BP Live View

[Stytooner]

I would have thought they would have made it in the shape of a Big Gulp dust collector fitting. Then they should have been able to collect and pump ice and all into tanks on barges to be separated and purified later. Something like that should have worked to at least collect most of it. I am sure I ain't seeing the whole picture though. Maybe the gas and oil has to be separated before any type storage is done. Other factors too. I don't even know what the design of the one they used looked like.
I do know that it has effect many many folks around here and oil hasn't even reached our beach yet. LOML still works for a vacation rental co and there were initially many vacation plans cancelled.
I know lots for fishermen and Charter boats have been impacted. The effects go much farther down line than you might think, economically speaking. LA is much worse for the wear and will be for some time to come. BP will likely start hollering Broke and Poor soon.

[germdoc]

My .02 without getting too political: drilling at 5000 feet is kind of like doing surgery through a laparoscope. You need to have a backup plan in case you can't stop the bleeding remotely. Sounds like (other than the BOP) they didn't have one.

My beef about technology in general: we deploy it and tout it as the latest and greatest, but we don't plan for what happens when something goes wrong. In my field we are implanting more and more really cool, sophisticated things like automatic defibrillators, artificial joints, nerve stimulators, without any real plan in case something goes wrong. And I can say with certainty something will ALWAYS go wrong.

Re' the government's responsibility, we should be monitoring and regulating these industries, but the government cannot drill a well nor cap it when something goes wrong. It is up to the company plain and simple. If a surgeon screws up, an oversight board can't repair the surgery, it's up to the surgeon.

There is plenty of time to review what went wrong, who was at fault, but let's just hope BP and the other companies involved can Get'R'Done ASAP...

[JR]

Piling on to Loring's description of the lax maintenance of the redundant safety features, it has been reported that the environmental impact report filed with the application had descriptions of wildlife and habitat that don't exist in the gulf. IOW, it was pencil-whipped by the applicant and rubber-stamped by the cognizant agency.

JR

[germdoc]

Piling on to Loring's description of the lax maintenance of the redundant safety features, it has been reported that the environmental impact report filed with the application had descriptions of wildlife and habitat that don't exist in the gulf.

Knowing some of the other MMS "hobbies" that are coming to light, I wonder if this was some of the wildlife that was mentioned...

[crybdr]

Well, I can't top the previous poster's response.....

But, the underwater cameras now show a 'diamond saw' delicatley slicing through the bent riser, just below the bend where it meets the BOP. Some other views from the last hours have shown lifting straps being positioned around the bent riser pipes.

Who knows what shape that steel below the bend is in (it looks 'ovaled' at least), considering it has been stressed way beyond its engineered capacity.

I hope that the new 'riser package' that they are talking about installing stops or captures most of the gusher. They are also talking about reversing the pipes initally feeding the 'top kill' and 'junk shot' to serve as an additional path for oil to be piped to the surface.

I hope these new approaches work - or at least reduce the escaping oil. It seems, based upon the Ixtoc spill during the 70's, that this could go on for a while. The Ixtoc blowout gushed for some time. The same series of 'well kill' approaches seem to have been tried then too - in 200 feet of water. That well leaked for 9 months. Only a relief well was able to shut it down.

The above is based upon what I have found on the web. If anyone has other information about it please share....

coryb

[Alex Franke]

I wonder if they left off the riving knife...
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/02/gul...ex.html?hpt=T1

[sscherin]

If you are watching the live video they have a big circular saw running now trying to cut a block off the riser pipe..