Gulf coast oil spill

T

thataway

Active member
As many of your know, we are watching very carefully the oil spill. There are about 30 miles of barriers ready to go off Orange Beach--Al, but Pensacola is also a staging area. At this point the first oil is due to hit this area about Sunday.

A good site which I just saw is: http://www.roffs.com/deepwaterhorizon.html which shows the spill, the current and gulf stream loop.

We don't need another hit on our economy, but there are already hotel cancellations in our area, and the wildlife sanctuary is geared up to clean birds etc when necessary!

An aside we had about 1000 gallons of JP8 spilled on the ICW not too far from NAS Pensacola--still not determined what barge it came from--or not yet annouced yet!. The next day, there was some of the residue on the bayou in back of our home over 16 miles away from the acknowledged spill--and against the currents, but with the wind.
 
The spill is threatening our beautiful barrier islands in Mississippi. We spend most of our boating time on these islands (Cat, Ship, Horn, and Petit Bois). I can't imagine losing our playground.
 
Have spent a lot of time in the Gulf taking ships on sea trials both out of Pascagoula and New Orleans. A beautiful spot. We have been watching the spill closely with horror.

I hope the efforts to protect things work but I fear the worst. I know they'll bring the best technology to bear on this. I also mourn the 11 lost forever, a terrible way to die. RIP.

All the folks in the Gulf area are in our thoughts.

Charlie and Sally
 
Thanks for the link Bob, I will be looking at it a lot.

The 30 miles of barriers you write of, where are they, who has them, what are they????

Sure hope we can get out of this one somehow!

Dan
 
5000 barrels a day leaking out of the pipe according to NPR last night. I hope they can get the thing sealed ASAP.

Tragic.....and it began with an explosion and the loss of 11 employees.
 
Drilling an exploration well for oil and gas is a hazardous occupation. Back in my early days as a geologist I worked on many such rigs. The main reason for the hazard is oil and gas, deep underground, is often contained under very high pressure. When the drill penetrates the reservoir, drilling 'mud' in the drill pipe, under gravitational pressure, is supposed to exceed the pressure in the reservoir and contain oil, gas, or water. Blow-outs are rare, since there is a wealth of experience and mud engineers know the risk, so mud 'weight' in the drill pipe usually far exceeds expected pressure in the reservoir.

Another dangerous time at a rig, is placing casing (a fairly large diameter pipe) into the bore hole to support the walls of the hole. This is usually done near the 'completion' of the well, when drilling is complete and the hole is now set to become a producing well. The casing is cemented in place to the hole's rock wall. The danger at this time is that the pressure in the hole might find release around the not-yet-cemented casing and result in a blow-out. At the time of the accident on the BP well in the Gulf, crews were cementing casing to secure the walls of the well.

This risk exists on all well completions, but is especially high offshore where the wellhead may be in a mile or more below the drilling platform. A 2007 study by the industry found that although blowouts with offshore drilling operations were becoming less frequent, less deadly and less polluting, cementing-associated troubles persisted. Cementing problems were associated with 18 of 39 blowouts between 1992 and 2006, and 18 of 70 from 1971 to 1991. Nearly all the blow-outs examined occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. During the current period (1992 to 2006), the percentage of blowouts associated with cementing operations increased significantly from the previous period, according to the study.

Workers in pursuit of oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico have been dying in accidents at the rate of one every 45 days since the mid-1990s. Drilling for oil and gas is dangerous work.

The deaths of the workers was tragic, and the probable environmental effects will perhaps devastate the fisheries and wildlife along that stretch of the Gulf. Those of us who boat, live, or work along the Gulf Coast are, or should be, aware of the risks to the workers and environment. Such risks need to be understood by us all, as our government contemplates energy policy, and the possibility of opening more of the Atlantic coast for offshore drilling.
 
Oh, an add on. The question was asked "any idea when the well will be capped?"

Of course, each site is unique - and weather is a major factor. But the last two blowouts of similar size and probable cause, each required about ten weeks to contain.
 
Spot on, Toyman. The Blowout Preventers are a critical 'last ditch' preventer, hopefully.

Human error (like in EkofiskB), however, often is ultimately responsible. From Nunya's post, this might be the case in the recent Gulf blowout. You were mighty fortunate there was no ignition and explosion, or you perhaps would not be here to post on the site. What a first week offshore you had!

The bottom line is if it can happen, sooner or later it will happen - and lives can (and have been) lost. Drilling (especially offshore) is a risky business and even with the best of experience and equipment, there are high risks - to the workers, the rig, and the environment.
 
FYI if any body is interested in helping with the impending oil cleanup task my wife Anita's Cousin, Don Abrams has created and is coordinating a website for volunteers to help clean up this environmental disaster . OilSpillVolunteers.com
It is full of information and will be growing daily as a resource for the cleanup efforts .
Don lives in Ocean Springs Miss. and is an active enviornmental advocate and kills alot of fish too .
He is doing this on his personal time and any help would be appreciated .
Florida has declared a state of Emergency on the Gulf Coast . I will try to post the message from Governon Charlie Christ when I can figure out how to do so.
Marc
 
First, in no way did I mean to deminish the loss of life or injury with my initial post. My appology if it seemed that way.

Of course none of us know exactly what happened. One scenerio I heard was that as Bill noted the cementing of the casing was occuring and Casing protector of SS rings was being put in place. Apparently there was a tool steel rod which was in the blow out protector or the SS Casing protector could be in the blow out protector. Normally the BOP would sheer any pipe in the way, but this heavier steel was far stronger, and thus the rams could not shear it and close the valve. (again--just one rumor). There are also rumors that pressures should have been more closely monitered. There is another quasa official document from NOAA which suggests that the spill is far greater in volume than the 5,000 barrels a day (210,000 gallons). There is no way to accurately measure the amoount.

As for who owns the coastal area: A large part of the barrier Islands are Gulf Islands National Sea Shore, a part of the National Park Service. This includes beach from Perdido Key (Johnson Beach) to Navarre, with some private leased land between. It also includes part of Cat Island, Ship Island Horn Island, and Petite Bois Island. The Alabama Cost is part state beach, part private. In Louisiania, a part of the barrier Islands (CHANDELEUR ISLANDS) are the Breton National Wildlife Refuge. Some are Lousiania land, some private etc. Much of the area near the mouth of the Mississippi and Venice is area which has been subject to errosion with a loss of shoreline, due to the altering of the flow and course of the Mississippi River. So this area has underlying problems even without the oil spill. This is mainly swamp land, with a few high spots slowly going away. The economic impact is huge. (This is not to neglect the loss of life which occured and those who were injured).

I drove the beach from Perdido Key to Gulf Shores AL this PM, and there are oil booms off the beach of AL--but the anchors are not holding well, and the surf is breaking over these booms. There are also booms inside of Perdido Pass-either to protect the sand bar or block off parts of the bayous and Old River. I fear that Pensacola is not as well prepared as possible. I have talked with the chief of Marine Resources-and he is planing to attempt to put 30,000 feet of booms across the ICW, several other areas, and then catch any incoming oil on the flood tide in East Pensacola Pass. We are recommending that more barriers be put up in the entrances of other bayous. I have prepared a barrier for our bayou--using "Swim Noodles" from Walmart, 3 mil vinly sheets, monel staples, lead sinkers and Polypropelene rope. we will completely block our bayou (all of the residents are on board with this) to protect our area. We are recommending that this be done either by the authorities or by individuals (a run on Swim noodles seems to have occured) in the other bayous in case the master plan does not work.

We will be driving to Mississippi tomarrow to see what is happening there. One of our friends boat is sort of "stuck" with the impending oil spill and he needs to get back to Pensacola. So a good excuse to see how other areas are handling the problem.

We were in Mississippi a few months ago, and they were still digging out from the ravages of Katrina. The same economic factors are at play in Lousiania in the sea food industry.
 
A minor correction:

Unless a law has slipped by me, the State of Alabama owns all of the beach up to the high-high water mark (?). This is so anyone can walk down any beach in the state and no area can be fenced down to the water.
 
Not sure what stol's comment was dirrected toward. There are large areas of beachs in Orange Beach where there is very limited public access. The state owns the beach from the water to the Mean high water mark--and some hotels etc will stake off or fence off areas for their guests. And theoretically anyone can walk along the water side of that mean high tide mark. There are also disputes in Florida and other coastal states about "generated beaches"--where the sand is minded from offshore to replace that lost in storms (?oil spills)--and the new sand, the state is claiming is their beach, since the old sand washed away, and the new, is above the "mean high water mark".

So there are land owners of the beach above the mean high water mark (this is common in most coastal states).

Specifically: in Orange Beach
Gulf State Parks and other beach access is at: http://www.orangebeach.ws/beachespublic.html

Unfortunately the property owners who own the hotel or rental house on the beach will be the person who loses. For example on tonights news one fellow said his houses rents for $17,000 a week (I assume several houses) and he has already had a number of inquiries about getting deposits back for summer bookings.

Orange Beach has also retained a beach cleaning service--susposedly 20 tons of sand every couple of hour can be cleaned of petrolium products.

I assumed that the question about who owns the property is upland from the mean high tide mark.

I have been a waterfront property owner in both Calif and Florida. It can be an issue, where you have people who want to camp on your dock or back yard. You can fence down to the high water mark--but theoretically cannot impede a person wading along just below that mark. We lived next to a public park--and despite "no tresspassing" signs, it was not unusal to have folks go fishing off the dock or set up camp in the back yard.
 
Yep, being birdwatchers, we stroll 'our' beach (belongs to us, property of the US gov't [us] between the high and low tidal lines) of most states when coastal birdwatching. A few states like Texas have state ownership and access. Has been an interesting issue.
 
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