The Gulf oil spill is much worse...

[katty]

more: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/05/oil-spill-how-bad.html

The Gulf oil spill is much worse than originally believed.

As the Christian Science Monitor writes:
It's now likely that the actual amount of the oil spill dwarfs the Coast

Guard's figure of 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, a day.

Independent scientists estimate that the renegade wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf could be spewing up to 25,000 barrels a day. If chokeholds on the riser pipe break down further, up to 50,000 barrels a day could be released, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration memo obtained by the Mobile, Ala., Press-Register.

CNN quotes the lead government official responding to the spill - the commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen - as stating:

If we lost a total well head, it could be 100,000 barrels or more a day.
Indeed, an environmental document filed by the company running the oil drilling rig - BP - estimates the maximum as 162,000 barrels a day:

In an exploration plan and environmental impact analysis filed with the federal government in February 2009, BP said it had the capability to handle a “worst-case scenario” at the Deepwater Horizon site, which the document described as a leak of 162,000 barrels per day from an uncontrolled blowout — 6.8 million gallons each day.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. 6,800,000 GALLONS PER DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

47,600,000 GALLONS PER WEEK!!!!!

190,400,000 GALLONS IN A MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

each barrel = 42 gallons....

http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/peril_oil_pollution.html

The text on this site is presented as an archival version of the script of "Ocean Planet," a 1995 Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition. The content reflects the state of knowledge at the time of the exhibition, and has not been updated.
The information on this buoy is divided into the three categories listed below.

* Sources
* Accidents
* Cleanups

When it comes to mixing oil and water, oceans suffer from far more than an occasional devastating spill. Disasters make headlines, but hundreds of millions of gallons of oil quietly end up in the seas every year, mostly from non-accidental sources §.

The graph below shows how many millions of gallons of oil each source puts into the oceans worldwide each year

Down the Drain: 363 Million Gallons

Used engine oil can end up in waterways. An average oil change uses five quarts; one change can contaminate a million gallons of fresh water. Much oil in runoff from land and municipal and industrial wastes ends up in the oceans. 363 million gallons §

Road runoff adds up
Every year oily road runoff from a city of 5 million could contain as much oil as one large tanker spill §.

Routine Maintenance: 137 Million Gallons

Every year, bilge cleaning and other ship operations release millions of gallons of oil into navigable waters, in thousands of discharges of just a few gallons each. 137 million gallons §

Up in Smoke: 92 Million Gallons

Air pollution, mainly from cars and industry, places hundreds of tons of hydrocarbons into the oceans each year. Particles settle, and rain washes hydrocarbons from the air into the oceans §.

Natural Seeps: 62 Million Gallons

Some ocean oil "pollution" is natural. Seepage from the ocean bottom and eroding sedimentary rocks releases oil.

Big Spills: 37 Million Gallons

Only about 5 percent of oil pollution in oceans is due to major tanker accidents, but one big spill can disrupt sea and shore life for miles §. 37 million gallons §

Crude oil from a tanker that ran aground
Kill Van Kull Channel, between Staten Island and New Jersey, 1991

photo © Michael Baytoff/Black Star

Offshore Drilling: 15 Million Gallons

Offshore oil production can cause ocean oil pollution, from spills and operational discharges §.

Accidents
Spills and slicks sicken and kill

Large spills--even though a relatively minor source of ocean oil pollution--can be devastating. The same amount of oil can do more damage in some areas than others. Coral reefs and mangroves are more sensitive to oil than sandy beaches or sea-grass beds; intertidal zones are the most sensitive. Crude oil is most likely to cause problems §.


Dead oiled otter
a victim of the Exxon Valdez spill Prince William Sound, 1989

Oil-covered fur or feathers can't insulate marine mammals and diving birds from cold water, and when an animal cleans itself, it also swallows oil.
photo © Gary Braasch/Wheeler Pictures, Woodfin Camp & Associates

NOAA scientist collects samples from a rock sole after an oil spill, 1989

Even if oil exposure isn't immediately lethal, it can cause long-term harm.

Bottom-dwelling fish exposed to compounds released after oil spills may develop liver disease and reproductive and growth problems.
photo Northwest Fisheries Science Center/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


Mangroves stand in oil from a ruptured refinery tank, Panama, 1986

Smithsonian Institution scientists monitored effects of this 1986 spill, one of the largest in tropical North America. Five years later, mangrove sediments still held fairly fresh, toxic oil. It may take the mangroves fifty years to recover fully.
photo © Carl C. Hansen
<snip>

[HockeyMom]

2. Just heard on local news

that this could reach the Florida Keys by the end of the week.

[katty]

3. end of wk? o god

[enki23]

4. so... BP blatantly lied in an EIA. nice.

.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Just like the Coal mining industry....profit before safety.

[lxlxlxl]

6. the media shouldnt just copy and paste PR wire...corporations rely on them to perpetuate

big corporations have zero honestly, and know they can put out whatever lies about damage and response until they are forced to testify in front of congress months later. that prefabricated channel sets up soft network coverage and continuing meaningless drama about 'goverment' vs corporations.

[damntexdem]

7. Yeah, BP had the capacity to handle a worst-case scenario:

in the form of GOP-enacted limits on its liability.

[merkins]

8. One quart of oil can pollute 250000 gallons of drinking water