Gulf Coast oil spill could eclipse Exxon Valdez

  Quote

Gulf Coast oil spill could eclipse Exxon Valdez

 

By CAIN BURDEAU and HOLBROOK MOHR

Associated Press

1 hr 15 mins ago

 

VENICE, La. – An oil spill that threatened to eclipse even the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control and drifted inexorably toward the Gulf Coast on Thursday as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes.

 

The spill was both bigger and closer than imagined — five times larger than first estimated, with the leading edge just three miles from the Louisiana shore. Authorities said it could reach the Mississippi River delta by Thursday night.

 

"It is of grave concern," David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press. "I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling."

 

The oil slick could become the nation's worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life.

 

The leak from the ocean floor proved to be far bigger than initially reported, contributing to a growing sense among many in Louisiana that the government failed them again, just as it did during Hurricane Katrina. President Barack Obama dispatched Cabinet officials to deal with the crisis.

 

Cade Thomas, a fishing guide in Venice, worried that his livelihood will be destroyed. He said he did not know whether to blame the Coast Guard, the federal government or oil company BP PLC.

 

"They lied to us. They came out and said it was leaking 1,000 barrels when I think they knew it was more. And they weren't proactive," he said. "As soon as it blew up, they should have started wrapping it with booms."

 

The Coast Guard worked with BP, which operated the oil rig that exploded and sank last week, to deploy floating booms, skimmers and chemical dispersants, and set controlled fires to burn the oil off the water's surface.

 

The Coast Guard urged the company to formally request more resources from the Defense Department. A BP executive said the corporation would "take help from anyone."

 

Government officials said the blown-out well 40 miles offshore is spewing five times as much oil into the water as originally estimated — about 5,000 barrels, or 200,000 gallons, a day.

 

At that rate, the spill could easily eclipse the worst oil spill in U.S. history — the 11 million gallons that leaked from the grounded tanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989 — in the three months it could take to drill a relief well and plug the gushing well 5,000 feet underwater on the sea floor.

 

Ultimately, the spill could grow much larger than the Valdez because Gulf of Mexico wells typically hold many times more oil than a single tanker.

 

Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for BP Exploration and Production, had initially disputed the government's larger estimate. But he later acknowledged on NBC's "Today" show that the leak may be as bad as federal officials say. He said there was no way to measure the flow at the seabed, so estimates have to come from how much oil rises to the surface.

 

Mike Brewer, 40, who lost his oil spill response company in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina nearly five years ago, said the area was accustomed to the occasional minor spill. But he feared the scale of the escaping oil was beyond the capacity of existing resources.

 

"You're pumping out a massive amount of oil. There is no way to stop it," he said.

 

An emergency shrimping season was opened to allow shrimpers to scoop up their catch before it is fouled by oil. Cannons were to be used to scare off birds. And shrimpers were being lined up to use their boats as makeshift skimmers in the shallows.

 

This murky water and the oysters in it have provided a livelihood for three generations of Frank and Mitch Jurisich's family in Empire, La.

 

Now, on the open water just beyond the marshes, they can smell the oil that threatens everything they know and love.

 

"Just smelling it, it puts more of a sense of urgency, a sense of fear," Frank Jurisich said.

 

The brothers hope to get all the oysters they can sell before the oil washes ashore. They filled more than 100 burlap sacks Thursday and stopped to eat some oysters. "This might be our last day," Mitch Jurisich said.

 

Without the fishing industry, Frank Jurisich said the family "would be lost. This is who we are and what we do."

More here: Link

dear lord, humanity sucks at living life....

FUCK OIL!

FUCK OPEC!

FUCK ALL GOVERNMENTS FOR SUPPORTING OPEC!

MAY ALL OF NICOLA TESLA'S BEAUTIFUL IDEAS ON NEVER ENDING ENERGY SOURCES BE PUT INTO WIDE USE, SOON!

Hopefully this will be the last straw......

If not, oil will be the death of humanity.....

I imagine this every time there is an OIL leak.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T_1tSWVak8

This is not a joke!

I can't stop laughing.

yeah.....................................

was planning on going to the New Orleans Oyster Fest in June, but heard some fishermen on the news saying their entire industry might be fucked. oh yeah, dead turtles started washing up on the Texas shoreline today, way to go BP.

another reason not to go to galveston

ffffffffuuuuuuu

god damn this is fucked up....

i hate corporations

me as well....

we have all of the tech for non-oil fueled everything but we need a replacement for plastic....

I am sure it is out there.....

BP may be the cause of this spill but the source is OPEC....

FUCK OPEC!!!!!!!

HEY GUYS PAY ATTETION TO ME

NAD MY UESLES OPINIONSSSSSSSSSSSSS

  On 4/30/2010 at 9:38 PM, 42Orange said:

HEY GUYS PAY ATTETION TO ME

 

NAD MY UESLES OPINIONSSSSSSSSSSSSS

the cunt alarm just went crazy

  On 4/30/2010 at 9:40 PM, Pennywise said:

  On 4/30/2010 at 9:38 PM, 42Orange said:

HEY GUYS PAY ATTETION TO ME

 

NAD MY UESLES OPINIONSSSSSSSSSSSSS

the cunt alarm just went crazy

D00D YOUR POST IS COOL N EVERYTHING BUT IT MEANS NOTHING IF NOT IN CAPS LOCK SIZE SEVEN ARIAL BLACK FONT AND IN SPECIAL COLORSSSSSSSS THAT INDICATE HOW IMPORTANT YOUR POST IS

  On 4/30/2010 at 8:50 PM, Atop said:

This is not a joke!

A Rabbi , The Pope and Richard Dawkings walk into a bar , the bartender says "We don't serve your kind around here". The Three men look at each other and wonder who is the bartender talking to. After a mental telepathic debate , they decide to out of respect for each other , they should all walk out and find other bar to drink vodka. As they turn around they see a whale with a burqa , the bartender points at it and says again "We don't serve your kind around here" , the whale responds , "but sir , you got it wrong , I'm not a Muslim , I'm just an oil leak survivor , i use the barqa to protect my blow hole" , the Rabii asks the whale " Oil leak , where" , the whale responds " Gulf of Coast" , Richard Dawkins respoces " There are no whales in the Gulf Coast" , at this exact the Pope spots a zipper on the whales back "Oh shit" says the Pope. The whale unzips and revels to be a Muslim extremists with bombs attached to his body. As their imminent dooms approach they decide to say their last words. The Rabii goes first - "God , I love your.." , Richard Dawkins interrupts " Hold on a second , there are whales in the Gulf Coast" , the Muslim extremists laughs and unzips again , revealing to be a whale after all , they all laugh.

They had a few drinks , telling jokes about Muslims and seals , all of the sudden the whale starts feeling a bit sick .. then it explodes , BOOM! , they all died. Turns out the whale had a condition called exploding whale syndrome.

get this pink pee religious shit out of here. this is fucking devastating

LOL , okay , didn't know oil leaks are your soft spot.

its probably the biggest man made disaster on the earth... its not just an oil leak

Okay , i'm probably the Greenists member on this forums , and i hate this as much as you do.

But please , don't feed the alarmists , don't feed the yellow media.

Don't you find it weird that this happens at the same time there is a big debate over oil and offshore oil drilling , etc ,etc.?

  On 4/30/2010 at 10:33 PM, Boxing Day said:

Okay , i'm probably the Greenists member on this forums , and i hate this as much as you do.

 

But please , don't feed the alarmists , don't feed the yellow media.

 

Don't you find it weird that this happens at the same time there is a big debate over oil and offshore oil drilling , etc ,etc.?

An offshore drilling debate has been going on for decades. What are you saying happened?

  On 4/30/2010 at 10:21 PM, Boxing Day said:

  On 4/30/2010 at 8:50 PM, Atop said:

This is not a joke!

 

 

A Rabbi , The Pope and Richard Dawkings walk into a bar , the bartender says "We don't serve your kind around here". The Three men look at each other and wonder who is the bartender talking to. After a mental telepathic debate , they decide to out of respect for each other , they should all walk out and find other bar to drink vodka. As they turn around they see a whale with a burqa , the bartender points at it and says again "We don't serve your kind around here" , the whale responds , "but sir , you got it wrong , I'm not a Muslim , I'm just an oil leak survivor , i use the barqa to protect my blow hole" , the Rabii asks the whale " Oil leak , where" , the whale responds " Gulf of Coast" , Richard Dawkins respoces " There are no whales in the Gulf Coast" , at this exact the Pope spots a zipper on the whales back "Oh shit" says the Pope. The whale unzips and revels to be a Muslim extremists with bombs attached to his body. As their imminent dooms approach they decide to say their last words. The Rabii goes first - "God , I love your.." , Richard Dawkins interrupts " Hold on a second , there are whales in the Gulf Coast" , the Muslim extremists laughs and unzips again , revealing to be a whale after all , they all laugh.

They had a few drinks , telling jokes about Muslims and seals , all of the sudden the whale starts feeling a bit sick .. then it explodes , BOOM! , they all died. Turns out the whale had a condition called exploding whale syndrome.

lol

AVATAR 2 IS BASED ON THIS oil spill..

  On 4/30/2010 at 10:33 PM, Boxing Day said:

Okay , i'm probably the Greenists member on this forums , and i hate this as much as you do.

 

But please , don't feed the alarmists , don't feed the yellow media.

 

Don't you find it weird that this happens at the same time there is a big debate over oil and offshore oil drilling , etc ,etc.?

YO BOXING DAY I KNOW YOU SAY YOURE THE GREENIST MEMBER ON THE FORUM BUT IM JUST NOT SEEING IT EVIDENCED IN YOUR TYPEFACE AND THATS A REAL PROBLEM FOR REACHING KEY DEMOGRAPHICS. WHAT IM GOING TO DO HERE IS RECCOMEND YOU A NICE ENTRY LEVEL FONT/COLOR PACKAGE THAT FITS WHAT YOURE TRYING TO EXPRESS

NOW ID RECCOMEND SOMETHING GREEN LIKE A NICE DEEP EMERALD OR KENTUCKY BLUEGRASS THAT REALLY SHOWS WHERE YOU STAND ON THE UV SPECTRUM

NOW IF YOURE STRAPPED FOR PENCES AND CAN STAND TO WAIT A LITTLE WHILE WERE HAVING A SALE ON A NICE BABYSHIT GREEN FOR A FASHIONABLY CONTEMPTABLE POSTING STYLE

IF YOU FEEL LIKE ADDING A FEW OPTIONS ID ALSO LIKE TO SUGGEST THE ITALICS PACKAGE WHICH HAS A BIT MORE CLASS AND IS A BIT MORE PERSUASIVE THAN BOLD AND UNDERLINE BUT HAS A TOUCH MORE CLASS THAN STRIKETHROUGH

AS FAR AS FONTS GO ARIAL BLACK IS REALLY IN RIGHT NOW WITH THE REACTIONARIES BUT IF YOU WANT SOMETHING THAT REALLY SET YOU APART I CAN CALL A GUY I KNOW WHO JUST GOT A NEW SHIPMENT OF CENTURY GOTHIC, BUT YOURE TRYING TO GO FOR THAT NICE CONDESCENDING GREENPEACE ACTIVIST STYLE SO IF I MAY, I SUGGEST A TIMELESS BOOK ANTIQUA

ANYWAYS LOOK OVER YOUR OPTIONS AND LET ME KNOW YOUR DECISION, THE EXTRAS MAY BE SPENDY, YOU REALLY CANT AFFORD TO TYPE IN A NORMAL SIZE AND FONT LIKE A TOOL WITH OPINIONS LIKE THOSE

Fail!!! , not because it was unfunny , but because that color+font hurts my motherfucking eyes.

zomg oilmageddon kekeke!!!1!!1!one1one1

HOUSTON, April 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard said Friday it was responding to another oil drilling rig accident near Morgan City, Louisiana.

The "mobile inland drilling unit" overturned in the Charenton navigational channel south of U.S. Highway 90 at Morgan City. (Reporting by Bruce Nichols)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30137052.htm