FLEET of GIANT OIL SKIMMERS SAILS TOWARD VALDEZ HOME PORT - Why don't I see this headline?!

[ShamelessHussy]

INTERNATIONAL FLEET of GIANT OIL SKIMMERS SAILS TOWARD the GULF of MEXICO

GIANT OIL SKIMMER SAILS TOWARD VALDEZ HOME PORT
JBF Scientific Co., based in Winchester, Mass., has said the three vessels could collect about 2,500 barrels of oil per hour. At 55 gallons per barrel, that rate would amount to about 140,000 gallons an hour, or 3.3 million gallons gathered in 24 hours.

source...
http://www.adn.com/evos/stories/EV323.html

Why are we not seeing this kinda response?

Can someone explain why I don't see any of our international partners ships out there, Japan, China, Germany, France, at least the UK?

I would expect to see a FLEET of ships in the Gulf, in multiple locations.

Why don't I see this kinda headline?!!!!!!!!!!!

Could we not use a hand in this historical ongoing wmd like disaster?

[Webster Green]

1. Crickets

I asked the same question.

At least I got some replies that offered links. Of course when I went to the links there was no mention of the large skimmers in action in the gulf.

The Coast Guard did say they would bring in more resources if BP doesn't, so it's all good. No hurry or anything. These things take time, you know. :rofl:

[charlesg]

2. They also need a giant fleet to catch the giant underwater plumes

[csziggy]

3. Shell Oil did this for the Saudis

They offered to do it for BP but the EPA or some other government agency stopped them. They can removed something like 90% of the oil from the water, but they have to purge the water.

Edited to add link:

The Secret, 700-Million-Gallon Oil Fix That Worked — and Might Save the Gulf
May 13, 2010 at 6:46AM by Mark Warren
There's a potential solution to the Gulf oil spill that neither BP, nor the federal government, nor anyone — save a couple intuitive engineers — seems willing to try. As The Politics Blog reported on Tuesday in an interview with former Shell Oil president John Hofmeister, the untapped solution involves using empty supertankers to suck the spill off the surface, treat and discharge the contaminated water, and either salvage or destroy the slick.
1,234diggsdigg

Hofmeister had been briefed on the strategy by a Houston-based environmental disaster expert named Nick Pozzi, who has used the same solution on several large spills during almost two decades of experience in the Middle East — who says that it could be deployed easily and should be, immediately, to protect the Gulf Coast. That it hasn't even been considered yet is, Pozzi thinks, owing to cost considerations, or because there's no clear chain of authority by which to get valuable ideas in the right hands. But with BP's latest four-pronged plan remaining unproven, and estimates of company liability already reaching the tens of billions of dollars (and counting), supertankers start to look like a bargain.

The suck-and-salvage technique was developed in desperation across the Arabian Gulf following a spill of mammoth proportions — 700 million gallons — that has until now gone unreported, as Saudi Arabia is a closed society, and its oil company, Saudi Aramco, remains owned by the House of Saud. But in 1993 and into '94, with four leaking tankers and two gushing wells, the royal family had an environmental disaster nearly sixty-five times the size of Exxon Valdez on its hands, and it desperately needed a solution.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/gulf-oil-spill-supertankers-051310#ixzz0nyRlJjLv

Combined with Costner's devices, this could get a hell of a lot of oil out of the Gulf, though the stuff that has been mixed with dispersants is probably not recoverable.

[Greyskye]

21. I heard about this. Why the hell isn't it being done NOW?

:grr:

[csziggy]

22. Because the water returned to the Gulf would have a little bit of oil in it

Yeah, for real - that is the excuse.

If they had allowed Shell and whoever else had the technology to get out there from week one and remove as much oil as possible from the surface, it might have helped some. With the volume of oil that it seems is coming out, that probably would not have been enough to stop ecological disaster, but it would have gotten some of the oil out of the way.

I just keep getting more and more depressed about this.

[Autumn]

25. That has to be a fucking joke

right???

[csziggy]

27. I can't find the link to that claim now, but here is the original source

In the first paragraph, they have links back to other articles about using the supertankers: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/bp-top-kill-alternative-052410

I was certain that one of those articles had the claim that the Coast Guard or EPA turned it down because of contaminated water being released. Now it just says that the people trying to push this idea could not get to the right people in the chain of command.

[csziggy]

29. Someone posted this link in a different thread - it has more info

Dutch oil spill response team on standby for US oil disaster
Published on : 4 May 2010 - 12:44pm | By Johan Huizinga (photo: ANP)

<Snip>
Two Dutch companies are on stand-by to help the Americans tackle an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. The two companies use huge booms to sweep and suck the oil from the surface of the sea. The US authorities, however, have difficulties with the method they use.

<snip>

The Americans don’t have spill response vessels with skimmers because their environment regulations do not allow it. With the Dutch method seawater is sucked up with the oil by the skimmer. The oil is stored in the tanker and the superfluous water is pumped overboard. But the water does contain some oil residue, and that is too much according to US environment regulations.

US regulations contradictory
Wierd Koops thinks the US approach is nonsense, because otherwise you would have to store the surplus seawater in the tanks as well. “We say no, you have to get as much oil as possible into the storage tanks and as little water as possible. So we pump the water, which contains drops of oil, back overboard.”
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/dutch-oil-spill-response-team-standby-us-oil-disaster

[amborin]

4. good question!

[Better Believe It]

5. Has the Obama administration put out an appeal for international help?

[laughingliberal]

6. I think it's cause BP is trying to do this on the cheap. After all, they don't live there. nt

[sandnsea]

7. Picture of skimmer boats

Happy now?

[sandnsea]

9. Greenpeace Flickr stream of the spill

http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpeaceusa09/

[ShamelessHussy]

26. 2 - thanks for illustrating my point

woefully inadequate, there needs to be an ARMADA, it should look like an invasion force, damn it!

[Webster Green]

28. No

Because that's not what they are. One is obviously a coast Guard Cutter. They're putting out booms.

[Lagomorph]

8. Because it's not in the headlines...

...there are about 500 boats out there trying to contain the spill, so far, according to BP. I'm betting that most of the assets are privately owned and assigned to specific geographical locations already. I seriously doubt there is such a thing as an oil disaster rapid response task force.

[Swamp Rat]

10. According to what I saw on local news today, BP is not utilizing many privately owned boats

They have been sitting still all weekend long while BP decide whether we will live or die.

[Lagomorph]

11. They have to qualify first.

Coast guard inspections, crew requirements, safety classes, equipment training classes, etc...

I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't enough boom equipment for all the vessels of opportunity that are available, but I don't know that.

[Swamp Rat]

12. I believe most if not all have qualified.

Classes have been going on for weeks here, but everyone I know here is on standby. BP is simply refusing to utilize local manpower.

[BeFree]

13. But

Boom boats are not skimmers that suck water and oil into the ships.
Boom boats drag up oil in a 'catch like' boom and then dump it into a mothership.

I read a while back that some Dutch skimmers asked to be allowed to go to work and were told "No Thanks".

Precisely what is needed are large ships that plow through the oil and suck water and oil into and onboard. The filter out as much oil as possible -- @ 99%, and deposit the water back into the gulf.

[ShamelessHussy]

18. rules are meant to be broken in times of emergency

another example of where an executive order would come in handy

[Chulanowa]

14. Environmental regulations

See, these things suck up lots of seawater with the oil. They separate the oil, and spit the seawater back out. of course, the process isn't perfect - a fair amount of dissolved oil goes back out with the seawater (granted, a hell of a lot less than came in)

However, it is more than current regulations allow ships to eject.

Yeah. Think about that and see if you don't want to beat your head against a rock.

[ShamelessHussy]

17. sounds like just the kind of exception an executive order could put in place

thanks for the info :toast:

[Maraya1969]

15. Here is the coast guard number to call and ask WHY they aren't

in the gulf

[e-mail]

Coast Guard Modernization Banner

17th District Public Affairs

U.S. Coast Guard
Department of Homeland Security Coast Guard logo

News Release

Date: March 12, 2010

Contact: Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis

(907) 321-450

[ShamelessHussy]

19. Take it straight to the top: The White House [phone]

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC 20500
[phone]

[Duppers]

16. K & R

nt

[tomm2thumbs]

20. ...bbbut Gibbs says they are 'doing everything humanly possible' - don't you see?

there is not one more thing that we can do as humans to clean this up - it is literally ALL being done - 100% of what is possible is being done

Gibbs said so, and he speaks for the White House

[WillyT]

23. Great Question !!! - K & R !!!

:kick:

:hi:

[ShamelessHussy]

24. To the snarky 'replace them with what' official reply to criticism of the response thus far

send them this link, for starters...