Saturday, May 08, 2010

Very bad news

The containment device did not work.

Fox 8 Updating:

BP Confirms Problems with Containment Box Efforts


Now I'm getting really fucking worried...and here's why (per Krewe of Truth)

Noted environmental attorney Stuart H. Smith of Smith Stag Law Firm, New Orleans, Louisiana has been concerned since the beginning of the DEEPHORIZON well leak about a catastrophic failure in the well control system. He released the following statement:

“We have been advised through a confidential reliable source, as yet unconfirmed by BP or a second source, that the cofferdam operation, which British Petroleum hoped to seal the DEEPHORIZON well, has failed. Presumably, BP and government officials will address this at the 2 p.m. CST press conference called to discuss status of Cofferdam operations.

“It is our understanding BP may proceed with a “TOP-KILL” to the well, as its next attempt, from the Gulf surface. This involves pumping rubber trash down the pipe and then cementing to try to get a new well plug. This is a very dangerous operation because if it fails, there will be nothing to impede flow of oil from the well, which BP has admitted could reach 60,000 barrels a day.

“Many experts believe, and we concur, that we are one tiny step away from true catastrophe. A catastrophic failure means an even worse rate of leakage than now reported or admitted by British Petroleum. We may see the equivalent of a Valdez-type leak every five to six days now in the Gulf.

“At that rate of release, there could easily be a significant threat not only to the environment but to public health for those downwind of the oil slick. Air discharges of components of oil, such as benzene a known human carcinogen, and other volatile organic compounds could be significant.

“It is imperative that BP and the federal government immediately release to the public all information that they have as a result of modeling a worst case scenario. No one seems to be talking about the possibility of such a catastrophic failure and the effect on human health and the environment."

I think at some point the federal government needs to take over the entire fucking operation and put it in the hands of the military, or at least take control of the decision making process. I'm worried BP is more concerned about not damaging the well permanently than they are shutting it off. Maybe I'm wrong but shoving tires down the pipe doesn't seem like a very good idea to me.

13 comments:

oysterboy said...

Is there a news article somewhere? I'm looking but can't find one that says it failed.

Nate said...

Source?!?

Beth said...

Any update on this? As of two hours later, there's nothing on the local news. I hope this is a rumor, nothing more.

Anonymous said...

It is bad news about the containment dome.

There isn't any of this that is good, not any of it.

Now that it is started and ongoing, it will just keep being not-good, like the aftermath of the Flood and the rebuilding.

Even the heroic good things to come out of that pale in comparison to the harm and hurt.

I've mentioned Palast a couple of times, but as the stuff about BP not being required to file plans about how it was going to cope with this kind of disaster come out, I keep thinking about the way he chased down the Baton Rouge frim that was supposed to have had such a plan for New Orleans in case of a Katrina scenario.

That scene will make you hop and shout.

Anonymous said...

My Grandfather used to tell me,

"A dishonorable 'friend' will cause you more harm than an honorable adversary."

The USA took a massive hit 9/11, and it isn't wrong to fight terrorists and external threats. I'm not saying those adversaries were honorable, because I do not think they were or are.

But I have been thinking of my Grandfather a lot lately, as it seems to me that the corrupt and negligent politicians, bankers, and corporations are causing as much, if not more, harm than the external enemies.

In addition to the harm they are doing "for real" as oil spills wreck the coast and the fisheries, and city-affiliated contractors prey on children, they do a lot of psychological harm.

When "our own" do this, it divides and demoralizes all of us, and breaks our hearts.

I don't think a heavy dependance on foreign oil is a good idea.

I think it is a threat to national security to be over reliant on supplies of oil from potentially hostile places.

Short supply lines are better.

What are we supposed to do when our politicians are the kind of people who would risk fouling their own nests to this degree?

What are we supposed to do when our leaders are willing to hurt and betray their own kids?

Anonymous said...

Seriously - source? Details? Anything?

Anonymous said...

Fox8live.com is reporting that BP admits that it did not work..
methane hydrates plugged up the pipe at the top.. they have had to remove the containment dome from over the leak.. bad news indeed.. :-(

Editilla~New Orleans Ladder said...

Jorge Salazar CNN http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/08/effort-to-place-dome-over-oil-well-dealt-setback-bp-says/

Jason Brad Berry said...

The people who need to provide oversight on this are not the same people who stand to lose or profit from it. I have no doubt the oil industry is the best hope we have to contain this thing, but BP should not be allowed to be making decsions like this TOP KILL option without some oversight as to the potential danger of the operation.

If you think BP's only interest is the well being of the Gulf region and it's ecology....you're the idiot, Dick.

Editilla~New Orleans Ladder said...

Here is the audio of today's Press Briefing by BP JOINT INCIDENT COMMAND: http://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_itemId=857711
You aren't going to like it.
You will not feel reassured.
The use the term "Jump Shot" that I still don't understand on the 3rd listening (but I'm one those who should shut my fucking mouth --but only after I sew Dicks shut with useless oil boom).
SkyTruth made the estimate of Flow at 1.1 Million gal/day LAST WEEK.
They're math still stands. No one has taken it down. Do the math.
Oil weighs appx 4lbs/gal (at least).
Do the Math, Limpid Dick. Add it up gal/day X pounds/gal X days since spill. Even I passed Those tests in elementary school
Do the Math.
http://blog.skytruth.org/2010/05/gulf-oil-spill-new-spill-rate.html

Furthermore, SkyTruth's latest Sat Pic Post from a Canadian Radar Sat shows huge slick within 10 miles of Grand Isle. and and even larger one right behind that one.
http://blog.skytruth.org/2010/05/gulf-oil-spill-radar-satellite-image.html
This size slick had to have taken more than a few days to get their yet we were told just a couple of days ago that the oil was "creeping around the Bird's Foot Delta."

What we have heah is a fail'ya ta'comoonicate. For example, BP Incident Command described the Tar washing up on an Alabama Island thus: "Analysis of the tar balls is being conducted to determine the origin of the oil and may take 48 hours to complete." Excuse me?
This is INCIDENT COMMAND: https://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/2931/542947/
I don't know what else to say.
We are beset on all sides by forking icehole corksucking somnomanabishes.

Anonymous said...

Small point, but when you check out "Krewe of Truth"'s page "women we like" about which women in Louisiana politics they endorse, it includes people like Ann Duplessiess, mentioned in your schools posts, and Deborah Langoff, who wrote a letter endorsing a deadbeat dad for a public office.

The environmental news is useful, but boy, did they ever undermine their credibility with me by championing those women!

That they "like" Mary Landreiu is amazing irony, given her in bed relationship with BP itself.

If there are no politicians worthy of a real nod of confidence, don't create pages celebrating them, or, if you feel a need to endorse the lesser of two evils, offer your real feelings about them instead of giving them another place to stick up a glossy picture and shined up biography.

This may seem to be an unrelated comment, but it isn't.

The BP situation is a result of the political culture.

Unknown said...

The following is a statement from environmental attorney Stuart H. Smith of Smith Stag Law Firm, New Orleans on behalf of Gulf Oil Disaster Recovery Group:

"The Gulf Oil Disaster Recovery Group, on behalf of the United Fishermen's Association and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, were the first to release information that the BP cofferdam experiment has failed.
...and then it goes on to continue about "top-kill".

George Mauer said...

@Dick Is that a willfull ignorance of how language works? What do you think "put the government in charge" means exactly? Do you think it means Obama will be standing over the gusher trying to decide what to stick in it to make it stop? It means bringing in the Feds to oversee management and to make ensure that stopping the damn thing in a responsible manner is the #1 priority. Yes, BP also wants to stop it but they've got other priorities as well - including ones that might potentially conflict with our best interests. Bringing in the Feds simply means removing that check.