the most encouraging thing so far on this spill for me and I appreciate it.
Oh yes, and all of the South Texas coast was impaced by it, North Padre Island especially. Booms, however, protected most of the estuaries. My point was about where the oil hits shore. The marshes of LA being much more vulnerable and valuable than the sandy beaches of South Texas.
Yes. There is a VERY complete scientific report on the effects of the spill off the Texas coast. It turns out that the "Bureau of Land Management" (I assume of the state of Texas) had recently completed a very large biological survey of that part of the coast before the spill hit, so they had a good baseline for comparison. Again, the results were indicative of a pretty rapid recovery.
That report is online somewhere, but Heaven knows if I can find it again.
The report is here:
http://invertebrates.si.edu/mms/reports/IXTOC_exec.pdf
I read it last week. There’s good and bad in it. I lived in Texas through that, it also impacted the governor’s race. I would not want that hitting the shore again; however, I don’t see a tight comparison with this blowout, due to the location and depth and currents, where its impact will be and how much.
Nobody actually wants to see any spills, not even BP. And this report is of major signficance to folks in places like Florida, where the type of impact of the BP spill should be similar to the effect of Ixtoc on the Texas coast.
And at risk of belaboring the point, the impacts of location, depth, and current of the BP spill all work to lessen the impact compared to Ixtoc, because the oil is given more chance to disperse, dissolve, etc, as it rises from depth to the surface.
But I'd still like to find a report of the effects of Ixtoc on the shallow water area immediately around the well, which should be more reflective of the impacts on the Louisiana wetlands. Of course, the Gulf War I release "does" give some info, but that spill was so much worse, I'm not sure if it can be compared.
If it remains significantly concentrated on and just beneath the surface and hits the area with 40% of the nation's marshlands, this is not true. Location, depth and currents will cause much more damage than Ixtoc.
I'll grant the significance, if any, of plumes remains to be determined.
I should have added that the upper coast including Florida are much more economically valuable than South Texas. Again a factor of location and currents.
I can't for the life of me figure out how you reach such a conclusion. The depth of the spill and the use of dispersants means that a much larger fraction of the spill will be "scattered" (dissolved, dispersed, whatever)before the spill ever REACHES the surface (compared to Ixtoc. which was almost totally confined to the surface).
The dominant current in that area flows west-to-east, so again, less of the spill should hit Louisisna. And by the time it gets to Florida, the nature of the spill will have changed (weathering, evaporation, etc) to more nearly match the state of the Ixtoc oil as it reached the Texas coast......which, due to the Bureau of Land Management study done on the Texas coast, we already know the impact of.
Everything is relative. How much of the dispersal underwater will result in emulsified oil or no oil? What mixture will hit the estuaries and marsh land? Compared to Ixtoc, this one is already damaging these areas more.
What's the size of the spill, how long will it spill, what will reach the fragile areas in what concentration? Whether it could or will be "more" or "less" is not as important as "how much" it will be.
Again, compared to Ixtoc, it is already looking much more harmful.
Ixtoc main hit was the mostly arid areas of NE Mexico and SO Texas. This one is much further east. 65% of the freshwater into the Gulf is from the Mississippi - all these estuaries are a much more fragile and valuable breeding ground.
Ixtoc was just off the coast of Mexico 600 mi south of Texas. This one is off the LA coast by the largest estuaries we have:
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/gulf_of_mexico_oil_spill_anima.html
That is all true, but I do think people will also suggest the fact that is in deeper waters means the plumes will be more dangerous to ecosystems that the sea life in shallow waters depend on. They believe that the plumes are killing life in deeper waters and are more toxic down there in areas that are vital to the food chain. Of course, they could be blowing that out of proportion too.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37435289/ns/gulf_oil_spill/
Is what I was referring too, though it could be just more hysteria of course.
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