NEW 100 MILE OIL SLICK Reported Near Deepwater Drilling Site in Gulf

[jus_the_facts]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rocky-kistner/oil-spill-reported-near-d_b_838019.html

The Coast Guard is investigating reports of a potentially large oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico not far from the Deepwater Horizon site. According to a knowledgeable source, the slick was sighted by a helicopter pilot on Friday and is about 100 miles long. A fishing boat captain said he went through the slick yesterday and it was strong enough to make his eyes burn.

According to the Times Picayune, the Coast Guard has confirmed they are investigating a potentially large 100 mile slick about 30 miles offshore. They are going to a site near the Matterhorn well site about 20 miles north of the BP Deepwater Horizon site, according to the paper. The Matterhorn field includes includes a deepwater drilling platform owned by W&T Technology. It was acquired last year from TotalFinaElf E&P.

Also, another Louisiana fisherman reports that fresh oil is coming ashore near South Pass, LA, and that cleanup crews are laying new boom near the beach. He also reports that cleanup crews in four-wheeled vehicles were patrolling the beaches near the marsh filled coast spraying a substance on the beach.



:banghead:

[Raksha]

1. Some days it just isn't worth it to get out of bed...

especially if you make the mistake of reading the news. Another day, another catastrophe...

[tabatha]

3. Agreed.

So who will stop driving and take the bus or walk?

[Raksha]

5. I don't have a car so I really don't have any choice about it.

But it's NOT for ecological reasons and never will be. If I ever get financially straightened out to the point where I can drive again, I will. I figure it's somebody else's turn now to make sacrifices for the environment. After decades of being a non-driver, I've already done my bit.

[me b zola]

12. I believe that is a false choice

There is no reason, other than, corruption and greed, that most of our vehicles still run on petro & that they get crappy mileage. Petro will run out eventually, so it seems that we need to develop better alternatives.

We don't have to except the poisoning of our oceans in exchange for convenient transportation. A real leader would not except that false choice and would take us forward.

[Canuckistanian]

25. Is that our only choice?

Can't we demand a steady oil supply AND environmentally safe extraction?

Or would the environmentally safe option take more from the CEO's base salary?

[stockholmer]

42. the vast majority of new petrol reserves are neither enviro-friendly to extract, nor energy-returned

to-energy-invested efficient. Shales, tar sands, deep water, etc, all of these are very expensive to extract, and/or very harmful to the surrounding eco-sphere.

[xchrom]

2. I guess we will see. Nt

[Agony]

4. Link to same story ( not at HuffPo)

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/rkistner/oil_spill_reported_near_deepwa.html

[ananda]

7. Thanks. I don't open Huffpo links.

Boycotting Huffpo for slave labor violations.

[texanwitch]

6. Things are suppose to happen in threes.

This is turning into one hell of a year.

I give up.

[quinnox]

8. Youve got to be kidding

So we have the Japanese tsunamai, the radiation nuke plant crisis, the Libya new war strikes, and now the supposedly plugged oil well might be gushing again? Whats next, an Alien invasion of Planet Earth?

[jus_the_facts]

16. "let's hope there's intelligent life somewhere out in space.....

...cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!" ~Monty Python's The Meaning of Life~

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. We already had the alien invasion.

[Melissa G]

9. Such Sorrow, No Words...

:banghead: :cry: :grouphug:

[kestrel91316]

10. Is BP claiming yet that they simply didn't notice the leak??

[FLAprogressive]

11. Not this shit again....

[Urban Prairie]

13. In case anyone has forgotten about the GOM in all of the other hubbub

taking place around the world, we apparently just got a reminder tug on our collective sleeves...Yikes!!

So whats going to come up next on the planetary-wide disaster/war menu?

Who needs movies, when we have all the IRL action/adventure that we can't handle, and more.

[Bluebear]

14. Well, every energy source has its "downside"

:silly:

[theglammistress]

15. Tarballs

I have a friend in south Florida...and this is what he tweeted earlier:

"Do NOT go to the BEACH @ Boca Raton 2day! There are TAR BALLS EVERYWHERE! Just like the GULF SPILL!!! It SUX!"



Is it wrong that I now live in a constant state of terror?

[peacetalksforall]

28. Boca Raton? On the east coast of Florida? EAST?

[OhioChick]

18. Again? n/t

[jus_the_facts]

22. I'd bet on... it never stopped. eom

[TheKentuckian]

39. Plausible. Disgusting but plausible.

[stockholmer]

44. and you would be.................... CORRECT!, ding ding ding ding ding, we have a winner

[Earth_First]

19. Bah! Nothing a little more Corexit cannot take care of...

:sarcasm:

[Urban Prairie]

20. Nothing noted on the Oil Drum website yet

regarding this latest slick, but it will likely be noticed and a thread created about it soon. Hopefully this doesn't mean that the site will become as "busy" as it was during last spring and summer!!!

[MaeScott]

21. Poor marine life. Humans are such terrible stewards of this earth. nt

[upi402]

23. 100 miles. Jesus that's a long ass oil slick

:nuke:
Earth our of balance

[jus_the_facts]

34. Yep....

....can't be alarmist enough lately. x(

[upi402]

37. Just when I thought I've heard the 'BOONG BOONG BOONG'

of the bottom of the barrel....

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. Nuclear accident... war in libya and now a possible

mess in the gulf.


I won't ask what else can go wrong

[KittyWampus]

26. any latest news?

[jus_the_facts]

27. Here are some images....

http://oilspillaction.com/breaking-news-100-mile-long-oil-slick-spotted-off-louisiana-coast

[fascisthunter]

29. we have very stupid and reckless people run things they shouldn't

that's the problem in a nutshell, that and greed.

[pinkkillersheep]

30. I doubt we'll know the true extent of the damage for years, maybe decades.

I guessed it would take at least 100 years for the ecosystem to really heal. Key word is "guess" because I have no expertise in the matter.

[in_cog_ni_to]

31. OMG!

You-have-got-to-be-kidding-me!*&^%$# Holy crap.

[Ringo-san]

32. Queue the corexit. nt

[ReggieVeggie]

33. Obama should take his kids swimming again

to reassure everyone

[Urban Prairie]

35. So what we don't know yet about this new oil slick

Is whether it is from a leak from the DWH well (or the area around it) that was supposedly plugged and sealed,(slightly possible) or it is from a well being drilled in the Matterhorn field,(probable) or it is a "old" oil plume that surfaced from the gusher last spring/summer (very unlikely) IMO.

[progressoid]

36. Shit...photo:

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/rkistner/oil_spill_reported_near_deepwa.html

[Jamastiene]

38. K&R

[suffragette]

40. Meanwhile, they're issuing more permits for deepwater drilling in the Gulf

From skytruth:


http://blog.skytruth.org/

MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2011

Feds Issue 2nd Deepwater Drilling Permit in Gulf
BOEMRE, the Federal agency managing offshore energy development, just issued a second permit to allow deepwater drilling to continue in the Gulf of Mexico. Like Noble Energy, recipient of the first permit, BHP Billiton (an Australian company) will resume drilling on a well that had been partly completed when the BP / Deepwater Horizon explosion and massive oil spill occurred last April.

Another unfortunate similarity: the public version of BHP's permit application contains no information about oil spill containment, cleanup, or other response plans and capabilities. I hope it's all in the redacted version. But shouldn't that information be readily available to the public, along with a record of decision detailing the agency's review of the information and justifying their confidence that the applicants can respond rapidly and effectively in the event of a major incident and spill?

Maybe somebody from BOEMRE can explain that to us. Otherwise, we're just skipping down the road to the next disaster.

[Obamanaut]

41. Time to stock up on milk-in-a-box. nt

[Shagbark Hickory]

43. Can't be. I just saw a commercial on TV that said BP cleaned everything up and made it right with

the shimpin' boat cap'ns.

[jus_the_facts]

46. There's so such thing as truth in advertising.... wouldn't touch Gulf seafood with a 10ft pole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZIdTdLuPw

[Hotler]

45. kicking n/t

[jus_the_facts]

47. thanks...I'll give it one too.

[G_j]

48. & still wondering what is the deal with BP-Atlantis

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8583349

7,000 feet deep, produces 8.4 million gallons of oil every day


the BP Atlantis lacks more than 6,000 documents that are key to operating the rig safely. Abbott has said that the vast majority of the project's subsea piping and instrument diagrams were not approved by engineers, and the safety systems are out of date. In March 2009, Abbott took his concerns about the rig to MMS, the Department of Interior office responsible for regulating offshore drilling. He says the agency requested some of these documents from BP, but failed to seek specific diagrams of key components necessary for ensuring the rig's secure operation.

An internal BP email that came out in the course of Abbott's dispute refers to the potential for "catastrophic operator errors" on the rig due to these lapses. The suit argues that without these documents, the rig operators "are flying blind, and have no way to assure the safety of offshore drilling operations." Food & Water Watch began pushing for lawmakers to intervene on the rig back in August 2009.

....

nothing to see here, don't worry the government declared it safe, now we've got nulclear plants to build... :banghead:
``
(Reuters) - A government probe of BP Plc's (BP.L) Atlantis production platform in the Gulf of Mexico found no evidence of significant safety breaches, the Interior Department said on Friday.

A former BP contractor, Kenneth Abbott, filed a lawsuit in 2009 charging that the Atlantis oil and natural gas platform lacked key final engineering documents.

The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said that, while its investigation of the allegations did uncover problems with the way BP organized and stored its engineering documents, there was no proof that these deficiencies "created specific unsafe conditions" on the platform.

"We found the most serious allegations to be without merit, including the suggestion that a lack of adequate documentation created a serious safety risk," Michael Bromwich, the department's offshore drilling head, said in a statement. "We found no credible evidence to support that claim."

..snip..

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/04/us-bp-atlantis-probe-idUSTRE72359C20110304

[northoftheborder]

49. too much bad news

:argh: :spank: :nuke: :hide: