How Bad Could the BP Spill Get? - Mother Jones

[WillyT]

How Bad Could the BP Spill Get?
By Kate Sheppard
Fri May. 14, 2010 10:46 AM PDT



<snip>

How much oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico? No one knows for sure, but the answer is likely far, far worse than what BP has admitted. One outside calculation estimates that the Gulf has already experienced the equivalent of six Exxon Valdez spills. And without an accurate number, there's increasing fear that the response may fail.

BP says approximately 210,000 gallons of oil are spilling into the Gulf per day. But John Amos, a geologist at the West Virginia-based nonprofit SkyTruth, says that at least 1.1 million gallons of oil is leaking out of the well every day. His calculation is based on early NASA images of the slick that showed it covering 2,200 square miles of the Gulf, and on the estimated thickness of oil needed for the slick to be visible from space. "If it really is just 210,000 and they can't handle that—you've got to be kidding me," says Amos, who has tracked the changing estimates of the spill on his blog. "One of the world's biggest oil companies plus the Coast Guard has been beaten by 210,000 gallons a day—do they really want us to think that?"

But even this figure may be on the low end. Under pressure, BP for the first time released video of the sea floor spill site this week. Steven Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, analyzed the tape and told NPR this week that the oil flow is likely closer to 3 million gallons a day. If that's the case, the situation in the Gulf would equal more than two Exxon Valdez spills every week. The Exxon Valdez incident was, until now, the worst oil spill disaster in US history.

And the absolute worst-case-scenario? According to government data on daily production at another Gulf well, the BP spill could spew 6 million gallons per day if the wellhead that's currently restricting the flow breaks.

<snip>

More: http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/05/how-bad-bp-spill

:shrug:

[Skink]

1. There's an Ocean under the Ocean.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. Fuck

Fucking greedy stupid fucks!

I hate our greedy exploitative culture.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Spill sounds too limited, this is a gusher, Gulf Oil Gusher aka; GOG.

Thanks for the thread, WillyT.

[Duppers]

4. IF this volcano of oil cannot be stopped, most life on the planet is doomed.

IF this volcano continues unabated for YEARS, as one official suggested it might, then it will pollute the oceans of the entire planet.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8338761

This pollution would severely inhibit, or could possibly even stop, photosynthesis.

It is estimated that between 70% and 80% of the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced by marine plants growing on the continental shelves.



I'm not at all superstitious, but could the Mayans be right?

[lunatica]

5. The Mayans should have warned us dammit!

Why didn't they tell us this would happen?!

Shit!

[roguevalley]

6. they did. december, 2012.

[lunatica]

9. So where are the pictographs of oil rigs and explosions and gushers!

[roguevalley]

10. bwahahaha! that's top secret. :)

[fishwax]

7. But BP apparently thinks that knowing the true extent of the spill woudl *hinder* efforts to plug it

According to this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/us/16oil.html

BP has resisted entreaties from scientists that they be allowed to use sophisticated instruments at the ocean floor that would give a far more accurate picture of how much oil is really gushing from the well.

“The answer is no to that,” a BP spokesman, Tom Mueller, said on Saturday. “We’re not going to take any extra efforts now to calculate flow there at this point. It’s not relevant to the response effort, and it might even detract from the response effort.”

[hwmnbn]

8. It's not their goddamn ocean!!....

Bastards. I say send in environmental research subs to take the measurements, assess the damage, broadcast the findings, and start selling torches and pitchforks for when the rest of America realizes what's been done.

[upi402]

11. US corporatocracy: UNFIT FOR SERVICE

:nuke: