Update: NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The well beneath the oil rig that erupted in a deadly blast last week in the Gulf of Mexico is leaking oil at a rate of about 42,000 gallons a day, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The spill has the potential to become significant if left unchecked, although it would take the better part of a year to rival the Exxon Valdez grounding, which discharged some 11 million gallons into Alaska's Price William Sound.
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
There is currently an oil slick some 400 square miles in size about 40 miles off the Louisiana coast.
AP - Monday, April 26:Â Oil leak from sunken rig off La. could foul coast
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
The oil is escaping from two leaks in a drilling pipe about 5,000 feet below the surface. The leaks threaten hundreds of miles of coastline in four states, with waters that are home to dolphins, sea birds, and prime fishing and tourism areas.
Eleven people are missing and likely dead. Several more were injured, injuries ranging from "severe" to "first aid." A hundred and twenty-six people have been rescued.
The rig burned for three and a half days before toppling into the Gulf. So now we're left with a hole in the Gulf of Mexico, through which 8,000 barrels per day of crude is escaping into the waters of the Gulf (44 gallons per barrel = roughly 350,000 gallons). In addition, there were approximately 700,000 gallons (about 16,000 barrels) of No. 2 Diesel fuel on board when the rig finally fell over. The slick is visible in this photo of fire-boats approaching and beginning to fight the fire.
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Original release during fire^.
And we should just open up all the sensitive Gulf and Ocean off-shore oil pools to these risks? I must confess... I have my doubts.
Â
recommend
Facebook
Twitter
bookmark 
print
Comments: 116
The above is what I expect to hear from the "drill, baby, drill" crowd in my state.
Besides there are millions of shrimp. Who cares if they get killed. We can just buy them from somewhere else.
:-)
That's my sarcasm above. (It usually doesn't work but I yielded to temptation this time. :-( )
War is stupid. What's good for the economy is prevention rather than cure.
Frankly, I'd claim to be wondering what's the holdup on alternative fuels, but I all ready know the answer to that. How can they compete with Government subsidized oil?
What does your senseless rant have to do with this disaster. Nobody is perfect and accidents do happen. But what about the Gulf, and the shrimp and fish. All countries iaround the gulf depend on the the gulf for food and much more. How is this disaster going to affect the US and the world. You willing to give up eatting fish just because someone says they need the oil there? What do you think the price of shrimp will be next week or fish the week after.
I was all for drilling offshore last week. Now I am beginning to change my opinion. Now that we are more aware of the dangers I feel we should change our priorty to finding a safer and cleaner energy source. As part of the research I feel a search of the patten office should be done. Who knows? Maybe energy efficient engines or a cleaner energy source has already been invented. I know we have to reconsider the dangers of offshore drilling.
He is for new drilling in limited areas. Are you sure the Gulf was included in new drilling. I thought this was a older well.
I believe we need to look at our industries and the potential problems BEFORE this kind of disaster happens... and worse. As noted above, this oil spill is only a fraction of the size of the Exxon Valdez spill: in 1989. It could have been much worse. What are we going to say when things actually do happen that we don't expect: oops? It'll blow over? One day it won't.
And that in itself is part of the scam the oil industry has been pulling over on the American public for years.
Thanks for posting this to 4 US, World News & Opinions.
only the dead don't make mistakesAs of 4/22/10-(CNN) -- A 1-by-5-mile sheen of crude oil mix has spread across the Gulf of Mexico's surface around the area where an oil rig exploded and sank, a Coast Guard lieutenant said Thursday.
"This is a rainbow sheen with a dark center," Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry told reporters Thursday afternoon.
However, it also says they don't know if it's oil or fuel leaking FROM the rig. Either way, SOMETHING is laying on the water, and THAT's a problem. Even if it's residue from the fire, grease fires have think "sticky" smoke, like tar, it'll suffocate ANYTHING that trys to breath it.
*stupid git*
Double dog dare you to check it out...
Perhaps you'd like to eliminate all error prone humans to avoid such accidents. Perhaps, when we get to total robotics, big companies can rely on precision machinery entirely. Of course, that will mean even more people will be out of work.
Stoopud stumble-fingers
Have you ever heard of Google News, Nora? It's an excellent source for news around the world on any topic. That's a good way to check "untrue rumours". I typed in "Gulf of Mexico" and got over 3400 articles related to the oil spill. (Typing in "Gulf of Mexico oil spill" comes out with the same result.)
So your statement "There is no oil slick!" would seem to be somewhat disjointed from reality. I agree that some humans do make mistakes... and some make more mistakes than others. Too bad it is often directly related to ideology.
Do you even know what I'm talking about?
Of course, those of you conspiracy thinkers might assume the Coast Guard guy was just a Fox Actor in uniform. L OL
A 1-by-5-mile sheen of crude oil mix has spread across the Gulf of Mexico's surface around the area where an oil rig exploded and sank, a Coast Guard lieutenant said Thursday.
"This is a rainbow sheen with a dark center," Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry told reporters Thursday afternoon.
Isn't that the most ironic statement in this string. Wow.
But since the rig is manned by humans, the fault will no doubt be found as "human error". Careless workers as well as careless drivers cause accidents.
Just as this post is indicative of human error in jumping to conclusions about the non existent oil spill. Of course that's what everyone worries about initially. It is sad though when someone denies fact and accepts rumor.
Where is the "leftist liberal" compassion for the 11 workers who died? Oh, I forget, according to them, those men are evil. Disgusting!
"Officials did receive good news Friday when Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said no oil appeared to be leaking from a well head at the ocean floor, nor was any leaking at the water's surface. But she said crews were closely monitoring the rig for any more crude that might spill out."
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=10454586
Even the posted article made a similar statement, I guess they needed to "amplify" it for greater effect.
"We thought what we were dealing with as of yesterday was a surface residual (oil) from the mobile offshore drilling unit," Landry said. "In addition to that is oil emanating from the well. It is a big change from yesterday ... This is a very serious spill, absolutely."
Coast Guard and company officials estimate that as much as 1,000 barrels – or 42,000 gallons – of oil is leaking each day after studying information from remotely operated vehicles and the size of the oil slick surrounding the blast site. The rainbow-colored sheen of oil stretched 20 miles by 20 miles on Saturday – about 25 times larger than it appeared to be a day earlier, Landry said.
This would seem to illustrate the problem with the extremist fringe these days. They are totally willing and eager to jump on a bandwagon... any bandwagon... that supports their case. When that bandwagon is proven to be wrong, there is no apology and no recognition of error. They then forget their mistakes (most humans make them, remember) and don't learn from them.
I was listening to the Conservative radio station KVI up here in Seattle when in a interview of the Coast guard Commander he stated the day after the explosion that a remotely controlled camera could detect no oil leaking at the floor of the gulf.
Sorry Carla,
I know you all were hoping for worse news, hoping for a grand disaster.
I guess you just didn't want to believe what ABC and FNC and even CNN reported.
But then Chuck....That ole sly dog....he didn't bother to post this part of the CNN article;
"A remotely-operated vehicle is surveying the area and cleanup efforts are already under way, Landry said. The sheen "probably is residual from the fire and the activity that was going on on this rig before it sank below the surface," she said."
Which pretty much said the same as ABC and FNC and every other news agency.
I have no problem with new information changing earlier reports, Why do you?
"I know you all were hoping for worse news, hoping for a grand disaster."
You are SUCH an ass, Dan.
"Which pretty much said the same as ABC and FNC and every other news agency."
You didn't bother to validate beyond the post that apparently supported your position that drilling off shore is bad then you took the opportunity to embellish to make it worse that it was.
"The "8,000 bbl a day" was what was reported while I was posting the article. It soon dropped to 7,400."
As Nora asked of Carla, Care to validate?
"You are SUCH an ass, Dan."
Yes I am!
But some liberals really do seem to get a certain satisfaction out of tragic events that validate their positions....So I'm not nearly the ass that they are.
"We thought what we were dealing with as of yesterday was a surface residual (oil) from the mobile offshore drilling unit," Landry said. "In addition to that is oil emanating from the well. It is a big change from yesterday ... This is a very serious spill, absolutely."
Coast Guard and company officials estimate that as much as 1,000 barrels – or 42,000 gallons – of oil is leaking each day after studying information from remotely operated vehicles and the size of the oil slick surrounding the blast site. The rainbow-colored sheen of oil stretched 20 miles by 20 miles on Saturday – about 25 times larger than it appeared to be a day earlier, Landry said.
It doesn't really matter how big the disaster is. Just the fact that it happened is enough reason to rethink the whole ides of offshore drilling. What if the next one opens a hole we can't close?What would the world be like then?
"My car runs on bacon grease" "oh yeah, mine runs on deer shyte" "cool, but why are we both out of fuel?"
We have viable alternatives now, and we should switch to them now.
Please keep posting to our group and ask others to join.
Unfortunately we only know the true risk when things go wrong, as happened here. And yet we should ask where would humanity be if a whole lot of people all through history hadn't forged ahead in the face of great risk and grave doubt?
I'm not sure there's a clear cut answer. But to me it seems that questions and doubts would be better directed to the Methods and safety precautions of the implementation rather than to whether we ought to be drilling in the Gulf in the first place.
The difference is that what we are "risking" today is not ours to gamble with. The difference here is that when we fail, we do not (directly) take the brunt of it. When the Exxon Valdez or this oil tanker "failed" it does not hit the company or the individuals that hard. What's a few million dollars? But ecosystems are shattered. Animals die. Thousands of them. Ask them if the "Methods and safety precautions of the implementation" have been up to snuff. You might not have a "clear cut answer", but I'm sure they do.
Oh, but they don't have voices. Unfortunately, as business grows stronger and exploitation becomes more essential (I think "necessary" was Nora's word) the rest of our voices are also silenced. Consider the Inuit (Eskimos) in Alaska and northen Canada. They don't want these oil extraction things on their land, but no-one listens to them. They're just a nuisance. Soon the rest of us who speak out against "risks" and "doubts" will be the same.
I have made no fundamental flaw that you claim. I suggest you study history in a bit more detail because it is replete with those risking not just themselves but entire groups of people, indeed even entire countries.
And just HOW do you mean that what we risk today is not ours to risk. I can't make sense of this. Whose would it be to risk?
How exactly are you sure that they (whoever that is) would have a clear cut answer? They might have thought they did, but that's the best they could say in light of a failure.
The "voice" of the people is clear: they keep driving cars powered with oil, and we keep consuming oil. So, whose fault is it, really? Eh? Blame someone if you must, but be prepared to demonstrate some logic!
If you have a voice, then speak with your actions and your consumption of goods. It's already being done loud and clear. And it has been going on that way for a very long time.
With people llike Nora and her ilk describing fossil fuel extraction as a "necessary industry" (above) I am not surprised at the continuing pollution and exploitation of our world. Unless we get beyond such limited perceptions and simple propeganda we will be destined for destruction.
"CONSPIRACY THEORIES"
People make mistakes. Human error will defeat the best security plans. When this oil hits shore it will be worst than the oil spill in Alaska. They are still cleaning up from that one and this one is nearly double in size and growing. Goodby gulf coast, at least. We have to find another way. The costs are becoming just to high.