(News) New BP oil spill plan

The British oil company BP will be attempting a "top kill" on the leaking oil well by firing a mud aEdit HTMLnd cement mixture into the blowout preventer on the oil well later this week. If successful, the oil well will be closed off with cement. A back up plan in case of failure (30-40% fail risk) would be another containment apparatus.
BP has been using the oil dispersant corexit to disperse the oil film into small droplets which mix with the seawater. A riser insertion tube inserted into the largest oil leak site is collecting between 1,360 to 2,000 barrels of oil per day. Two relief oil wells are also currently under construction for a permanent solution to the oil spill. This pair will take about 90 days to complete.

$500 million will be forthcoming from BP for the gulf spill impact on the environment, the effect on the ecology, and where water currents may be spreading the oil. BP also put forward a ten year research plan to study the long term effects of the oil spill on the environment. Exxon Valdez spill was cleaned up in 1989.


Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal wants an emergency permit for dredges which will contain the pollution. Homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano is seeking viable options which may be more effective and better for the environment.Controlled surface oil burns and skimming have removed some of the oil spill. It is estimated that 5,000 barrels of oil a day area leaking from the ruptured pipe 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below sea level. A Natural Resources Defense Council marine biologist, Lisa Suatoni, said that only about 7 to 10 percent of oil from the Exxon Valdez spill was cleaned up in 1989.
“I am angry and I am frustrated that BP has been unable to stop this well from leaking and to stop the pollution from spreading. We are 33 days into this effort, and deadline after deadline has been missed,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

"This is a complex operation requiring sophisticated diagnostic work and precise execution. As a result, it involves significant uncertainties and it is not possible to assure its success or to put a definite timescale on its deployment." said BP. We’re doing things that have never been done before at that kind of depth, so it’s very fluid. We’re not going to do it until we’re completely sure it’s right.”

The oil rig Deepwater Horizon sank April 22, 2010 off the coast of Louisiana resulting in 11 persons missing of the 126 on board. BP was completing a new oil well at the time, and was constructing a layer of cement in the well to reinforce it which resulted in theblowout.

Source: WIKINEWS

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Commentary:

How they could not have stopped this leak within 30 days time is beyond me. Here is a simple solution: dump a few hundred-thousand tons of sand over the top of it, perhaps throw in a few boulders. I can all but guarantee that a mountain of sand/rocks would stop this leak. Either way, Republicans have bad karma—remember "drill baby drill"? It seems as if the god that the republicans claim to love hates them—everything they touch turns to shit.