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BP puts containment dome on gushing oil geyser
The Washington Post ^ | June 4, 2010 | Joel Achenbach

Posted on 06/03/2010 10:33:54 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The well has been capped, more or less. BP engineers Thursday night guided a containment dome onto the hydrocarbon geyser shooting from the Gulf of Mexico oil well -- a desperate and iffy attempt to capture the leaking oil and funnel it to a ship on the surface.

It was not an elegant operation. Furious clouds of oil escaped the "top hat." Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander for the spill, called the development a positive step but said, "It will be sometime before we can confirm that this method will work and to what extent it will mitigate the release of oil into the environment."

It was a day crammed with engineering drama. First, BP used robotic vehicles and a pair of giant shears to cut a damaged pipe a mile below the gulf's surface. The result simplified the whole arrangement at the sea floor: Instead of spewing from multiple leaks in a tangle of bent pipes, the oil and natural gas surged in a single plume from what looked like a deep-sea smokestack.

Then came the dome, lowered by cables, guided by robots, illuminated by lamps in a world without natural light, and carrying with it the hopes of countless engineers and pretty much the entire Gulf Coast.

Nothing has gone according to plan in the subsea environment as, on the surface, the oil has hit more than 100 miles of Louisiana shoreline. After brushing a barrier island in Alabama, it is poised to tar the white sand beaches of the Florida Panhandle. The area of the gulf closed to fishing is now larger than the state of Florida.(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: energy; obama; oil; oilspill; slowtorespond
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End of the beginning or beginning of the end?
1 posted on 06/03/2010 10:33:55 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Let’s hope this thing is sealed.


2 posted on 06/03/2010 10:36:29 PM PDT by gunsequalfreedom
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Good on them. I hope it works.


3 posted on 06/03/2010 10:36:29 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar (*)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

>> Furious clouds of oil escaped the “top hat.”

In other words, “Obama clouds of oil...”


4 posted on 06/03/2010 10:36:34 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Your Hope has been redistributed. Here's your Change.)
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To: Jet Jaguar

Does this mean that Anderson Cooper can finally come home?


5 posted on 06/03/2010 10:38:33 PM PDT by pepsionice
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To: pepsionice

“Does this mean that Anderson Cooper can finally come home?”

I’m sure his girlfriend is missing him


6 posted on 06/03/2010 10:40:28 PM PDT by mainsail that
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To: pepsionice

One can only hope!


7 posted on 06/03/2010 10:40:36 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar (*)
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To: pepsionice

Anderson Cooper is doing a great job reporting on the spill. I hope he gets to come home soon.


8 posted on 06/03/2010 10:40:37 PM PDT by jpsb
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

http://mxl.fi/bpfeeds2/

Is the Wash Post lying for Obama as usual? Looks like the oil is still spewing.

Man if they would have just done the job right and BP had not tried to cut corners they would be raking the dough in on all that oil spewing out like a firehose. Stupid.


9 posted on 06/03/2010 10:41:31 PM PDT by Frantzie (Democrats = Party of I*lam)
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From what I’m seeing on the live BP video feed, it looks like the gushing has worsened.


10 posted on 06/03/2010 10:42:14 PM PDT by Kevin in California
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Looks like total fail to me.


11 posted on 06/03/2010 10:42:46 PM PDT by SoCalConstitutionalist
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To: Frantzie

“Man if they would have just done the job right...”

Yep. If they had just listened to the Driller and the mudman, this may not have happened. They had been battling over-pressures for quite awhile.

I think the cap over the top is one major step in the midst of a bunch of other steps. It is not to “cap” the well, but seems to be a funnel that now they will attach a hose to to bring the oil up to ships. With hopes of 80% capture. (20% still leaking into the water).


12 posted on 06/03/2010 10:46:31 PM PDT by 21twelve ( UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES MY ARSE: "..now begin the work of remaking America."-Obama, 1/20/09)
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To: mainsail that; pepsionice
“Does this mean that Anderson Cooper can finally come home?”

I’m sure his girlfriend boyfriend is missing him

Ms. Cooper can oil himself up for him.

13 posted on 06/03/2010 10:47:28 PM PDT by Red Steel
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To: Frantzie
If BP failed then people are going to see even more oil in the water and on the beaches.


A brown pelican covered in oil sits on the beach at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast on Thursday, June 3, 2010.

14 posted on 06/03/2010 10:47:57 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (11/03/2010 - What did Obama know and when did he know it?)
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To: jpsb

He’s a idiot. I watched him for ten minutes and it was all I could take. The misinformation was the worst reporting I have ever witnessed.


15 posted on 06/03/2010 10:48:57 PM PDT by Cold Heat
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To: Frantzie

I suppose it will be spewing until BP can tap the top cap.


16 posted on 06/03/2010 10:49:05 PM PDT by Red Steel
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To: Berlin_Freeper

It is a shame that this has happened.


17 posted on 06/03/2010 10:50:29 PM PDT by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Apparently this is the method BP wanted to try first, weeks ago, and the Obama Administration micromanaged their way into forcing them to exhaust other options instead. “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” right? Now the long drug-out disaster is being blamed as a reason to shut down oil exploration and drilling in favor of “safer” green technology. Do it for the children. And baby seals.


18 posted on 06/03/2010 10:50:39 PM PDT by shezza (Blue star wife - God bless and keep safe our troops in harm's way.)
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To: Cold Heat

Hmmm, what was he getting wrong? I bounce between him and Greta but I thought he was doing a good job. What am I missing?


19 posted on 06/03/2010 10:51:33 PM PDT by jpsb
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I don't care about no "top hat". I gots my $69 million from BP, and I'm ready to par-tay!"



20 posted on 06/03/2010 10:52:18 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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