Dear BP: We do not live in the Gulf of Mexico. Sincerely, walruses

[marmar]

from Grist:



The 7 dumbest things in BP’s spill response plan

by Jonathan Hiskes
25 May 2010 3:04 PM


Oil companies are supposed to have spill-response plans prepared before they begin drilling in American offshore waters. Minerals Management Service safety regulators are supposed to scrutinize those plans before signing off on them. But it's looking more and more like no one bothered to read BP's backup plan before the Deepwater Horizon rig began drilling 5,000 feet below the ocean's surface.

Here's the evidence:

1. BP mentions sea lions, seals, sea otters, walruses in its Oil Spill Response Plan for the Gulf of Mexico region. The geniuses who wrote the plan either don't know jack about wildlife, or they cribbed text out of a plan for the Arctic region.

2. BP's "plan" offers a Japanese home shopping site as the link to one of its "primary equipment providers for BP in the Gulf of Mexico Region rapid deployment of spill response resources on a 24 hour, 7 days a week basis." Apparently the site didn't have a 100-ton underwater containment dome in stock -- it took rescue workers days to build one in an early attempt to stop the leak ... which failed.

3. The "plan" included no information about tracking sub-surface oil plumes from deepwater blowouts, although more oil may be spreading below the surface than at the top.

4. The "plan" includes no oceanic or meteorological data, despite the ocean-floor site in a hurricane-prone region. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.grist.org/article/2010-05-25-the-7-dumbest-things-in-bps-spill-response-plan/