The blowout seems to have been sealed after over 100 days. Between the cap, drilling mud on top and grout pumped into the shaft from the bottom, hopefully this release has ended once and for all.
"Plug in Gulf Well Is Declared a Success
By THE NEW YORK TIMES Published: August 8, 2010
BP said Sunday on its Web site that a cement plug had been successfully put in place after a procedure to seal the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico. The cement plug was poured into the well last Thursday, after tons of mud had been dumped into the well in a operation called a static kill.
“We were able to statically kill the well from the top by putting cement down the pipe casing, and we pressure tested that the last two days,” Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral who leads the federal spill response, said Sunday on “Face the Nation” on CBS. “So that’s holding.” The next step, Admiral Allen said, will be a relief well. Once it is completed and successfully intercepting the volatile well, the sealing efforts could be declared a full success, BP executives and Admiral Allen have said.."
Continued at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/us...of_mexico_2010
So, what about all the released oil, both on the surface, within the water column, on the bottom, millions of gallons of dispersant discharged and the current and long term impacts? First an overview:
"Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill (2010)
Chris Graythen/Getty Images Updated: Aug. 6, 2010
An explosion on April 20 aboard the Deepwater Horizon, a drilling rig working on a well for the oil company BP one mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, led to the largest accidental oil spill in history. After a series of failed efforts to plug the leak, BP said on July 15 that it had capped the well, at least temporarily, marking the first time in 86 days that oil was not gushing into the gulf.
The slick appeared to be dissolving far more rapidly than anyone expected. The immense patches of surface oil that covered thousands of square miles of the gulf after the April 20 explosion are largely gone, though sightings of tar balls and emulsified oil continued here and there. Radar images suggest that the few remaining patches are quickly breaking down in the warm surface waters of the gulf. Officials in charge of the response say they are beginning to shift their efforts to a new phase, focusing more on long-term recovery now that some of the urgent demands of the spill are diminishing."
"Prospects for Recovery
The effect on sea life of the large amounts of oil that dissolved below the surface is still a mystery. Two preliminary government reports on that issue have found concentrations of toxic compounds in the deep sea to be low, but the reports left many questions, especially regarding an apparent decline in oxygen levels in the water.
And understanding the effects of the spill on the shorelines that were hit, including Louisiana’s coastal marshes, is expected to occupy scientists for years. Fishermen along the coast are deeply skeptical of any declarations of success, expressing concern about the long-term effects of the chemical dispersants used to combat the spill and of the submerged oil, particularly on shrimp and crab larvae that are the foundation of future fishing seasons.
Scientists said the rapid dissipation of the surface oil was probably due to a combination of factors, including the gulf’s immense natural capacity to break down oil. Then there was the response mounted by BP and the government, the largest in history, involving more than 4,000 boats attacking the oil with skimming equipment, controlled surface burns and other tactics.
It was also becoming clear that the Obama administration, in conjunction with BP, will soon have to make decisions about how quickly to begin scaling down the large-scale — and expensive — response effort. That is a touchy issue, and not just for environmental reasons.
States have been pushing the federal authorities to move quickly to reopen gulf waters to commercial fishing; through most of the spill, about a third of the United States part of the gulf has been closed. The Food and Drug Administration is trying to speed its testing, while promising continued diligence to be sure no tainted seafood gets to market.
Even if the seafood of the gulf is deemed safe by the authorities, resistance to buying it may linger among the public, an uncertainty that defies measurement and is on the minds of residents along the entire Gulf Coast"
Continued at:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/refere...010/index.html
As bad as the surface impacts have been, they could have been a lot worse over a far greater area. Still, it isn't over, where to from here.
http://www.phongpo.com/
There is a growing mass of information on the Wikipedia site at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwat...izon_oil_spill
.