Despite the May 26 directive issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Coast Guard approved dozens of requests by BP to disperse hundred of thousands of gallons of surface oil dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico. The actual directive stated that they should only be using dispersants rarely, this according to documents analyzed by a Congressional subcommittee.

In fact, in some of the requests the Coast Guard approved, there wasn’t even an upper limit set on the amount of dispersant that BP planned to disperse.

The Democratic chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Edward J Markey, wrote in a letter to the retired Coast Guard admiral who is in charge of leading a federal response to the oil spill, Thad W. Alen, that the dispersants were contributing to “a toxic stew of chemicals, oil and gas, with impacts that are not well understood,”

In a conference call between the Admiral and the E.P.A. Administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, they said they were working closely together on the issue, and were coming close to achieving the agency’s goal of diminishing the use of dispersant amounts by three quarters.

On the 26th of May, the E.P.A. Had blatantly told BP it was to stop its use of dispersants on the ocean surface, except in “rare cases when there may have to be an exemption.” They were also told to strictly limit the amounts they used underwater.

Seems BP just can’t stop stepping in a heap of trouble.. One wonders when they will finally get things cleared away, and if they will be held accountable for the destruction they have wrought on the environment.

President Obama himself has been quoted as saying that the BP oil spill is the “ worst environmental disaster America has ever faced,” and well, so has just about anyone else asked what they thought about it. All sorts of different environmental groups are sounding the klaxons and screaming “catastrophe along the Gulf coast”, while the major news agencies such as; CBS, Fox, and MSNBC are all slathering “Disaster in the Gulf” into their main stories and reports.

Even Tony Hayward, the official fall guy for BP, after some early happy talk, has admitted that the spill was an “environmental catastrophe”. Rush Limbaugh, a rather obnoxious anti-environmentalist, has been on of the few which has argued that the spill, which he calls “the leak” – is not the disaster that everyone is making it out to be. He scoffs the apocalyptic claims of the vast majority of the various green groups.

It appears that Mr. Limbaugh has indeed got a point. The Deepwater Horizon explosion was a horrible thing to happen, especially for the 11 rig workers who died out there, and it certainly isn’t “a leak”; it is the largest spill that the US has witnessed to date.

It is also dealing some heavy blows to the economy and also the psychological well being of the coastal communities that depend on drilling, tourism and of course fishing. While it is impossible to know exactly how much damage has really been done as the event only took place some 3 months ago, it doesn’t seem to be doing any serious environmental damage.

“The impacts have been much, much less than everyone feared,” explains Jacqueline Michel, a geochemist who also is a federal contractor who is involved in coordinating the assessments of the shoreline in Louisiana.

It is true that the oil spill has killed birds, but so far, it is less than 1% of the number which were killed in the Exxon Valdez oil spill out in Alaska 21 years ago.

Of course, we have heard all those horror stories about those poor oiled dolphins, however, it is interesting to note that the wildlife response teams have only collected three visibly oiled bodies of mammals. When the spill first occurred, there was a harsh restriction put on fishing and shrimping. After a few tests on the shrimp and fish in the area, it was discovered they were clean, and the restriction lifted.

Yes, Lousiana, it has been warned could experience a speeding up in the deterioration of their marshes, which is happening anyway…

So as you can see, the spill has been touted as being the worst ever.. But is it just being hyped up for public entertainment? I mean would as many papers be sold if it weren’t the biggest disaster in the Gulf Coast? So who benefits from all he doom and gloom? Or is this an effort to try and calm people and divert attention away from what IS a big disaster? We don’t really know at this point.. We may never really know.. But stay tuned, and hopefully someone will sort out this mess.

Oil detection - picture by CSIRO

Scientists of the CSIRO have come up with a revolutionary new way to quickly detect and find out how much petroleum hydrocarbons (which you get from crude oil) is present in soil, silt, sediment, or even rock.

This new technique to detect oil was developed with the aid of the waste technology specialist Ziltek Pty Ltd. What makes this new technique so revolutionary is that scientists are now able to detect and find out how much oil there is in a specific area by using a hand-held infrared spectrometer. This means no more bothersome tests, or taking samples and engaging in arduous processing practices.

This technique is not only useful for finding new sources of oil, but it can also be useful when it comes to assessing and monitoring those places where off-shore oil spills have occurred, or even assessing sites where urban redevelopment is planned.

“Petroleum hydrocarbons are a valuable resource, but can also be pretty nasty environmental contaminants,” explains Sean Forrester, a CSIRO scientist.

“They can remain in the environment for extended periods of time and can be harmful to wildlife, plants and humans. Better tools to detect them makes a rapid response possible.”

The technique developed utilizes infrared signals to detect petroleum and hydrocarbons in samples collected from sites of interest.
“The ability of this new technique to rapidly detect the presence of contaminants at the site has the potential to provide significant cost advantages, in terms of reduced testing costs and the avoidance of delays.” Mr Forrester concluded.

As the size of the disaster seems to shrink away to nothing, experts are saying that the oil is actually breaking up, and staying beneath the waves.

For a blood curdling two and a half months, oil was gushing out into the Gulf of Mexico, courtesy of BP’s damaged oil well. It pumped out somewhere in the vicinity of 200 million gallons of the black gold into the surrounding ecosystems. Along with the federal government, BP has gotten together an army of people to help deal with the mess. There just seems to be one problem – the oil seems to have gone AWOL.

At its most devastating levels last month, the area the oil covered was comparable to that of Kansas, however the spill has rapidly started to disappear, and it now only the size of New Hampshire.

Yesterday, reporters working for ABC News went out to look for themselves, and they didn’t see anything. Even when they flew out to the site of the rig this past Sunday with the Coast Guard, there was surprisingly no oil around.

“That oil is somewhere. It didn’t just disappear,” said Billy Nungesser, the Plaquemines Parish President.

One of the men in search of the black gold is Salvador Cepriano. Cepriano, a professional shrimper, has been attempting to scoop up some of the precious black stuff, but there just doesn’t seem to be any to scoop up.

“I think it is underneath the water. It’s in between the bottom and the top of the water,” Cepriano commented when asked about the strange phenomenon.

The federal government seems to be stumped as well, and has publicly admitted that finding the oil has become an issue.

“It is becoming a very elusive bunch of oil for us to find,” said Thad Allen, the National Incident Commander.

Skimmers are Scooping UP Less Crude:
Well, the math is right, and numbers rarely lie: a fortnight ago, the skimming boats scooped up around 25,000 barrels of oily water. This past Thursday, they only scooped up about 200 barrels.

Don’t break out the wine yet.. This does not mean that the oil which was pumped out over the past weeks is gone. There are still thousands of small patches of oil which are staying beneath the waves. Be that the case, experts have said that an amazing amount of the black gold has simply disappeared, apparently reabsorbed by the environment.

“[It’s] mother nature doing her job,” explained a professor of environmental studies at Louisiana State University, Ed Overton.

Scientists: The Oil in The Gulf is Breaking Up:
The lighter of the black gold started to break down when it first squirted from the pipes at high pressure, and then it was inundated with dispersants to help catalyze the process.

The oil that actually did make it to the surface of the ocean was deteriorated by 88 degree water, and then baked by 100 degree sun, chowed down by a bunch of microbes, and then ripped apart by the wind and waves in the area.. Quite a welcoming party huh?

oil spill

It comes as no surprise that the oil spill, which was labelled, “minor” has now been elevated to “worse than thought”. These oil companies like to think they have things under control, but nine times out of ten, they don’t.

Some reports on the incident are suggesting that the prevailing winds have started to blow the oil from the spill back towards the shore.

China is frantically ramping up their efforts to clean up a severe oil spill of the north east coast.

There are now murmurings and increasing fears that some rather strong winds might be blowing the oil farther than what was originally expected.

Greenpeace, a large environmental group, has said that the oil was as much as 20cm thick in some areas of the coast dangerously near the city of Dalian.

Shipments of oil from the north to the industrial belt in the south have been put on immediate hold, while they try to work this mess out.

At least one worker has died during this clean up process, they were thrown from their vessel by a wave and then drowned in the oil…

The oil spill was caused by two pipelines exploding on Friday night, and caused quite a ruckus.

Officials have stated that 430 square kilometers of the ocean in the vicinity is now polluted, however help is on the way. Oil eating bacteria and oil skimming boats are being sent to the area, and should be there soon.

Greenpeace has said that this might just be the worst oil spill in China’s history.

The efforts to clean up continue after two pipelines ruptured in Dalian, sending forth in the neighborhood of 11,000 barrels of oil into the Yellow Sea. The environmentalists are still trying to figure out just exactly how this happened, and what damage the fisheries and beaches have sustained in the incident.

If it wasn’t enough that BP had a spill in the Gulf of Mexico, now a few more pipes from the big oil conglomerates have ruptured!

The ground heaved as the first of the two pipelines ruptured, which led the residents and dock workers near Dalian’s Xingang Harbor to fall to their knees, thinking an earthquake was occurring.

What they didn’t know, was that the shuddering of the ground was being caused by yet another environmental mishap by the major oil companies.

These two pipelines located near the port, ripped apart at the seams this past Friday, spewing a substantial amount oil into the Yellow Sea, and shooting flames more than 60 feet into the air!

Thankfully, there were no serious injuries reported and they managed to keep the fire in check, and have it completely under control as of last Saturday. However, by Monday hundreds of ships were attempting to clean up the mess, which extended an astonishing distance. The port operations in the area were expected to be ground to a halt for at least a week!

Meanwhile, Environmentalists are still trying to figure out exactly how big a catastrophe this actually is. They are trying to estimate the actual damage done to the beaches and fisheries at one of China’s most important ports. Smoke from the raging inferno has plagued downtown Dalian over the weekend.

The actual amount of damage done will depend on quite a few variables, such as containment of the oil, so says a professor at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Fu Guo. There is a large shellfish farm, which is operated by the Zhangzidao Fishery Group, only a stone throw’s away from the spill.

“There have been accidents in the past, but this one was more serious,” granted Fu, “The spill happened close to the city, so the impact on residents may be more severe.”

The China National Petroleum Corporation, which happens to be the biggest oil company in the nation, and also the owner of the pipelines which ruptured in Dalia, Have not come forward with the cause of the disaster, but the authorities are looking into a Liberian-flagged oil tanker, which is a suspect as it was unloading at the time the pipelines ruptured.

Analysts have said that the mishap may have been caused by improper loading procedures of the oil from ships to the storage tanks in the harbor.

You would think that the giant oil conglomerates would take a look at the recent “mishaps” around the globe and step up safety procedures.. However there seems to be a general nonchalance about the whole affair, and these oil companies continue to have mishaps… It seems for the oil companies to take these “mishaps” seriously, there needs to be significant human loss or suffering, and by then it will be too late…

BP has reported that it is quite happy with the early progress it has made to install a brand spanking new containment cap on the faulty well in the Gulf Of Mexico on Sunday, as the oil flow seems to have temporarily let up.

They have stated that they will continue to increase the amount of oil they can collect on a daily basis, and are eagerly awaiting the Helix Producer skimmer to join in the cleanup sometime soon. This comes straight from Kent Wells, one of the senior vice presidents of BP, during their technical briefing on Sunday.

The cap, which was placed in early June, was removed from the leaky well this past Saturday by robotic submarines. BP is hopeful that the entire process of recapping the well will be done in the next four to seven days.

Wells expounded, “We tried to work out as many of the bugs as we can. I think the challenge will come with something unexpected. We are pleased with our process.” Quite a bold statement since from the very beginning they were not living up to their promises.

Near the source of the spill, 46 skimmers managed to collect more than 20,000 barrels of oily water on Saturday. However, BP also has conducted 15 controlled burns, but is hopeful to have two more skimmers at its disposal soon.

The oil is only being cleaned up by the Q4000 at the moment, and it only has a capacity of 378,000 gallons. It is hoped that it will be joined by the Helix Producer by Sunday, which has more than double that capacity.

This means that BP is finally making some headway on this horrific disaster, but they are not out of the woods yet. They still need to fix up the well, so that they may put on “Top Hat 10” the new cap for the well. Once they have “Top Hat 10” mounted into place, they will use special equipment to finally seal off the well.

According to the AP, this special equipment weighs in at around 150,000 pounds, and not only will it seal off the leak for good, but it is supposed to also provide connections for new skimmers on the surface to help clean up the remaining oil spill.

The best hope for finally being done with the whole mess comes from two relief wells. These wells are supposed to be fully operational by the middle of August. These relief wells are being put in so that they can inject cement and mud into the leaking well to stop the flow of oil.

Current estimates are that somewhere between 1.5 million and 2.5 million gallons of oil a day are gushing from the leaking well. The existing cap is only collecting about 1 million gallons a day. The new cap and skimmer are supposedly going to be able to mop up between 2.5 million and 3.4 million gallons a day, which would certainly come as a welcome reprieve from this horrific spill.

Tallahassee, Florida – Scientists are sitting on the edge of their seats, and they have their fingers crossed that the natural oil-eating bacteria being used off the Gulf of Mexico’s Coast have voracious appetites.

One scientist from the Florida State University, Markus Huettel, is studying the natural oil-eating bacteria, trying to determine just how long it will take them to eat up the oil which has penetrated deep into the sediment.

Huettel is a biological oceanographer, and has collected many samples from the beaches in and around the Pensacola area, and is rather astonished by the findings. It appears that oil has penetrated as deep as eight inches into the sand.

The oil is quite an eyesore, and sticks out like a sore thumb on the normally pristine white sandy beaches of the Florida Panhandle.
What is not known at this time, and what Huettel is devoting his time to, is just exactly how long the oil will remain there. He explained that these natural oil-eating bacteria rely upon the proper mixture of oxygen and nutrients to eat up the oil. What is unclear is if the mixture is right deep in the sand.

Under appropriate conditions, Huettel has said that the oil-eating bacteria should be able to complete the task of cleaning up the oil from the BP spill in a relatively short timeframe. “We are talking days, weeks, sometimes a month, you see a substantial degradation of this oil. The situation changes dramatically if you isolate the oil from oxygen and nutrients and that can happen deep in the sediment.”

New Orleans – The trial runs of the retrofitted oil tanker, dubbed A Whale, which was developed to aid in the clean up of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are not conclusive. This is due to the high seas which were present during the tests, TMT Shipping Offshore stated on Monday.

The trials of A Whale, which were held just to the north of the BP Plc, were supposed to have been wrapped up by Monday, however they have now been extended due to the adverse weather.

Bob Grantham, spokesman for TMT, explained “After an initial 48-hour testing period results remain inconclusive in light of the rough sea state we are encountering. Therefore, working in close coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard, we will be undertaking an additional testing period to make operational and technological adjustments aimed at improving skimming effectiveness given the actual conditions we are encountering in the Gulf.”

A Whale wasn’t the only vessel having difficulties. According to Mr. Grantham, a lot of the smaller skimmers were also having difficulty carrying out there task in the adverse conditions caused by Hurricane Alex, which passed through the Gulf of Mexico last week.

A Whale is seen as the potential “Hail Mary” for the efforts in trying to clean up the Gulf of Mexico as it can collect up to 500,000 barrels of oil per day of oily water, which is why the outcome of this trial is so disappointing.

There will be another trial run, and TMT is hoping that this one will go as planned, so that they may secure a contract with BP to skim oil from the gulf. They are prepping to more “super skimmers” so there may just be hope for the Gulf of Mexico yet.

This is not the oil tanker converted to a skimmer. But illustrates the scale of the skimmer.

The cleanup crews working around the clock in the Gulf of Mexico to clean up the BP oil disaster may receive a reprieve if all goes well if the weekend tests of a new oil skimmer go according to plan.

This Taiwanese oil skimmer has been aptly dubbed “A Whale”, as it consists of 12 vents which are designed to collect up to 500,000 barrels of oily water a day. This “Whale” is described as being one of the biggest oil skimmers in the entire world, and has been showing off its capabilities since last Saturday. It is being tested just north of the Macondo Deepwater well.

The oil skimmer was set to cruise a 25-square-mile test site, through to yesterday. TMT shipping is credited with the creation, turning an out of service oil tanker into the oil skimming monster

The jury is still out however, and the U.S. Coast Guard, along with BP, are holding their collective breaths will live up to the claims, and be able to clean up to 21 million gallons of oily water a day. By all means it should live up to the claims, it is 10 stories high, is as long as four city blocks, and has 12 vents to separate the oil from the contaminated water, and re-pump it back into the Gulf of Mexico.

Bob Grantham, spokesman for TMT, had this to say in an e-mail “In many ways, the ship collects water like an actual whale and pumps internally like a human heart.”

A Whale is being put to the test close to the epicenter of the disaster as officials believe that it will be more effective on those areas where the oil is at its thickest, rather than where the oil is thinner, closer to the shoreline.

The monster oil skimmer made an appearance in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, however officials have been holding off on its use, until its capabilities have been tested, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency has a chance to confirm that the water it will be pumping back into the Gulf of Mexico is truly clean and properly processed. While it won’t get rid of all of the oil, there are still certain standards it needs to meet before it can be put to work.

The long wait time has really frustrated some of the local officials on the scene, as this giant oil skimmer might just be the ticket to preventing the oil from making its ways to the vulnerable coastlines.

Governor Bobby Jindal is one of those officials that is tired of waiting to get A Whale into the game, “They’ve used the war rhetoric, if this is really a war, they need to be using every resource that makes sense to fight this oil before it comes to our coast.”

Let us hope that A Whale performs as promised, and we can finally make a dent in this humongous problem which faces the Gulf of Mexico.