So did you hear about the oil spill in the gulf?

[HeeBGBz]

Me neither.

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1137752516193530.xml&coll=3

snip

A massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that has escaped widespread notice provides graphic evidence that damage done by last year's hurricanes poses an ongoing problem for the Gulf's oil industry and coastal environment.

A double-hulled tanker barge now drained and floating upside down at a dock off Mobile Bay was responsible for what appears to be one of the Gulf of Mexico's largest oil spills, which received scant attention when it occurred after midnight Nov. 11. A gash in the hull 35 feet long and 6 feet wide released up to 3 million gallons of oil off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas.

Federal officials said the 442-foot ship's hull ruptured and spilled the oil after it collided with a submerged oil platform wrecked by Hurricane Rita in September. Federal records show at least 167 Gulf platforms were damaged or destroyed during the active 2005 hurricane season. Many of these are submerged or so damaged that the warning beacons on them no longer function, and federal officials acknowledge they have no idea how many have working marker lights.

So where was the media on this one?

[Horse with no Name]

1. What?????

It's just the environment.
Whatcha so worried about???:sarcasm:

[babylonsister]

2. Jesus, Mary, and the rest of the kids.

"...one of the Gulf of Mexico's largest oil spills,..."

No, I don't recall, can't talk about it, etc. ad nauseum.

Where is the media now? Makes me wonder what we're not hearing, including this, but
what else is going on that WE ARE NOT HEARING ABOUT?

[HeeBGBz]

3. Makes ya wonder

I guess they thought the gulf coast was already so messed up that no one would notice 3 million gallons of oil washing up.

[proud patriot]

4. No I did not hear about this ,,

That Liberal Media at work again :sarcasm:

[seafan]

5. Interesting that this was hidden from the news. Here's more:

snip

Coast Guard officials said the spill, and the $35 million cleanup associated with it, might have been avoided if the owners of the oil platform had marked the submerged wreck with a lighted buoy, as required by federal law. But the wreck was marked only with floating plastic balls described as "cherry fenders." Such buoys are not lighted and would be difficult to see at midnight, about when the accident happened.

More troubling, said officials at the federal Minerals Management Service, which regulates the offshore oil fields, is that they don't know if lighted buoys have been placed at any of the 115 wrecked platforms that remain in the Gulf. Three weeks after the spill, the agency published a "safety alert" that lists the locations of damaged platforms and warns mariners the platforms "were destroyed and might be potential obstructions."

snip

According to the Code of Federal Regulations, it is the responsibility of the owner of a wrecked platform to ensure that it is appropriately marked. Officials at Coast Guard headquarters said the agency does not have an inspection process to determine whether the wrecked platforms have been properly marked. But, they said, companies are subject to fines if they are found to have shirked the buoy requirement.

snip

At least one of the additional collisions reported by the Minerals Management Service happened after the agency issued its first safety alert. All three accidents "resulted in potential pollution incidents," the agency said. It declined to provide information about the accidents and referred reporters to the Coast Guard, which was unable immediately to provide information about the wrecks.

The ship, named the DBL-152, is owned by shipping company K-Sea, which is based in New York. Targa Resources, which is based in Houston, owns the wrecked oil platform that pierced the DBL-152's hull. Targa did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1137826855222050.xml

[Horse with no Name]

7. well well well

Do I smell another no-bid Halliburton contract to clean this up?

[druidity33]

19. !!!

Holy Shit!!! GGRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrr.......:grr:
Rat F%#*ing bastards!!!!!
They'll Rape and Pillage while they still can... we have to be vigilant....


...little stickers...

[FtWayneBlue]

6. crickets chirping. n/t

[seafan]

8. This news is too important to let slide:

snip

The Nov. 11 spill, described as "up to 3 million gallons of oil" in Coast Guard documents, garnered little national attention when it happened 30 miles off the Texas-Louisiana coastline. In part that was because the fuel oil on board was so heavy it sank to the seafloor as it gushed from three separate cargo holds and, according to Coast Guard news releases, has not washed up on any shorelines.

Two million gallons of oil were recovered from the ship's hold, and some of the spilled oil was recovered from the seafloor, but rough weather immediately after the accident thwarted cleanup efforts for days at a time. It is unknown how much oil was dispersed into the sea. Scientists said heavy oils like the type on the ship tend to separate into small, pea-sized balls that can be spread by currents.

The shipping Web site Marinelog.com says Coast Guard officials warned fishers to avoid the area where the spill occurred because "there is a strong possibility of heavy grade oil floating partially submerged or on the bottom."

Minerals Management Service officials said the two safety alerts published since the accidents in the fall give the navigation coordinates for the damaged platforms. The alert dated Nov. 30 lists two accidents, while a follow-up alert issued Dec. 9 lists three accidents that have occurred as a result of collisions with platforms. The second alert also lists three more damaged platforms than the earlier alert details.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1137826855222050.xml

[shenmue]

9. Damn

More waste and destruction :cry:

[gordontron]

10. blimey

I hope you aren't right

[PDittie]

11. Not a word about it.

Incredible.

[spacelady]

12. Shit, and I read this paper. It must have been buried amongst all the

other bad news. Friday news dump; I'll ask my husband if he has heard, he is an environmental/safety engineer for an asphalt company. There is so much going on, these industries in the Gulf are just now getting back online, have patience, Rest of the World, we are in some cases, building from scratch.

[Marie26]

13. The Exxon Valdez spill got months of coverage

This spill gets none. Why?

[SupplyConcerns]

21. Because this time, the future isn't bright

Google the term "peak oil", and see what you find. The elites generally know about it, and the real dread it provokes allows for no silver lining to negative energy stories likee this one. That's part of it, imo.

[Imagevision]

14. MSM must not think this is a news worthy story

[spacelady]

15. Terrible coal mining disasters and missing girls are easier to exploit.

[arikara]

22. Blonde girls are so passe

a missing bridegroom - which happened ages ago- is now the big "news".

[Imagevision]

16. Only with a Bush administration could this go unreported 2 b sure!

[TroubleMan]

17. Goddammit.....

That's all I can really say - goddammit.


If they can cover up a huge oil spill, just think what else we don't know.

[sproutster]

18. Actually most of us heard... Go back to the accounts of rescues

and survivors in the media.

It was just the human crash was far worse. I actually was floored after all of the money and jobs created by the exxon oil spill - is not the seafood from the gulf as much of a money maker? Or is it because there were no cute seals.

[HeeBGBz]

23. Seafood used to be good

I wouldn't be eating the crab for a while though. I remember after Camille being warned not to eat the crab because the crab were more than likely feeding on bodies that washed away. I expect the same with Katrina.

[SupplyConcerns]

20. Societal decay

With an ever-tightening supply of energy, can we avoid it at this point?

[greiner3]

24. America, hungry for oil, does not want info of this sort;

It only interupts the feeding frenzy!

[stickdog]

25. MIA - Missing Inaction. (nt)

[caligirl]

26. I did catch this when it happened. Some news was put out on it then,

but in view of NOLA and the Superdome travesty I can see how this fell to the side.

[seasat]

27. They're keeping it under raps because they want to drill near FL

(Link to St Pete Times)

The item quietly published in the Federal Registry dated Jan. 3 (Vol. 71, No.1, Pg. 127) sounded innocent enough. The Department of Interior has drawn "offshore administrative boundaries" for "planning, coordination and administrative purposes." Or put another way, Interior Secretary Gale Norton may be secretly planning to "undermine Florida's ability to control activities off of its own coast, including offshore oil and gas drilling."
...
In other words, the battle to protect Florida's coast and beaches is on again. An editorial on this page in May warned of Norton's scheme to extend state boundaries onto the Outer Continental Shelf, giving Louisiana most of Area 181 even though it is on Florida's side of the gulf. Louisiana, which still hasn't recovered from an oil spill caused by Hurricane Katrina, will be only too happy to approve drilling off our coast, enticed with federal royalty payments.

The sad thing is that Jebbie ran a position of preventing this from happening off FL. Now he is supporting it. Mel Martinez (our ID10T Repug senator) voted for drilling in ANWR because he had a promise that Shrub inc wouldn't drill off FL. It's too bad that we don't have recall elections here in FL.

All it takes is for one spill like this to get caught in the loop current and carried down to the keys. We'd be looking at massive devastation of the already ailing reefs.

On another note, I tried to find listings for the amount of oil spilled from damage to the rigs and pipes during the hurricanes. Except for massive spills, they do not list them. NOAA and the Coast Guard monitor these spills and have forms for releases from the rigs but do not make the data public. I noticed that one report I found listed the amount of oil released from rigs as from a minor percent to over 26% of the world oil spills according to various countries and agencies. The reason for the wide range is that the information on these spills is kept from us and no report was able to get an accurate estimate.:mad:

Edited for grammar