Breaking: Gulf oil spill gushes with far greater volume (updated)
WASHINGTON – Oil was again gushing uncontrollably from the BP spill site on Wednesday after the company was forced to remove the containment cap when a robotic submarine hit a vent. The news came as officials also reported two deaths of workers in the response effort.
BP hoped to reinstall the cap later Wednesday after fixing the vent and checking for safety.
Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the accident sent gas rising through a vent that carries warm water down to prevent ice-like crystals from forming in the cap.
The cap was then removed, Allen said, and crews are checking to see if crystals have formed before putting it back on. In the meantime, a different system is stilling burning oil on the surface.
The deaths reported Wednesday were not tied to the containment operation. The Coast Guard said the workers had been involved in cleanup operations did that their deaths did not appear to be work related.
One death was a boat captain who died of a gunshot wound, a Coast Guard spokesman said. Further details were not immediately available.
Earlier Wednesday, BP said that Bob Dudley was appointed to head the new Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, which is in charge of cleaning up the oil spill.
BP said that the appointment was effective immediately.
Dudley, who had been in charge of BP’s operations in the Americas and Asia, will report to Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward.
“We were always going to set up the organization,” he said on NBC’s TODAY show. “But we have across the Gulf Coast people that are there temporarily, rotating in and out. We are going to bed this down now — we’re in there for the long haul and we’re going to make sure we’re sustained and efficient in working with the Coast Guard to shut off the well and through the spill response and clean up.
Source MSNBC
Can you believe this? Why shouldn’t you? It’s all so expected, isn’t it?
It could be one of ’em old bean…it really could…:-(
And the sea became blood.
Not the Seven Signs of Apocalypse?
Yes. One of the seven signs.
I’m starting to think we should just move the relevant bit of ocean out into space….This just gets worse and worse!!!
WHAT HAVE WE DONE????????
There is nothing wrong with aggregating. It is not as if we have a huge staff of reporters 🙂 🙂 News is news and all the web mags lift stories. This one is more bad news! When will this ever end? I heard a scientist saying early last week that the relief wells will not work.
Mike, that is what I also brought up in the Doomsday Scenario post. It is a real possibility that the relief wells are not going to work.
This site is one of the few extraordinary high pressure methane reservoirs. It may be beyond what is technically feasible to drill safely. But no one stepped up and said “maybe we ought to back off this one for now.”
This may not be correctable by man, Mother Nature may be the only thing that will get us out of it and she is going to demand a hefty price…
Krell, I posted on that cataclysmic possibility over at Global Myth… methane gas explosion the likes of a volcano blow (Mt St Helen’s) where it’s kinda game over for the Gulf and the resulting tsunami will wreck much of the coastlines of several states…..
not to mention the near total flooding of my home. FL. I cry everyday now. I try to say it’s unhealthy and disconnect… but I can’t. I shouldn’t. Shame on me for thinking it…
Gwen, that gas blowout is a slim possibility. What is more likely is a slow leak for long duration. I know it is a dark place to even think of such a thing, but it does have to be made aware of.
I wonder if it would be possible to flare out all of that methane by using all of the other wells in the gulf to get that pressure down in the reservoir? If they could get the pressure down to 5000 psi, believe it or not, the ocean would stop the leak because of negative pressure.
Of course, it would destroy any possibility of getting the oil. So they may not go with it.
What is this??? The latest American telethon? Fuck the idea of not collecting the oil!
Not sending this at you Krell. And yes, I realize that negative pressure might have been an answer, but the thing is, it’s going to take much more now. You know?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un8co1d4zb4&feature=player_embedded
This is getting beyond sane.
Gwen, you and I say fuck that oil but on the other side you have “paid for shills” like Barton that are apologizing.
THAT is the powerful group that will fight it all the way and will not stop until the Earth is bleed dry!
This engineer they interviewed said that sources had told him the casing was destroyed. He said if that is true there is no way a relief well will work. He recommended a nuke. He said that would turn the well head into glass thus effectively sealing it.
Gee, there’s some intelligent pretty shit! OMG! Not really? I guess I heard it on Maddow, but like her I dismissed that … OMFG.
Gee.
Gee.
Who’s bogarting the joint? Gee.
I’m trying to get someone at the corporate from Dolphin World to answer my questions about their captured dolphins in Key West / Key Largo facilities. I know Ocean Reef very very well (I practically grew up on those docks), and the lagoon there is fed from the ocean. That’s their stand-by, that the lagoon will save the dolphins…
I’m so upset and mad … but I have always been very against captured dolphins.
Also, I know it might off topic, but the $20 billion achieved by the President was outstanding leadership. We need an ocean more like it!