Remaining Gulf Spill Still Bigger Than Exxon Valdez

[Robbien]

Source: AOL News

<snip>

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists announced that 74 percent of the oil that escaped BP's Macondo well had either evaporated or been burned, skimmed, siphoned into ships from the wellhead, or broken up by a chemical dispersant released into the Gulf by BP. The White House expressed a "high degree of confidence" in the findings.

But in the parishes on the sole of Louisiana's boot, where they have battled BP, government bureaucrats, oil, bad weather and recalcitrant equipment every day since the oil first began slithering into the marshes in May, the news of the disappearing oil was greeted with skepticism -- and fresh worries.

"If only 25 percent of the oil is left, it must be all in St. Bernard Parish, because we're finding new oil every day," parish president Craig Taffaro told AOL News.

There's also this simple math: If NOAA's numbers are right, that still leaves 1 million barrels of oil at large. On its own, that amounts to a spill four times the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound -- the worst in U.S. history, until the Deepwater Horizon disaster easily topped it.


Read more: http://www.aolnews.com/gulf-oil-spill/article/remaining-gulf-spill-still-bigger-than-exxon-valdez/19581631

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The figures for the disappearing oil break down like this:

* about 25 percent evaporated or dissolved
* about 17 percent captured at the wellhead
* about 8 percent skimmed or burned off
* about 8 percent broken down by chemical dispersants
* about 16 percent dispersed naturally in the water

Seems like pie-in-the-sky guesses. Even with all the guessing, isn't this double counting?: 25% evaporated or dissolved; 16% dispersed naturally

[dipsydoodle]

1. The reference to evaporation is what oil does on contact with air.

It releases CO2 and H2O in doing so. If you don't believe your Administration's figure then I guess you won't try to get them voted in next time round.

btw The CO2 goes into the atmosphere. Can't imagine where the water goes. :sarcasm:

[Robbien]

2. Not evaporation, dissolved

Dissolved and dispersed are very similiar acts. 16% is said to be dispersed and some of the 25% is said to have been dissolved.

Huh?

My Administration?

Well, my administration has a record of being very great at guesses. Its first guess was that only one thousand barrels a day gushed out of the broken pipe.

[demoncrat]

3. oil

Apparently this is light sweet crude. Very different from alaskan crude which is the worst crude in the world.asphalt based and much heavier. Light sweet crude is parafin based and much higher gravity. It will evaporate more rapidly than alaskan crude. In other words, all crude is not created equally. I have seen sweet crude that was almost pure diesel

[CreekDog]

4. has to first reach the surface to evaporate

how much oil has not?