First Hand Oil Spill Update...

[Irishguy]

I thought I would give a little bit of an update since I am currently out on our balcony looking out over the gulf as we speak. We are in Orange Beach, Alabama for the long weekend. We are also scouting out marinas and overnight anchorages for when we trailer our Venture 25 sailboat down here. We arrived on Thursday and are staying through Monday [Tomorrow :cry:]. We decided to go ahead and come down here, because we usually do several times a year anyway. We wanted to support the local economy and we weren't going to let a little oil keep us away.

When we arrived on Thursday it was pretty rough, cloudy and windy with a pretty stiff breeze coming out of the south. The ocean looked rather brown and frothy and looked to be a little oily and we pretty much resigned ourselves to not going in the water at all. By Friday the beach was pretty clean and the ocean had cleared up and we felt safe swimming in it. Saturday was nice also. There is some tar balls or rather dime and quarter sized splotches dotting the beach, but for the most part the clean up crews we see everyday are doing a good job of keeping the beaches clean.

In all fairness, if I didn't know about the oil spill and I came down to the beach, I would have simply thought that the beach was a little more dirty than usual, however you normally see flotsam and seaweed, but they are keeping that cleaned up too, so in that respect the beaches are actually cleaner than usual.

We were just over at one of the local marinas a few minutes ago on our morning walk talking to some of the local fishermen and captains. They said all of the gulf pleasure boating is closed down in this area. Some areas of the inter-coastal and the bays are open, but that kind of fluctuates as the conditions change. One captain we talked to said he and most of the other guys are working for the BP clean-up effort. We see a lot of boats out in the gulf every day in addition to all of the workers on the beach. This is a huge effort employing lots of people. He also said the local fishermen and boaters are getting first priority, but still I think it is just enough for them to get by, and that's about it.

I asked one of the captains when he thought everything would get back to normal, and he said that he wouldn't be surprised if it took three years. :cry: Now that's just one guy's opinion that happens to be extensively familiar with the area, and is working with the relief effort, but it kind of brings home the realization that unlike the promises some folks are throwing out there, the effects of this disaster may be with us for a long time. We wished them all the best.

 

[Alan]

Thanks for your post and your thoughts. What has happened can only be described as a monumental disaster. Of course, the vast amount of death and destruction is happening out at sea away from most eyes. BP has been doing all it can to make it so. They are controlling news coverage of the devastation as much as possible.

Hopefully the relief wells that are being drilled will be effective to plug the leak. I can't imagine what might happen if they fail. From what we've learned there is more than a slight possibility that the relief well will fail also, then what?

Drilling in deep water presents challenges that modern engineering has no answers to. Unless and until these answers are found all off-shore drilling must be stopped. The environment cannot withstand these assaults. It will probably take years if not decades to recover from this single event. Prince William Sound in Alaska is still suffering the oil spill of Exxon Valdez more than 20 years later. The thoughts of having to endure more of these is not tolerable. If oil needs to be drilled, let them do it where the environmental impact can be kept to a minimum. Deep water drilling is far too hazardous and risky to allow it to continue.

 

[sailaway78]

It's much more than the beaches

This is a total disaster and the national media is making it about the beaches. The beaches are the least of the problems. Most of the beaches from Mississippi through the Florida panhandle have been rebuilt several times. After every hurricane, they haul in more sand and redo. I am not trying to minimize the oil on the beaches, as this is a problem, just not the biggest one. The most damage, and the hardest to clean up are the wetlands and marshes, where most marine life spawns and grows. They cannot get skimmers in the marsh, and once oiled up, the grasses die. And for those against offshore drilling. Please, pay attention to more than what the media is saying. Deep water drilling is cutting edge technology, but not necessarily unsafe. When regulations are disregarded, safety is put behind profits, and the regard for human life is not considered, then bad things happen. The regulations are there, and there are lots of other deep water rigs out there not having problems. BP disregarded many safety regulations, and ignored warnings about this well. The MMS ignored, or was bought off as to what was going on. Clean up plans were by law, determined by the gummit, and their computer models. The reason all the oil co. clean up plans were nearly identical, is because it was what gummit regulations required. Only someone feeding at the public teat could be dumb enough to include walrus as a gulf inhabitant. One oil field service co. deemed the platform too dangerous, and removed it's workers from the rig, six hours before it blew. When an aircraft crashes they do not ground all airlines. When a problem with the plane is found, they ground that model of aircraft, not all aircraft. All the investigations are political. Everyone in the oil industry, and most on the gulf coast know that what happened was not the result of a lack of regulations, nor a lack of technology, but the total disregard of regulations and safety by BP in an effort to save money.

 

[zeehag]

good, nice n easy--is perfect!!!!--and exactly what the problem truly is.....there is a lot of hufffing and puffing about this n that--but the crux of it is exactly what phillip said....

 

[Ross]

Re: It's much more than the beaches

I am of the opinion that the most effective means of cleaning the marshes will be to wait until winter when the vegetation has died and dried and when a northwind is forecast set the marshes on fire and burn off the oil. The roots will not be harmed by fire but much of the oil will burn.

 

[zeehag]

is too bad the cajuns arent allowed to use their stuff that cleans up oil---from sugarcane--sounds like bag-ass....dont know how to spell it--i was told about this stuff by a coonass friend ...... sounds too good to be true,l but......also sounds like it would do a world of good.....shoot--they know the marshes and what will clean them....

 

[Ross]

Sugar cane fiber was what was used to make celatex sheathing in years past. It was great on a garage floor to catch oil drips from the car.

 

[zeehag]

seems if it will suck up the drippings iof detroit iron then it should be ablle to suck up this stuff..........i am with the cajuns on this one.......

 

[sailaway78]

Burning

Ross, some of the scientists from LSU and Tulane, are saying the same thing about burning. They say that a controlled burn would be the quickest and easiest cure for the marsh. Unfortunately, seems like the ears of the gummit and of BP are not listening. Same song, second verse. Thats not right. Common sense ideas by the dozens are totally ignored.

 

[zeehag]

Ross, some of the scientists from LSU and Tulane, are saying the same thing about burning. They say that a controlled burn would be the quickest and easiest cure for the marsh. Unfortunately, seems like the ears of the gummit and of BP are not listening. Same song, second verse. Thats not right. Common sense ideas by the dozens are totally ignored.

these guys seem not to be into the quickest and easiest way to clean it up , but rather into the picky little bureaucratic bs that prevents effective function of any group attempting to achieve a goal.....checking things on a clipboard instead of getting into the battle.....

 

[JonnyQuest]

I'm with you, controlled burns in winter make sense. Thanks for the info about scientists considering it... any reference for us to read more?

Thanks!