Gov. Bobby Jindal, the Republican Governor of Louisiana, had a good idea to slow or stop the Gulf Coast oil spill from reaching shore. Build artificial barrier islands, he told the federal government. He wanted the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River to strengthen and connect the existing barrier islands. The $350 million plan, which Jindal demanded be paid for by BP Oil, would establish an 80–85 mile barrier, about 200 feet wide and six feet high. The barriers would also protect the marshlands, the federal wildlife preserves, and a fragile ecosystem.
When the federal government didn’t respond, he threatened to have Louisiana do the job itself, and had his attorney general notify the Corps of Engineers that under the 10th Amendment the state had a right to protect itself during an emergency. After two weeks of discussion and analysis by the Corps, President Obama ordered the first of six islands to be built. Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen, the on-scene commander, said the first island would be a prototype; if it worked, five more would be built. Jindal wants 24 islands, but believes the first six are a good start.
The oil spill, more than 200,000 gallons a day and entering its sixth week, is now the size of Delaware and Maryland combined. Eleven workers are dead, 17 are injured, from the explosion of BP’s Deep Water Horizon, April 20. Several hundred thousand marine mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles have been killed by the spill. Even those oil-soaked birds and mammals that hundreds of volunteers have helped clean may be only days from death. About 34,000 Brown Pelicans, recently taken off the endangered species list, and seagulls continue to dive through the oil-soaked ocean to get to the food supply.
Thousands of migratory birds, during a two to three week rest in the Gulf Coast barrier islands on their flight north from South America, are dying. Sea Turtles, manatees, and dolphins still need to come up through the oil slick for air; eye irritations are the least of the problems they encounter. For about 5,000 dolphins, this is also their birthing season; mothers who survive may have oil on their teats; their calves may die from lack of nutrition or from ingesting the oil. The affected areas of the Gulf are also the spawning grounds for tuna, marlin, and swordfish. Even the fish, which may survive by staying below the spill, are affected by the oil. The coral reefs are being destroyed by the oil and what is needed to be done to break up that oil. More than 700,000 gallons of chemical dispersants, used to help break up the oil, add to the destruction of the balance of nature. Its toxicity may affect sea life for at least a decade.
The $2.5 billion fishing industry, a major part of the life of the Gulf, has been devastated. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has closed about 46,000 square miles of fishing fields, about one-fourth of all fishing waters in the Gulf. The lucrative shrimp, oyster, and clam industries are not only closed, but the effects will last for more than one season. Boat captains and their crews are idle. Tourism at the beginning of what is normally a lucrative summer season is almost non-existent.
Had the barrier islands been in place several years ago, the effects of the spill would have been significantly less. Erosion, combined with deep water oil drilling long before the Horizon explosion, had destroyed natural barrier islands and wetlands. A $14 billion proposal by the Corps of Engineers, supported by Louisiana, environmentalists and the oil industry to restore the area levees, wetlands, and barrier islands was rejected by President George W. Bush. Both he and Vice-President Dick Cheney, former oil company executives, were more concerned about protecting the oil industry than the people who would be affected by Big Oil. Besides, they had a war to wage in Iraq, and $14 billion was too much to spend on domestic protections.
Much of the $100 billion damage from Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 storm, was not from the wind and rain but from the failure to provide adequate protection.
It is that same protection, those same barrier islands that were destroyed by the oil industry years ago, that would have significantly slowed or stopped the nation’s worst environmental disaster, one caused not by nature but the incompetence of mankind.
“Drill, Baby, Drill” was once an in-our-face slogan of certain politicians and the oil industry that feeds them. It is now but a reminder that when mankind destroys the environment, there will be tragic consequences.
For more information about the barrier islands as protection for the environment, read Walter Brasch’s critically-acclaimed book, ‘Unacceptable’: The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina.
Walter Brasch is a professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University. His most recent book is Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush. He can be reached at brasch@bloomu.edu. You may contact him through his website, walterbrasch.com.
Explosively crimping the pipe below the sea floor. Crimp the pipe several hundred meters below the sea floor with multiple, simultaneous explosions. Shove the material around the pipe against the the pipe hard enough to crush it.
BP’ s primary goal is to save the well. It is a typical BP management response go with the cheapest course of action (it had gotten them to this point, in style). They tried to play Obama for a fool. The criminal investigation should be for lying about the most effective means of stopping the oil leak. The most effective way, (explosively crimping the pipe below the sea floor), to stop the leak would have also destroyed any chance of using the well. As long as BP sees a chance to make money on the well, they will keep stalling. Since the BP executives are making the problem worse, putting them in jail immediately will help (Don’t accept plausible deniability). A lot innocent people are suffering, if after a few years you find the BP executives innocent, release them and say you are sorry.
BP is also intimidating the oil drilling industry to keep quiet about any real solutions. Their financial weight is keeping people silent. The entire drilling industry is being tarred by BP’s short sighted micromanagement. The unnecessary and increasing suffering is the result of management problems, not technical ones.
The idea of drilling alternate relief wells is a straw man argument. They gave Obama a choice between what BP wanted to do, and a choice that was political suicide. They lied! These alternate bad choices would buy BP the time to save the well. Ask a few seasoned oil field workers about what they think about this oil leak, and you will get an earful.
Short term you can collapse the pipe opening by putting a large malleable metal ring around it. On the outside of the ring you put explosives with nuclear rated, (critically timed), detonators. Detonate and collapse the metal ring around the pipe.
More details on crimping the pipe.
Drill 8 holes around the current oil carrying pipe. Drill in a pattern of two holes near the middle of each of four sides of a square. You try to create a flat shock wave coming in from 4 sides to both crush and reinforce the pipe. The timing is critical to crimp the pipe and not just shear it off! It would be preferable to shove the surrounding sand and rock against the pipe to collapse it. The more material, (the greater the explosive radius), the more material reinforces the collapsed pipe. The closer the explosives are to the pipe, the more likely the pipe will get torn. This requires a lot more explosives.
The detonation sequence crimping the pipe below the ocean surface would be like squeezing a toothpaste tube from the middle. The earlier shock waves should force the oil from the pipe before you can collapse it properly. The explosive detonations would have timing requirements similar to nuclear bomb implosions. These type of detonators are probably not commercially available. I don’t think the SEALS/Underwater Demolition Teams can operate at these depths, unless they have been keeping one hell of a secret (ala James Cameron’s The Abyss). Wait how about James Cameron?
The methane ice that messed up the “top hat” could actually help in stopping any remaining leaks below the sea floor.
BP thinks that if the oil leak stops, so does any chance of getting the oil.
Is it OK for someone to burn down your house to save theirs? It becomes a criminal matter when BP could have stopped the leak, but continues to make the situation worse, by looking after their own interests first.
All of the solutions, (except the TOP KILL), have BP siphoning the oil and then taking it to their refineries. They have not attempted to directly stop the flow of oil. The Top Kill did allow them to bury the BOP under the cover of stopping the leak. Where did you think all of that sand would settle out on, of course the BOP! The BOP, (blow out preventer), was not properly actuated from the destroyed Deep Horizons rig. Why couldn’t it be operated externally by the submersibles? It appears to be intact.
ONCE THE OIL LEAK STOPS, SO DOES BP’S ACCESS TO THE SITE.
No one would give good odds for the TOP KILL to work. So why try such a low probability solution, well it did bury the BOP.
In a fast moving fire, mistakes will be made. In executive suites, priorities will be set. BP’s priority was to get the oil, all other options were taken off the table. A roughneck out in the field could have walked over and put a giant vise grip plier on the pipe and crimped it shut. Or a submersible could have used a hydraulic clamp on the pipe. Even if it didn’t completely seal the oil leak, it would have reduced the flow until the relief wells were drilled. The relief wells also give BP access to the oil, but only if BP could find a reason for being indispensable right now.
I also find it interesting that all independent observers (a.k.a. James Cameron and his brain trust) are being kept away, (using lots of government thugs). Why are independent submersibles not on the scene. People operating the submersibles could stay out of BP’s way, or even assist them. Independent observers and experts would look where the contract workers are forbidden to look. They would acquire the hard evidence showing BP ignoring any options that would cut them off from the oil.
As it is now, the only information we have, is what BP gives us. This does remove those annoying witnesses, that aren’t under BP contract. We have seen how often contract law trumps criminal or constitutional law. This is especially true, if law enforcement is too stupid or politically motivated to ask the right questions. Or they could ask the right questions, but not while the people are under oath. It is also probable that BP will destroy any incriminating evidence, in a brave last ditch attempt to stop the leak, if they are forced from the site.
The SECOND Failure to Use the Blowout Preventer
Hey, we pushed the buttons on the control panel after the Deep Horizons BOP control panel sank into the sea, but nothing happened.
The hydraulic rams on the Blowout Preventer could have been forcibly actuated with explosive charges. The problem with closing the Blowout Preventer with explosives, once it is done, it would be difficult to reverse (open). Plus it really does stop the flow of oil.
The following is a brief technical breakdown to counter those BP apologists out there who are trying to confuse the public with irrelevant technical details.
An explosive with a low brisance, (slow burning rate), won’t shatter the hydraulic cylinder. Think of it as a big CO2 cartridge. This kind of explosive is commonly used in handloading, (making your own ammo). Powder which burns too fast, can build up pressure too quickly, and shatter your gun, your hand, and your face. The air bag in your car is also an example of a slow explosive.
Now (8 June) the BP executives are wishing they had actually tried to stop the oil leak rather than trying to collect the oil, BP might have survived. The Supreme Court gave Corporations the right of free speech, what effect does 11 charges of Negligent Homicide have on a Corporation?
When BP executives took the option of stopping the leak off the table, this gave the American people the right to make BP extinct. If this is too much CHANGE for Obama, then the democratic party needs to find someone else in 2012, because I won’t vote for him again.
The problem with “shutting the well in” from the top is that there appear to be other mechanical issues with the well from what I understand. It turns out that when BP cut the riser, they wound up cutting 3 strings of pipe, which was totally unexpected. The unexpected string is the poorly cemented casing which rose due to the extremely high pressure (acting on a rather small area, but obviously generated enough force). The presence of this casing in the riser above the bOP’s is why the BOP’s couldn’t work and why there are other very serious issues to be considered, not the least the development of fissures radiating out from the existing wellbore yielding to a possibility of muliple ocean floor leaks around the exising well. That’s why i believe there’s not a bigger effort at simply capping the well at surface. After all, the bolts holding the upper section of the existing BOP’s could be removed and another BOP bolted on and then closed, or coiled tubing (a type of endless drillpipe) could be inserted into the existing drillpipe and used to kill the well from the top etc. There are several “standard oilfield” techniques that could be tried to kill the well and haven’t been, mostly for the reasons outlined above. I’m pretty familiar with the situation and the hardware as I’m in that line of work and wondered myself why BP hasn’t tried certain things obvious to me, and then I found out about the other issues. Believe me, BP wants this well capped. The relief well(s) are perfectly capable of producing this reservoir. The problems have nothing to do with any reluctance on BP’s part to lose this well. After all, the well is around a $100million investment, compare that to the losses BP is suffering, and the cost of the 2 relief wells.
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