Oil Spill Disaster 2010

OIL STOPS ON DAY 86

2010-07-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

Oil stopped gushing into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, for the first time in nearly three months, as BP began testing the cap atop its stricken well, a critical step toward sealing the well permanently.

Oil Spill Workers Report Health Problems

2010-07-04T17:39:00.000-07:00

"Within the past week, we've seen a number of workers hospitalized. That's new," said Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

More than a dozen workers have been treated at local medical centers for flu-like symptoms ranging from chest pain to dizziness,nausea, and headaches, presumably due to exposure to different chemicals emanating from the slick, according to news reports.

The Unified Command in Louisiana -- a coalition of government agencies that includes the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of the Interior and the National Parks Service -- last week called back to shore 125 boats helping with the clean-up after medical complaints from crew members.
"The reports that we've heard from hospitals and doctors have been [that the symptoms are due to] inhaled irritant exposure, but they've not gone so far as to say what exactly they think the responsible agent might be," Solomon said. "The workers are widely blaming the dispersants."

Dispersants are chemicals used for the oil clean-up. The solvent used after the massive 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off the Alaska coast, for example, was limonene, which can cause skin inflammation and asthma, said Robert Emery, vice president for safety, health, environment and risk management at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

"There's no doubt that people are getting sick out there [in the Gulf of Mexico]," Emery said. "The key question is what is it that is causing them to get sick."
BP's Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico about 40 miles south of Louisiana on April 20, killing 11 workers and spewing an estimated 21 million to 45 million gallons of crude oil into the water.
BP and the U.S. Coast Guard have said dehydration, heat, food poisoning or other unrelated factors may have caused the workers' symptoms. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals is investigating, the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that "air quality levels for ozone and particulates are normal on the Gulf coastline for this time of year." But, the agency added, it has detected some "odor-causing pollutants associated with petroleum products along the coastline at low levels." These chemicals could cause headache, nausea and throat irritation.

There have been few studies that have examined the long-term health risks of exposure to oil. Brief contact with small amounts of light crude oil and dispersants aren't thought to be harmful, the AP reported. But, extended exposure to dispersants can cause central nervous system problems, or damage to the blood, the kidney, or the liver, and leave a metallic taste in the mouth, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The unprecedented size and duration of this spill makes it unsettling, Solomon said.
"It's pretty much in every sense a historical spill," Solomon said. "Previous spills have all happened over a relatively short period of time and then the clean-up effort has mostly been on what's called weathered oil" -- oil that's been floating on the surface of water for some period of time.
"In this case, we still have fresh oil bubbling up from underwater, which is a completely different situation than has ever been seen before," she said. "Approximately 40% of crude oil evaporates within several hours of reaching the surface of the water. It ends up airborne. It's really a problem for people who are working out there, especially those closest to where oil is surfacing."

Clean-up workers are being advised to follow federal guidelines that recommend that anyone involved wear protective equipment such as gloves, safety glasses and clothing, the AP said.
BP CEO Tony Hayward has said the symptoms that workers are reporting -- dizziness, headaches, coughing -- could be due to any number of causes, including diesel fumes, exhaustion and heat from wearing Tyvek safety suits.

Oil Spill And Our Health. Should We Worry?

2010-07-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

As we’re waiting for the full scale of environmental, economic and wildlife impacts from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to unfold, there’s a lot of speculation and unanswered questions going around about what this means for the health of people living and working in the region.
To help answer these questions, I’ve put together a three-part Q&A on what this means for human health. I’ll post the 3 parts of this Q&A over the course of the week, and in this first post I’ll answer some of the basic background health questions I’m hearing about the spill below. In later posts I’ll look at who’s at risk, and health tips for people working on the clean-up – stay tuned.

What’s actually in oil that could be hazardous to health?
Oil contains a mixture of chemicals. The main ingredients are various hydrocarbons, some of which can cause cancer (eg. the PAHs or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons); other hydrocarbons can cause skin and airway irritation. There are also certain volatile hydrocarbons called VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which can cause cancer and neurologic and reproductive harm. Oil also contains traces of heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic, and lead.

How can these chemicals get into our bodies?
VOCs and some of the other hydrocarbons can be inhaled, causing lung problems and other health effects. Skin contact causes irritation and rashes. The oil will contaminate fish and shellfish, causing health risks from eating these foods that could persist for years.

What are the acute health effects from exposure to the oil?
Inhalation of oil vapors or aerosolized particles (from wind-blown waves), can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, irritation of the eyes and throat, and difficulty breathing.
People with asthma or other lung diseases could have serious exacerbations. High-dose inhalation (if people are very close to the vapors) may cause a chemical pneumonia known as “hydrocarbon pneumonia”, which can require hospital care. Direct skin contact can cause various kinds of rashes, including generalized skin irritation, or something known as “folliculitis” from oil-clogged skin pores.

What about if they’re burning the oil offshore?
Burning will release particulate matter, which is harmful to the lungs. To check on particulate matter levels in your area, check out the EPA AirNow website at: http://www.airnow.gov/. If the air is noticeably smoky, or if the levels of particulate matter are high on the EPA website, avoid any strenuous activities outdoors. For people with heart or lung disease, children, or the elderly: consider staying indoors in an air-conditioned room, and change the air-conditioner filter to make sure it is maximally effective.

How does this situation affect the shrimping/fishing industry in terms of the quality of our food?
Apart from the economic disaster to the industry, this spill poses a long-term health concern for the safety of the fish and shellfish. Contaminants in oil can persist for years and accumulate in the food chain, causing elevated cancer risks or neurological risks from exposure to heavy metals such as mercury.

Are there any health concerns associated with dispersants?
Dispersants are somewhat volatile and some will enter the air. Therefore it is really critical for clean-up workers and volunteers to wear personal protection equipment at all times when either applying the dispersant or working near where it has been applied. By the time the dispersants reach shore, they will probably be highly diluted and won’t pose a threat for communities, but this is something we’ll keep an eye on if they start using dispersants close to populations.

Oil Spill Basics

2010-07-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

Oil Spill Basics

Yearly spillage

Every year 100 million US gallons of oil spill. This is equal to 100 school gymnasiums:

     Typical school gymnasium = 45' X 45' X 66' 
                              = 133,650 cubic feet
                 1 cubic foot = 7.481 gallons
       Gym holds 999,387 gallons (almost 1 million gallons).

The biggest spill ever occurred during the 1991 Persian Gulf war when about 240 million gallons spilled from oil terminals and tankers off the coast of Saudi Arabia. The second biggest spill occurred over a ten-month period (June 1979 - February 1980) when 140 million gallons spilled at the Ixtoc I well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico near Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico. But even all the oil spilled during the Persian Gulf spill is only about 1/3 of what the US uses in one day! The Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska was approximately 11 million gallons. That spill was only about the 35th largest in the world, though it was the largest in the US. It came from a huge supertanker that was about the size of 15 gyms in length X 4 gyms wide X 2 gyms deep (which held 66 million gallons).

Why does all that oil spill?

We use a lot of oil and it needs to be transported. The US uses 710 million gallons per day. In fact, every 22 minutes, the US uses up what spilled in the Exxon Valdez spill. The world uses 2.73 billion gallons (2,730 gyms full) per day.
Every day 31.5 billion gallons of oil are at sea being transported. But not all spills come from tankers. Some comes from storage tanks, pipelines, oil wells, tankers and vessels cleaning out tanks.

What is all that oil used for?

Fuel (for transportation and factories)
Electricity generation
Machinery
Asphalt
Heating
Wax (crayons, candles)
Medicines
Ink
Plastics
Fertilizers
Pesticides
Paints/varnishes

How does it spill?

Accidents: often through carelessness
Sometimes unavoidable events: weather, earthquakes
Intentional spills: terrorists, war, vandals, dumping

What happens to oil when it spills?

Oil generally floats because it is lighter than water. A good experiment to do here is to add vegetable oil, which acts like crude oil, to food-colored water in a large, clear plastic soda bottle with a cap. Shake it and watch how the oil always settles on top.
30-40% evaporates in the first 24-48 hours; these are the most poisonous (toxic) portions, as well as the portions that are the most soluble, and flammable.
Oil tends to float and spread out into a very thin film on the water surface...usually only about 0.1 mm thick...then spreads even thinner to a sheen, which is one tenth or one one-hundredth of this. Sheens are often seen as rainbow-like or silvery in puddles in parking lots.
It is very rare for oil to sink. It needs to adhere to heavier particles such as sand, algae, or silt to sink. An exception is a kind of oil used for burning in electric utility plants. This oil can actually sink in water since it is heavier than water.

What are the environmental impacts?

These impacts are very often grossly exaggerated in the public media. Environmentalist groups have been notorious in spreading misinformation about environmental effects. Nevertheless, oil can have a significant impact on marine larvae, birds and mammals in particular, and to a lesser extent on fish.
Some components of oil are toxic if exposure occurs within the first two days of a spill (1 part per million [ppm], i.e. one gallon in one million gallons, can be toxic to invertebrate larvae; 1000 ppm for fish). Oil on feathers hinders the water-repellancy of the bird. Oil on fur takes away its insulating capacities.

What happens after a spill occurs?

Response teams often protect sensitive areas with booms (floating barriers) and help oiled wildlife by cleaning birds and fur-bearing mammals with detergent. The most common cleanup techniques are outlined below:

Containment and recovery: Surround the oil with booms and recover the oil (for cleaning and reuse) with skimmers. Skimmers separate oil from the water by:
- centripetal force -- water is heavier than oil and spins out further so the oil can be pumped out
- lifting oil on a conveyor belt off the water surface; or
- wringing out the oil that clings to oleophilic (oil-attracting) rope mops.
This technique is the most widely used as it is least destructive, but it is only 10-15% efficient under even the best circumstances.
Sorbents: Remove oil with absorbent sponges made from diaper-like substances. Some sorbents are made from natural materials -- straw, grasses, coconut husks, or wood chips.
Dispersants: These are chemicals that act like detergents to break oil up into tiny droplets to dilute the oil's effect and to provide bite-sized bits for oil-eating bacteria that occur naturally, particularly in areas that have had a history of oil spillage.
Burning: Burning is usually 95-98% efficient, but does cause black smoke. The smoke is not more toxic than if the oil were burned as intended in fuels. One gallon of oil burned this way creates the same pollutants as three logs in a fireplace or woodstove.
Bioremediation: Enhancing natural biodegradation by natural oil-eating bacteria by providing them with needed fertilizers or oxygen.
Shoreline cleanup: High-pressure hosing to rinse oil back into water to be skimmed up. This usually does more harm than good by driving the oil deeper into the beach and by killing every living thing on the beach. This was used extensively after the Exxon Valdez spill due to public and state pressure to make the beaches "look clean again," despite the known risks. Areas left alone to be weathered by winter storms were shown to be cleaner and harboring more life than those cleaned by high-pressure washing. (Short term aesthetic considerations should not override the more basic longer term ecological considerations in rehabilitating a beach.)
Do nothing: Particularly in open ocean spills, cleanup is difficult and not efficient. Wave action and photo-oxidation (from sun) helps to break oil down.

Who else might be affected by an oil spill?

Fishing industry, resorts and recreation areas, water supplies for drinking and industry.

What about prevention?

Since cleanup after an oil spill is so ineffective and so difficult, and does not always fully rehabilitate affected areas, prevention is most important. Effective prevention plans might include:

improved piloting; training of ship and tanker crews
training of storage and pipeline facility crews
enforcing pollution rules at sea
building more spill-resistant vessels
maintaining vessels and pipelines
preparing for spill response through effective training, planning (contingency planning), and practice drills.

Wildlife Dying?

2010-07-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

The number of birds being treated for oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill is rising.

But, as with sea turtles and dolphins, the vast majority of dead birds found so far don't show signs of oil.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says 62 oiled birds and three oiled sea turtles have been rescued from the Gulf and in states affected by the oil spill.
It says another 478 dead birds, 224 dead sea turtles and 25 dead marine mammals have been found.
It says that at least 90 of the birds did have oil on their feathers or bodies, but at least 338 don't have any visible oil.
Authorities said earlier that one dolphin and one sea turtle had oil on their bodies, and officials didn't know whether it got there before or after death.

National Wildlife Federation Fights Back.......

2010-07-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

The money donated to the National Wildlife Federation through response to the oil spill will support the following efforts:

1. Development and deployment of the National Wildlife Federation's Gulf Coast Surveillance Teams, a volunteer network that is being organized to monitor the coast for wildlife impacted by the oil spill. Beyond the initial surveillance needed, this effort will then shift to long term volunteer restoration programs. For more, visit: http://www.nwf.org/oilspillvolunteers

2. Restoration of vulnerable nesting and breeding grounds, as well as other delicate ecosystems found throughout the Gulf Coast for water birds, sea turtles and other animals.

3. Public education about the oil spill and its impacts on wildlife, including our online efforts at http://www.nwf.org/oilspill and informing the press and others about the impacts the oil spill is having on coastal communities and wildlife.

4. Policy work at the national and state level to support restoration of habitat in the Gulf Coast and better protection of our waters and coastlines.

For more about the National Wildlife Federation's efforts go to: http://www.nwf.org/oilspill

2010-07-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

Oil Skimmer On The Way To The Gulf

2010-07-01T15:51:00.000-07:00

With hurricane-whipped waves pushing more oil onto the Gulf of Mexico's once-white beaches, the government pinned its latest cleanup hopes Wednesday on a huge new piece of equipment: the world's largest oil-skimming vessel.

The Taiwanese-flagged former tanker named the "A Whale" is the length of 3 1/2 football fields and stands 10 stories high. It just emerged from an extensive retrofitting to prepare it specifically for the Gulf, where officials hope it will be able to suck up as much as 21 million gallons of oil-fouled water per day.

"It is absolutely gigantic. It's unbelievable," said Louisiana State University environmental sciences professor Ed Overton, who saw the ship last week in Norfolk, Va.

As the monstrous vessel made its way toward the Gulf Coast, large waves churned up by distant Hurricane Alex left Alabama beaches splattered with oil and tar balls the size of apples. The rough seas forced most smaller skimming boats into port for a second consecutive day, putting many cleanup crews at a standstill.

The ship looks like a typical tanker, but it takes in contaminated water through 12 vents on either side of the bow. The oil is then supposed to be separated from the water and transferred to another vessel. The water is channeled back into the sea.

But the ship has never been tested, and many questions remain about how it will operate. For instance, the seawater retains trace amounts of oil, even after getting filtered, so the Environmental Protection Agency will have to sign off on allowing the treated water back into the Gulf.

"This is a no-brainer," Overton said. "You're bringing in really dirty, oily water and you're putting back much cleaner water."

The vessel, owned by the Taiwanese shipping firm TMT Group, was completed as a tanker earlier this year in South Korea. But after the Gulf spill, the company's CEO and founder, Nobu Su, ordered it changed into a giant skimmer. The vessel was sent to Portugal for the refit and embarked for the Gulf as soon as it was finished.

The ship arrived Wednesday in Louisiana coastal waters, where TMT officials planned to meet with the Coast Guard to plan a tryout of the ship.

The Coast Guard will have the final say in whether the vessel can operate in the Gulf. TMT will have to come to separate terms with BP, which is paying for the cleanup.

"I don't know whether it's going to work or not, but it certainly needs to be given the opportunity," Overton said.

Meanwhile along parts of the Gulf, red flags snapped in strong gusts, warning people to stay out of the water, and long stretches of beach were stained brown from tar balls and crude oil that had been pushed as far as 60 yards from the water.

Oil deposits appeared worse than in past days, and local officials feared the temporary halt to skimming operations near the coast would only make matters worse ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend.

"I'm real worried about what is going to happen with those boats not running. It can't help," said Tony Kennon, mayor of Orange Beach, Ala.

As of Wednesday, between 71.2 million and 139 million gallons of oil have gushed into the Gulf of Mexico from the leak caused by the April 20 explosion aboard the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. The blast killed 11 oil workers on the platform, which was owned by Transocean Ltd. and leased by BP PLC.

Although skimming operations and the laying of oil-corralling booms were halted across the Gulf, vessels that collect and burn oil and gas at the site of the explosion were still operating. Efforts to drill relief wells that experts hope will stop the leak also continued unabated.

The weather delayed efforts to bring a third vessel, the Helix Producer, out to the broken well head. The ship can capture up to 25,000 barrels of oil a day and connects to the leak through a flexible hose that allows it to leave the site quickly in case of a hurricane.

Officials had hoped the vessel would be connected Wednesday, but in a news briefing Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the choppy conditions were too perilous for now. The ship was expected to get to work next week.

In Florida, lumps of tar the size of dinner plates filled a large swath of beach east of Pensacola after rough waves tossed the mess onto shore.

"The weather has hampered the cleanup. Our night crews went out there to try and verify exactly how much it was, and it's about half a mile," said Santa Rosa County spokeswoman Joy Tsubooka.

Streaks of the rust-red oil could be seen in the waves off Pensacola Beach as cleanup crews worked in the rough weather to prepare the beach for the holiday weekend.

In Louisiana, heavy rains pounded the Grand Isle region, causing flash flooding in low-lying areas. Long bolts of lightning streaked the dark skies, keeping oil-cleanup operations locked down. A pounding surf had moved some of the boom that lines the beach.

Coast Guard Cmdr. Joe Higgens said the booms protecting the region would probably take a beating because of heavy seas and storm surge, and workers will start putting the barriers back in place once the weather clears.

Richard Ambrose, director of the environmental science and engineering program at UCLA, said the decision to halt cleanup and containment efforts presents two distinct threats: That much more oil will wash up on beaches, and that the storm will be strong enough to push oil farther inland into vulnerable wetlands.

"Stormy weather can bring oil places it wouldn't have gone otherwise," Ambrose said.

On Wednesday evening, Alex strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 100 mph.

New Job Opportunities Due to Oil Spill

2010-06-30T18:55:00.000-07:00

What types of jobs may become available as a result of the spill?

1. Cleanup personnel

The cleanup effort with require Hazmat-trained workers who will deal directly with the oil cleanup, veterinarian medicine professionals who will take care of the animal life, and environmental engineers, microbiologists, and biologists who will manage the cleanup in the marsh areas.

2. Government-appointed personnel

The government will need to hire damage-assessment officials to evaluate the damage to harbors and waste-water treatment facilities. These jobs may be through FEMA or the EPA.

3. Scientists including ecotoxicologists, marine and fresh water scientists

Teams will be needed to monitor the ecosystem following the disaster for at least 20 years. There are still scientists assessing the damage of the Exxon Valdez spill that occurred over 20 years ago.

4. Landfill waste management personnel

Since the oil waste will have to be disposed of in a landfill, there will be a growing need for waste management.

5. Forensic investigators

Safety experts, structural engineers, and process engineers will be needed to perform a failure analysis and determine what happened to the rig to cause the disaster.

6. Economists

Economists will be needed to analyze the economic impact of the spill.

-- See average salaries for a veterinarian, marine biologist and a Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) engineer.

Where will the jobs be posted?

British Petroleum will list a number of environmental subcontractors that will be part of the effort. The Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana State Labor Departments also have information on many of these jobs as well as information on how to apply for Hazmat training. CareerBuilder is also listing many jobs relevant to the cleanup or you can check out this information on 400 positions open for oil spill clean up.

How important/marketable are the Hazmat skills?

Anyone dealing with the oil spill will need some level of Hazmat training. And these skills will continue to be in high demand in the future. These skills may be quite transferable to other positions such as working with environmental contractors on emergency response efforts, or in manufacturing facilities, mining facilities, energy plants, or military bases where contamination has occurred.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, environmental technicians will be among the top 10 fastest growing occupations over the next decade with a projected 30 percent growth. As we continue to become more environmentally conscious, these jobs will continue to grow.

Will this job growth have a ripple effect on the economy?

Hurricane Alex Slows Oil Spill Cleanup

2010-06-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

High winds and large waves expected in the Gulf of Mexico as the first named storm of the hurricane season passes to the west are likely to hamper efforts to contain the BP oil spill.

Tropical Storm Alex, which is reported to have killed at least 10 people in Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, is forecast to reach hurricane strength on Tuesday.

It is projected to travel well west and south of the spill, which lies about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, but BP's plans to move a third containment vessel to the site of the leak could be pushed back by about a week by high waves, a company spokesman said on Monday.

US government officials estimate that 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil are gushing from the blown-out well each day.

BP's current containment system can handle up to 28,000 barrels daily. The planned addition would have raised that to 53,000 bpd, BP said.

BP shares opened on Tuesday down 2.6pc at 300.1p.

BP admitted that the cost of the clean-up has now soared to $100m (£66m) a day, taking the total to $2.65bn. The daily rate has risen from $3m at the beginning of the crisis.

Tony Hayward's future at the helm of the oil giant was called into question on Monday after Russia's deputy prime minister claimed the beleagured oil boss is on the brink of resignation.

BP put the comment down to a "misquote" during Mr Hayward's official trip to Russia and denied that he is making way for new blood after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Igor Sechin, Russia's deputy prime minister told reporters: "We know that Tony Hayward is leaving his position and he will introduce his successor."

The comment triggered fevered speculation that BP has privately briefed Moscow that there will be change at the top of the oil company.

Mr Sechin later appeared to backtrack, saying the BP chief's future had not been discussed at a meeting on the company's TNK-BP joint venture with Russian oligarchs.

Russia's interest will add to pressure on Mr Hayward, after US President Barack Obama said last month that he would already have fired the BP boss for his handling of the crisis.

BP has frequently had a tense relationship with Russia over TNK-BP, which produces a third of the company's oil. Last week, the Russian ambassador to the UK stated Moscow would seek "guarantees that [the partnership] will continue to work", and President Dmitry Medvedev said that he fears the spill could "annihilate" BP.

Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph has learnt that a group of oil majors, thought to include Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, is preparing to present the US government with proposed changes to deepwater safety rules. The move is understood to be an attempt to pre-empt any move by America to insist on relief wells for all drilling.

BP says the leak will be plugged with a relief well by August, but the method takes several months after a spill occurs. US politicians have been calling for all operators to drill relief wells in case of an accident. This could double the cost of deepwater drilling, according to Geoffrey Maitland, professor of energy engineering at Imperial College.

Tropical Storm Alex Spells Trouble

2010-06-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

Oil cleanup could be delayed 5+ days in the gulf. The logistics of containing the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico are mind-boggling even in ideal conditions. Add a tropical storm like the one swirling in the Caribbean and things get even more complicated.

Any system with winds over 46 mph could force BP to abandon efforts to contain the flow for up to two weeks and delay the drilling of two relief wells that are the best hope of stopping it, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said Saturday, shortly after Alex became the first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Forecasts show Alex churning toward Mexico and missing the northern Gulf Coast and the spill, but officials are watching closely anyway.

"We all know the weather is unpredictable and we could have a sudden, last-minute change," Allen said.

Reuters reported that Shell Oil Co said non-essential workers from production platforms and drilling rigs in U.S.-regulated areas of Gulf of Mexico farther west were being evacuated on Saturday.

Emergency plans call for moving workers and equipment five days before gale-force winds are forecast to arrive at the half-square mile containment operation surrounding the blown-out well. Oil has been gushing since the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana on April 20, killing 11 workers.

Gulf Braces For Another Blow.

2010-06-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

As if the recent oil spill wasn't bad enough, now the gulf braces for possible hurricane weather, as tropical storm Alex gets fired up.
(June 26) -- Tropical Storm Alex, the first named storm of the 2010 Atlantic basin hurricane season, has formed in the northwestern Caribbean. The storm will bring heavy rain and wind to parts of Central America, the Yucatan Peninsula and western Caribbean islands this weekend and will likely redevelop in the southern Gulf of Mexico next week, possibly becoming the first hurricane of the season.

As of Saturday afternoon, Alex, located 310 miles south-southwest of Zihuatanejo, Mexico, had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph. Tropical Storm warnings are in effect for the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula and the the coast of Belize, as well as some of islands in the western Caribbean.

Heavy rain is often the greatest threat to life and property with a tropical storm, and that's the case with Tropical Storm Alex. As it slowly moves northwestward toward a landfall in northern Belize or the Yucatan Peninsula, more than six inches of rain is possible over a broad area in the Yucatan, Central America and Caribbean Islands. Local amounts of greater than 10 inches are possible.

This amount of rain falling during a relatively short time can result in serious flash flooding and mudslides.

Questions for U.S. interests include where the storm will re-emerge after landfall, whether the system will be able to then intensify into the first hurricane of the season and whether it will affect the region of the Gulf dealing with the massive oil spill.

Meteorologists do not have the answers to those questions yet.

Oil Spill Disaster 2010

2010-06-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

The worst oil spill ever, is what some are saying about the gulf of Mexico's off shore oil spill. Will the environment be able to make a rebound after such a devastating blow? The spill stems from a sea floor oil gusher that resulted from the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion. The explosion killed 11 platform workers and injured 17 others.

The gusher, now estimated by the quasi-official Flow Rate Technical Group to be flowing at 35,000 to 60,000 barrels (1,500,000 to 2,500,000 US gallons; 5,600 to 9,500 cubic metres) of crude oil per day, originates from a deepwater wellhead 5,000 feet (1,500 m) below the ocean surface.The exact spill flow rate is uncertain due to the difficulty of installing measurement devices at that depth and is a matter of ongoing debate.The resulting oil slick covers a surface area of at least 2,500 square miles (6,500 km2), with the exact size and location of the slick fluctuating from day to day depending on weather conditions. Scientists have also reported immense underwater plumes of oil not visible at the surface.

During March and April 2010, several platform workers and supervisors expressed concerns with well control. At approximately 9:45 p.m. CDT on April 20, 2010, methane gas from the well, under high pressure, shot up and out of the drill column marine riser, expanded onto the platform, and then ignited and exploded.Fire then engulfed the platform.Most of the workers were evacuated by lifeboats or were airlifted out by helicopter,but eleven workers were never found despite a three-day Coast Guard search operation, and are presumed to have died in the explosion.Efforts by multiple ships to douse the flames were unsuccessful. After burning furiously for approximately 36 hours, the Deepwater Horizon sank on the morning of April 22, 2010.

On the afternoon of April 22, a large oil slick began to spread at the former rig site.Two remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) unsuccessfully attempted to cap the well.BP announced that it was deploying a ROV to the site to assess whether oil was flowing from the well.On April 23, a ROV reportedly found no oil leaking from the sunken rig and no oil flowing from the well.Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry expressed cautious optimism of zero environmental impact, stating that no oil was emanating from either the wellhead or the broken pipes and that oil spilled from the explosion and sinking was being contained.The following day, April 24, Landry announced that a damaged wellhead was indeed leaking oil into the Gulf and described it as "a very serious spill".

As of June 25, BP has not given a cause for the explosion.

Short-term efforts:

Oil containment dome under construction in Port Fourchon, Louisiana at Wild Well Control on April 26.BP engineers have attempted a number of techniques to control or stop the oil spill. The first and fastest was to place a 125-tonne (280,000 lb) container dome over the largest of the well leaks and pipe the oil to a storage vessel on the surface. BP deployed the system on May 7–8 but it failed when gas leaking from the pipe combined with cold water to form methane hydrate crystals that blocked up the steel canopy at the top of the dome. The excess buoyancy of the crystals clogged the opening at the top of the dome where the riser was to be connected.

Following the failure, on May 11 a smaller containment dome, dubbed a "top hat", was lowered to the seabed. Like the first containment dome, the dome has been deployed successfully in the past but not at such a depth. The "top hat" dome originally was planned as BP's next attempt to control the spill and there has been no explanation for why BP engineers decided to try the insertion tube first.

On May 14 engineers began the process of positioning a 4-inch (100 mm) wide riser insertion tube tool into the 21-inch (530 mm) wide burst pipe. After three days, BP reported the tube was working. Collection rates varied daily between 1,000 and 5,000 barrels (42,000 and 210,000 US gallons; 160 and 790 cubic metres), the average being 2,000 barrels (84,000 US gallons; 320 cubic metres) a day, as of May 21. The collected gas rate ranged between 4 and 17 million cubic feet per day (110×10^3 and 480×10^3 m3/d). The gas was flared and oil stored on the board of drillship Discoverer Enterprise. 924,000 US gallons (22,000 barrels) of oil was collected before removal of the tube so shutdown efforts could begin.

BP next tried to shut down the well completely using a technique called "top kill". The process involves pumping heavy drilling fluids through two 3-inch (7.6 cm) lines into the blowout preventer that sits on top of the wellhead. This would first restrict the flow of oil from the well, which then could be sealed permanently with cement. The top kill procedure, approved by the Coast Guard on May 25, commenced on May 26 and, according to BP sources, while failure could be evident in minutes or hours it might take "a day or two" before its success could be determined. On May 27 Admiral Thad Allen indicated that engineers had succeeded in stopping the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico. He further stated that the well still had low pressure, but cement would be used to cap the well permanently as soon as the pressure hit zero. However, BP officials said it was not possible to tell how far down the well the mud may have reached and declined to speculate on the odds of actually stopping the flow. "We have some indications of partial bridging which is good news. I think it's probably 48 hours before we have a conclusive view." On May 29 BP announced that the attempt to clog the ruptured oil well with "junk" had failed.

The Q4000 and the Discoverer Enterprise during the failed top kill procedureAfter three consecutive failed attempts at the top kill, on May 29 BP moved on to their next contingency option, the Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) Cap Containment System. The operational plan first involved cutting and then removing the damaged riser from the top of the failed blowout preventer to leave a cleanly-cut pipe at the top of the BOP's LMRP. The cap is designed to be placed over the pipe and connected to a riser from the Discoverer Enterprise drillship, with the intention of capturing most of the oil and gas flowing from the well. During the cutting of the pipe, the diamond blade saw became stuck and was later freed, but BP had to use shears instead and the cut is "ragged", meaning the cap would be harder to fit. The cap was finally attached on June 3. By June 6, Adm. Thad Allen estimated that the amount of oil captured had increased to 10,000 barrels (420,000 US gallons; 1,600 cubic metres) per day. BP's CEO Tony Hayward stated his opinion that the amount captured was "probably the vast majority of the oil." However, the live stream of the oil escaping from the capped pipe did not appear to be substantially reduced and Ira Leifer, a member of the government team that estimated the flow rate, claimed that the well pipe was clearly gushing more oil than before the cutting of the pipe to put the cap in place.

Only time will tell if the leak can be stopped, but at what cost to the environment.