Oil Spill, REACTION, concerns, ideas, help needed, tell us here, Deep Horizon Blowout
 

Many of us keep hoping that this potentially catastrophic event may be averted through ongoing efforts to stop the release, containment and collection efforts, through favorable weather to avoid spreading of the plume. Time and to a degree preparation will tell how things work out.

Despite that, we are concerned, worried about what will come about, why this happened, how well efforts are proceeding to deal with it and what will follow. What is on your mind, tell us here. We're all in this together.

Continued from:
http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=9609
__________________
FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi


I just went fishing tonight out at East Beach. The water quality was impeccable, sea life was everywhere, and I caught tons of trout, flounder, etc. It was impressive to see all the life out there and the health of the bay. The variety and quantity of life I witnessed in less than 2 hours could not have been dreamed of when I was a young boy.
I have been in St. Pete for 40 years and seen the water quality and sea life gradually make an unbelievable come back from the days just following dredging to create finger canals and its associated harm. Not to mention the dumping of various pollutants into Tampa Bay that has been brought under control.
It's hard for me to fully express my gratitude toward the recovery I have seen. Anyone that's been here for 20 or more years or more has witnessed this recovery.

It is unbelievable to me that 40 years of progress may be wiped away (from all of us and nature) in the coming weeks from the shortsightedness and greed of one of, if not the, WEALTHIEST company on the planet. It makes me sick that they don't spend more time/money/effort protecting all our resources in their pursuit of oil (with redundancy in fail safes).

Yet, their CEO says he is "proud of their recent performance" True prick and no bigger loser imo, than a man capable of saying such crap in the face of a tremendous tragedy. That's what most CEOs do though; rape while pretending to cradle.

Very well put

What really gets me is that BP is a British corporation, and Transoceanic Ltd, the company that owns the rigs, is a Swiss corporation. The oil that is harvested from near our shores is not earmarked for the US, it is put on the international oil market, for our companies to bid on just like everyone else in the world. But it is OUR country and OUR ecology that pays the biggest price. If you're going to possibly endanger our shores and natural resources, at least give us a good deal on the oil. The Gulf of Mexico should be off limits to other countries except those whose shores are affected. We should extend our territorial waters.

So, Obama, and Florida politicians, still want to push for drilling off the coast of Florida?

It sucks for sure. The more you know, the more mad you get.

Oil Spill, REACTION, concerns, ideas, help needed, tell us here, Deep Horizon blowout
 

I wonder how much of the current crisis, directly or otherwise was ultimately contributed to by higher petroleum prices. Certainly it contributed to the general economical malaise in the country. Not "actual" supply and demand driven pricing but that created by commodities market speculation. We all were wondering why the horrific price increases arose last year. "Experts" said, just basic supply and demand. If that were so, then how do they explain the major roller coaster ride in just months way up and way down. Demand didn't vary that much. It was just market speculation in large measure. Then some in the oil sector would say, until crude prices go above X we won't be able to do ... take your pick. How about mount acoustic blowout preventers?

http://www.newser.com/getimage.aspx?mediaid=351122
Dolphins swim beneath the oil slick
From: http://www.newser.com/

Despite this, we do use too much non-renewable energy, we do need to reduce our carbon footprint, we do need to aggressively and EFFECTIVELY pursue alternative energy sources, apparently we do need to beef up offshore drilling safety procedures and we need to stop adding to our deficit through excessive dependence on overseas oil supply.

What to do? It is going to take some leadership, unpopular to various groups over time too, cutting back for the entire country and a good deal more. Big Oil is a business like many others, look at all the effective banking reforms that have occurred in our country since the recession? Have there been ANY at least with near term needed benefit? Or are we ok with proceeding "business as usual?" We have some fundamental problems with making painful decisions for the common good, compelling our leadership to make them a reality. It can start at the grass roots, doesn't look like a watershed of change is coming anytime soon from the top.

Are we ready?

no, the vast majority of people do not know the issues nor are they willing to make voluntary changes, 10X for the politicians.

is this becoming a non-kiteboarding related rant? this may get ugly.....

No it won't, I don't think. I think most of us are on the same page on this.
If not, I can't see it getting too ugly.

It's all about the money for the guys who make it at the top, imo.
I wouldn't try to take it much further than that or philosophize too much.
Just look at the cash flow and the resistance to change becomes pretty straightforward.

BP is the richest corporation in the world from what I have read (if I am wrong, let me know).
Why in the world would the richest company ever even consider contributing to it's own downfall (or at least minimizing profit) by not selling brown crud that's in the ground to all of us? Money-wise, that would be insane. That would be like the big bankers allowing inflation to halt.

I also however believe it's beyond insane to not have several layers of redundancy to safeguard the extrapolation and transportation of that power packed brown crud to keep it out of the environment as much as possible. Sheer stupidity.
Bankers and monsters Corps run gov't, so change is highly unlikely.
Doesn't matter much what "we" want, imo.

Hazmat training
 

they are offering a training program this tuesday in key west, so i am hoping to take my instructors to it. I would advise taking a course if you will be affected, as i didnt realize what was involved. being a volunteer is great, but you need to know what to do.

p.s. you know we are serious as it will be blowing 20 knots....errrrrr class while its blowing? bp blows

http://wimp.com/solutionoil/

something I found that could help out a ton.

OIL ODORS IN TAMPA?!!!

What are you guys smelling where and how bad? Looking at the models and winds this didn't seem likely to happen so fast. Could it be from some bastard washing out his bilges as happened so often years past or is this the big one moving in?

Found this for today dealing with Pensacola, a lot closer to this mess:

"Smell that? Oil is in the air in Pensacola
Pensacola, Florida -- Pensacola Beach lifeguards reported about 5 p.m. Friday a kerosene-like smell that Escambia County officials say is likely related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

"Escambia County officials have deployed staff to check the waters. However, there is no oil sheen or slick sighted near our coastlines," Escambia County spokeswoman Sonya Daniel said in a news release.

A Friday afternoon breeze out of the south and southwest is believed to have carried the smell to the area, Santa Rosa Island Authority Public Safety Director Bob West said.

The smell was reported at various locations on Pensacola Beach as well as in the Navarre and Gulf Breeze areas.

"It's very minute; it took me a couple of seconds to smell it," West said. "It's nice to be able to document the first effects, but I'm not surprised."
Continued at:
http://www.wtsp.com/news/state/story...31613&catid=19

Found the following from a week ago:

"Once oil reaches the surface of the water, winds and currents are the two main mechanisms that can spread it.

Wind is the most obvious as we have already seen it spread the oil toward the coastline of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The wind can easily spread the oil in any direction according to the direction the wind is blowing from and the intensity of the wind. Just after the initial explosion and resulting oil leak, the winds in the spill area were blowing WNW in the 15-30 kts range. Those winds continued toward the west coast of Florida for several days. That spread the oil slick eastward extending it as far east as due south of Pensacola, Fl.

Here in the Bay area, there were widespread reports of an odor in the air. Air quality tests have proved to be inconclusive, but it is not a far stretch to believe the odor came from the incident. That possibility seems even more likely when you consider the smell went way once the winds here then turned SE-S. That would blow the odor back toward the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Recent winds near the spill site have blown SSE-SSW blowing the oil toward the Gulf coast and resulting in some oil washing ashore and with some sea life being affected The winds will remain out of the SSW-SW continuing to blow the oil near shore until Tuesday. "

Continued at:
http://www.wtsp.com/news/mostpop/sto...6&provider=top


p.s. - Nice idea and performance Flkiter thanks for posting!

"Smell Of Oil Reaches Beaches
Sunday, May 09, 2010 6:59:12 PM

ST. PETE BEACH -- The actual oil in the Gulf of Mexico may have stayed away from Florida, but that doesn’t mean the smell isn’t.

Some beachgoers on Florida’s Gulf Coast said the odor of oil 300 miles away was enough to make them sick late Saturday night.

From Hernando County to Manatee County, residents in the Tampa Bay area reported smelling something sickening in the area.

Some concerned residents even called 911 about the odor. Emergency medical responders confirmed that it was, indeed, coming from the oil slick in the Gulf, carried onto the Florida coast by winds from the west.

The smell Saturday night left many concerned about their Mother’s Day plans the following day, not to mention their health and safety.

Some residents reported nausea and nasal irritation.

The odor along the Gulf Coast did not seem to be as strong Sunday morning, as the winds have shifted."


VIDEO embedded at link below on reported odors and related complaints from west coast residents

http://cfnews13.com/News/Local/2010/...s_beaches.html

...

It seems the odors may have traveled a very long way (300 miles?) from limited information in this report and with the wind shift to the east, the odor disappeared. If anyone has new information about odors, confirmed plume sightings, concerning air or water quality information in Florida, please let us know.

Rick, I live on the bay in Tampa and around 7pm Saturday night until the easterly wind from the cold front came through Sunday I could smell some petroleum product in the air. East wind most of the week should keep it away.

Wow, thank you for the information. Not good and an amazing distance for odors to travel from the spill. Just found a news report and video that indicates a lot of people along the west coast observed the same thing. I took a rapid look at ikitesurf wind directions for May off LA. In some years fronts cycle through the month bringing short periods of westerly winds while in others easterly winds govern. Hope this year, for the sake of folks in Florida, that easterly flow prevails from here on out. That may help the odors and keep the plume out of the Loop Current.


... and a blog from last year with concerns about Florida Beaches and Oil Spills from the Oil Patch in the Gulf. They even express concerns about the Loop Current spreading spills.

http://protectfloridasbeaches.org/blog/loop.jpg

More at: http://protectfloridasbeaches.org/blogarchive.html

Air Pollution
 

When I was in organic chemistry class at University of Florida, I will never forget my professor saying that he always gets gas at those stations with the suction device attached to the pump nozzle, and he goes around to the front of the vehicle upwind while fueling to avoid the fumes. Now crude oil coming out of the ground is not refined like gasoline, but there are still volatile hydrocarbons some of which have been known to cause cancer. So if you plan on volunteering on any cleanup crews, make sure to wear a respirator and other protective equipment. Makes you wonder though if you can smell the oil, does it have a negative long-term affect on your health?

http://www.countercurrents.org/galen100510.htm

Looks like all big oil isn't quite the same when it comes to safety. BP per the following NY
Times article comes up particularly short.

"For BP, a History of Spills and Safety Lapses
By JAD MOUAWAD Published: May 8, 2010

After BP’s Texas City, Tex., refinery blew up in 2005, killing 15 workers, the company vowed to address the safety shortfalls that caused the blast.

The next year, when a badly maintained oil pipeline ruptured and spilled 200,000 gallons of crude oil over Alaska’s North Slope, the oil giant once again promised to clean up its act.

In 2007, when Tony Hayward took over as chief executive, BP settled a series of criminal charges, including some related to Texas City, and agreed to pay $370 million in fines. “Our operations failed to meet our own standards and the requirements of the law,” the company said then, pledging to improve its “risk management.”

Despite those repeated promises to reform, BP continues to lag other oil companies when it comes to safety, according to federal officials and industry analysts. Many problems still afflict its operations in Texas and Alaska, they say. Regulators are investigating a whistle-blower’s allegations of safety violations at the Atlantis, one of BP’s newest offshore drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

Now BP is in the spotlight because of the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, which killed 11 people and continues to spew oil into the ocean. It is too early to say what caused the explosion. Other companies were also involved, including Transocean, which owned and operated the drilling rig, and Halliburton, which had worked on the well a day before the explosion.

BP, based in London, has repeatedly asserted that Transocean was solely responsible for the accident.

However, lawmakers plan to question BP executives about their overall commitment to safety at Congressional hearings this week on the Gulf incident.

“It is a corporate problem,” said Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan, who has been particularly critical of BP’s operations in Alaska and will lead the House committee hearing, on Wednesday. “Their mentality is to get in the foxhole and batten down the hatch. It just seems there is this pattern.”

The oil industry is inherently more dangerous than many other industries, and oil companies, including BP, strive to reduce accidents and improve safety.

But BP, the nation’s biggest oil and gas producer, has a worse health, environment and safety record than many other major oil companies, according to Yulia Reuter, the head of the energy research team at RiskMetrics, a consulting group that assigns scores to companies based on their performance in various categories, including safety.

The industry standard for safety, analysts say, is set by Exxon Mobil, which displays an obsessive attention to detail, monitors the smallest spill and imposes scripted procedures on managers.

Before drilling a well, for example, it runs elaborate computer models to test beforehand what the drillers might encounter. The company trains contractors to recognize risky behavior and asks employees for suggestions on how to improve safety. It says it has cut time lost to safety incidents by 12 percent each year since 2000.

Analysts credit that focus, in part, to the aftermath of the 1989 Exxon Valdez grounding, which spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound in Alaska.

“Whatever you think of them, Exxon is now the safest oil company there is,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy expert at Rice University.

In an interview last week, Mr. Hayward, BP’s chief executive, conceded that the company had problems when he took over three years ago. But he said he had instituted broad changes to improve safety, including setting up a common management system with precise safety rules and training for all facilities."

"Yet some government officials say that they are troubled by the continuation of hazardous practices at BP’s refineries and Alaskan oil operations despite warnings from regulators.

For example, last year the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found more than 700 violations at the Texas City refinery — many concerning faulty valves, which are critical for safety given the high temperatures and pressures. The agency fined BP a record $87.4 million, which was more than four times the previous record fine, also to BP, for the 2005 explosion.

Another refinery, in Toledo, Ohio, was fined $3 million two months ago for “willful” safety violations, including the use of valves similar to those that contributed to the Texas City blast.

“BP has systemic safety and health problems,” said Jordan Barab, the assistant secretary of labor for OSHA. “They need to take their intentions and apply them much more effectively on the ground, where the hazards actually lie.”"

Continued at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/bu...&sq=oil&st=cse

There are a number of carcinogens present in petroleum compounds. Allowable air concentrations for workers are published by OSHA. Some of the standards are time weighted averages. NIOSH provides guidelines that may be more conservative than OSHA in some cases. There are extensive references on the subject of air quality in oil spills and health and safety considerations at the following CDC site:

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/oilspillresponse/

For a proper cleanup, there should be a Health and Safety Plan in which potential contaminants, concentrations, exposure pathways, PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and a good deal more are presented. This information should be provided to the workers along with PPE, training, oversight, etc.. In the instance of air emissions from petroleum, special respirator cartridges (activated carbon) or even SCBA may be indicated IF air concentrations are high enough.

The EPA has been doing limited air testing in LA reported at:
http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/air.html#vocs

They have reported fairly nominal air test results to date. Having no violations however doesn't necessarily mean you can't smell it.

.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/2010/...ire.gi.top.jpg

"BP knew of problems hours before blast

By Steve Hargreaves, Senior writerMay 12, 2010: 2:35 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- BP knew of problems with an offshore well hours before it exploded last month, spilling millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, a House committee chairman said Wednesday.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said the oil company told the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight privately that the well failed a key pressure test just hours before it exploded on April 20.

The test indicated pressure was building up in the well, which could indicate oil or gas was seeping in and could lead to an explosion, said Waxman.

"Yet it appears the companies did not suspend operations, and now 11 workers are dead and the Gulf faces an environmental catastrophe," he said, asking why work wasn't stopped on the well."

Continued at:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/12/news...dex.htm?hpt=T1

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/...bb37d57c_b.jpg
Burning in the Gulf

http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse....931/322119.jpg
This would be more impressive if there was apparent, material progress being made. Nice graphic though but a bit oily.
From: http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/

Lets bring all the expertise and expert execution we can to bear on the problem and get it done, soon! Mixed signals continue to come out.

MMS sucks
 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/05/...irector.fired/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/files...dead_santa.jpg

Jetpack sent the following to me. It helps put the area of the spill in perspective. It isn't good but better we know what is out there.

Click on:
http://www.beowulfe.com/oil/

Oil on the way
 

Thanks for the updates Rick. I have been following the news closely on this one, as it has potential impacts all the way up the coast to St. Augustine eventually. Sure, noone wants to eat fish contaminated with oil, but I am sure we do not want to be kiteboarding in it either!

It is amazing to me that the federal government has not taken control of this situation already and plugged the well? BP has virtually no interest in capping the well and stopping the leak, and has repeatedly tried to capture the oil so they can profit from it instead of doing the right thing. The relief wells are just another way of guaranteeing that they can capture the oil from this huge reserve. I saw a report that they could make $500 billion off this one well if they can capture all of the oil.

So everything they have tried so far has been unsuccessful, and there is no guarantee that the relief wells will work either? They won't be completed until mid-August anyway. By then the Macando gusher will make the Exxon Valdez disaster fade into the background. If it continues unchecked they say it will flow for 7 years.

I have a degree in Environmental Science with a M.S. in Chemical Oceanography, and studied hydrocarbon (oil) breakdown in marine sediments in Tampa Bay. There are naturally occuring bacteria in the marine environment that eat oil, and will break down the lighter components of the crude over time. I have even read about biologically engineered bugs that can be introduced into spills with added nutrients to enhance bacterial degradation, but first you have to stop the flow of oil. You can't continue to clean up a spill that keeps on coming?

Learning about the environment is a depressing endeavor, because you realize that SO many things we do destroy the natural environment around us. From septic tanks draining through porous sand directly into estuaries, to drainage canals pumping fertilizers and pesticides direction into our intracoastal waterways from our finely manicured lawns, these are things that are under our control. BP is the one that created this problem in the first place, and now we are depending on them to fix it for us? Yes, they are the ones that have the expertise to work on the well, but who is calling the shots? I smell a rat, and it is a BIG one.

You and I have fairly similar backgrounds Eddie (both have M.S. in marine related science). I agree, the more I learned about the environment, the more depressing it became (all that man does to it). The most depressing aspect for me was how little the Fed. gov't truly cared about properly managing the environment/resources (worked with gov't for several years). I found it was all a dog and pony show.

I also agree, there is zero incentive for BP to want to cap this thing. Most reading this can't relate to even saying that, but most reading this have a conscience. The higher ups at BP have zero, absolutely none. Their only concern is the almighty dollar.

Lastly, as you mentioned, there are micro-organisms in the environment that are capable of breaking down the hydrocarbon chains in oil. The real key (imo) to their success is their ability to sequester oxygen and nutrients to speed up their metabolic processes. So, bioremediation may be more successful with proper use of correctly mixed fertilizers and the tilling of the affected soil.

Why is it that bioremediation hasn't been mentioned once in the news, by BP or the gov't?, and an approach to take advantage of these "bugs" not being discussed? I find this almost unbelievable.

I have read some ideas revolving around burning the affected affect marshes though, wtf (?).

One final gripe. Do people (at least the media) NOT get how incredibly important marshes are? My main area of study/research was salt marshes/grass flats.
I may have a bias (I think it's more just being informed), but marshes are crucial to the health of the oceans and it's fisheries. It's obvious to me that the fisheries in the Gulf are reliant on healthy marshes. It's impossible to have a healthy fishery with "sick" marshes.
I really don't think the media (or Obama) has a friggin' clue in this regard.
When showing the marshes, the birds (oh no... not birds again :) ) get all the attention. And it's sad, but let's focus on the environment as a whole, not just the birds. It's not a success if we save every single pelican, and don't save the marshes.

Also, the media truly seem more upset about the white, sandy beaches of Pensacola being stained than what has already happened in LA.
Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see anywhere hit/affected. But if given the choice, I would prefer to see a sandy beach hit than estuaries surrounding the Mississippi... no brainer due to environmental importance of marshes.
Yet, no one seems overly concerned (?) for Louisiana's marshes. Is it b/c some people have a bias toward the south, the accents used, etc?
If not, wtf. I am totally lost on this one, b/c I view that region as the heart of the Gulf's fishery and that heart is being broken. It's truly a catastrophe.

You are welcome. So much depends on what quantities and in what state petroleum moves into the Straits of Florida. Prevailing easterly winds in the warmer months suggests a lot of shoreward transport once it makes it over here.

Oil is a powerful food source for some microbes. You can test sands above water and perhaps find modest concentrations of certain soil microbes. Spill some oil on it and shortly you'll have an explosion of naturally occurring microbes gobbling the stuff up like no tomorrow. They will continue to ingest and breakdown the petroleum until; 1) It is all gone. 2) Waste products from the microbes impair their viability. In the later case they poop or respire themselves to death, more or less.

Here's the rub and a potentially serious one. The deeper reaches of the ocean usually aren't oxygen rich nor are there typically water transport mechanisms over large areas to rapidly exchange oxygen depleted water with that with higher concentrations. So, dump a ton of oil into the deeps, you will likely get the normal population explosion of microbes including anaerobes. So, in addition to oxygen depletion you will also evolve hydrogen sulphide (particularly toxic to marine life) and more methane. I recall something about long term pollution in the Black Sea creating a major oxygen depleted (read "dead") zone in the water column at depth. Hope to God it doesn't happen but could something like this be in the works in the Gulf?

Worked with and around bioremediation for almost 25 years. Some of it works extremely well and almost automatically. Just supply enough nutrients, oil, oxygen, and avenues for waste passage and petroleum contamination depletion can be amazing. Some bioremediation over the years has amounted to so much "snake oil," high on promises low on practical delivery in some settings. Land farming is the most effective done on the surface for contaminated soil. In situ remediation of groundwater the least effective at least in South Florida using injected microbes and nutrients. On the other hand, over excavation of saturated petroleum impacted soils, UV degradation, mixing, even active aeration of the standing water in the excavation can be very effective in reducing groundwater contaminant concentrations.

Parallels in benthic bioremediation in the open ocean, you've got me. Again part of it happens automatically but to what ultimate end is more concerning. As far as wetlands, it may be more doable but also complex. Wholesale mortality in mangroves and other wetland components seems unavoidable with excessive exposure to oil. In the case of tar balls, depends how hardened, weathered they are and how they break up and physically interact with the prop roots (adhere to and smother them or ?). A major die off of estuarine vegetation followed by fauna depletions with lingering oil soil and sediment impact doesn't leave much to regenerate, near term anyway. There are also surrogates or breakdown daughter compounds that could provide problems too.

Any clue as to why bioremediation is not being mentioned at this point? It's a fairly ubiquitous approach.
I read about this stuff (and most news) on a daily basis and haven't heard even a peep about bioremediation. I actually haven't seen much of anything done.
I suspect that it is because to successfully discuss bioremediation as an approach, you would first have to acknowledge/disclose the amount of marshland affected by the leak. My suspicion is that BP is all about practicing damage control at this point, as opposed to focusing on solutions.

Regardless of BP taking the lead (because supposedly the Feds have been in charge since day one anyway :rolleyes: ) any clue as to why the gov't hasn't mobilized more individuals into this region under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers for preventative and/or remediation efforts?
Just curious as to what your take is on the response (or lack thereof), Rick.

This is one of the largest ecological disasters of our time, right?

Natural bioremediation has already kicked in (aka "natural attention"), just add food right? Problems will arise once metabolic wastes impair microbe viability. Usually you physically blend, turnover or somehow run exchange fluids through the material you are attempting to remediate. This means bull dozing the wetlands in a more direct approach. A lesser form might be to enhance exchange of fluids over the wetlands, again likely with mixed results. You need to physically disturb the layer of petroleum over roots, in soil and sediment to get oxygen in and wastes out. Washing alone through a wetland is unlikely to accomplish this.

Also, tar balls in saltwater enter a sort of stasis at least when compared to an oil layer. The exterior is resistant to evaporation, UV degradation and even effective consumption by microbes to a degree. Once you break them open through wave action, impact on shore features, heating, etc. fresh, fairly unweathered viscous oil is exposed all over again. The interior of the tar balls can have higher adhesion, send contaminants into solution more readily, cause more problems in general. There could be some promise in bioremediation alternatives to chemical dispersants currently being applied.

Some firms are BIG on promoting "designer bugs" bioengineered to consume particular contaminants. I have no doubt they would love to aerially bombard the impacted wetlands with their "bugs du jour." Trouble is the naturally occurring bugs are probably eating the stuff as fast as they can currently. They'll continue until build up of their waste stunts their populations. Same problem exists with designer bugs.

To my understanding in the context of this spill in wetlands, there are no magic bugs or automatic low impact and rapid bioremediation solutions. Lots of firms will tell you that their bugs are special and will make things all better on a stack of bibles. I've sure seen plenty of the pitches attesting to this over the decades. They doesn't mean there are some viable variants out there or new approaches that might help things. I would just caution against building excessive optimism about the effectiveness of bioremediation as a rapid, low impact and fairly easy cure all.

An AP article discusses some of the daunting realities at:
http://www.theadvertiser.com/article...-be-impossible

Bioremediation is being discussed, searching for "EPA bioremediation BP" yields about 53,000 hits. http://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

The EPA even has a publication titled "GUIDELINES FOR THE BIOREMEDIATION OF MARINE SHORELINES
AND FRESHWATER WETLANDS".
http://www.epa.gov/oem/docs/oil/edu/bioremed.pdf

Mother nature will fix this, eventually (decades, longer?) but in what form it will eventually return to and the severity of intervening devastation and spinoff repercussions is a serious matter. We screwed up as a culture, as did our leadership and the petro industry. Now we pay the price, hope it isn't as steep as imagination indicates it could be.

Actually, my main curiosity was related to your (and anyone else's) take on the response of BP and the government in the LA region. I was curious if others felt the response seemed underwhelming.

Also, I said I was surprised by the lack of media coverage regarding bioremediation. When I say "media", I mean MSM. Your google results show a lack of representation on the topic in the MSM.

Don't worry Rick, I don't fall for speeches from companies about quick cure-alls.

If you are curious, I am not a believer in using "engineered" microbes for bioremediation. I am a believer that "fully qualified" microbes exist in the natural environment "for free" and will thrive in areas that hydrocarbons are deposited. I do feel however that soil analysis and use of fertilizers in an area may help to speed the process and it might prove useful to try this in at least one area. If it proves to speed up recovery, expand the use of the fertilizers. It's one idea (among thousands) that I hope are being discussed and genuinely considered. This situation provides a rare opportunity to try several approaches in different areas, assess the outcomes of each approach, and actually learn something.

Anyway, I hope this all turns out eventually. It's difficult to have faith in this, given the current state of affairs.
Obviously many of us are just beyond pissed at this point.

the keys are f@ck#d, all of that oil is going to funnel thru them, the choke point.

they'll see the most amount of oil than any other spot in FL.

since the simulation shows it narrowing the most in that spot, that must mean it will flow fast. But nonetheless, every drop of oil that makes it into the atlantic goes THRU the Keys FIRST

well hopefully through the Keys...right on through 7 mile, long key, channel 5 etc...

Until it happens we just don't know just how bad it may become. Look at the dimensions of the plume over near LA, now look at the tendrils that are entrained in the Loop Current near the Dry Tortugas. For now anyway, they are a lot smaller. Any oil/tar transported is bad and the more that makes it over the worse things may become. Local winds and currents will have a lot to do with how much makes it shoreward from the Florida Current. The dynamics of transport into Florida Bay approaching the Tortugas and through island cuts up the Keys is up for interpretation at this advanced point. Prepare for the worst but try to keep hoping for the best. Best not to damn things in advance, bad for tourism, Keys businesses, residents and VISITORS who may miss out on some great conditions. It may or may not come to that at some point but it isn't there yet.

Our own Chris of kiting fame created this video in reaction to the oil spill. This is what he had to say about it:

"Blue Water White Sand taken away by big oil. So frustrated and disgusted, with this oil spill, I had to write a song about it.
CK "

http://www.truthdig.com/images/earto...oil_e_mad5.jpg
http://www.truthdig.com/


http://image3.examiner.com/images/bl...052410_500.jpg
http://image3.examiner.com/i


http://www.worldchanging.com/Oil%20S...%20Cartoon.jpg
http://www.worldchanging.com/


http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._3864303_n.jpg
Rush from the Panhandle posted this on Facebook. Takes me back ... and sadly forward too.

BP spill (coffee) satire, at least this part is amusing.