GOM Oil Spill - BP Stops Oil Leak

[Numlock]

What's with all these morons frolicking and swimming at the oil-covered beaches? Even bringing their kids. Hope they enjoy leukemia.

[Nate-Gillson]

What's with all these morons frolicking and swimming at the oil-covered beaches? Even bringing their kids. Hope they enjoy leukemia.

No wonder why the affected beaches are closed. I read that petroleom is toxic to almost all lifeforms (including humans).

[Stephanie]

I really don't get people allowing their children swim at beaches that have been contaminated.

[HURAKAN]

Latest

[lurkey]

Intel Supercomputer Predicts Gulf Spill Atlantic Bound

BP may not know where oil from the Gulf gusher will go next, but Intel does. The Xeon-powered Encanto supercomputer, located at Intel's Rio Rancho campus, is one of the fastest supercomputers in the world. And all of its 3,500 quad-core processors are devoted to tracking the potential paths of the BP disaster.

Encanto started working on the oil disaster just a few days after it began, but progress has been slow-going. The first six simulations alone sucked up over 250,000 hours of computer time using the Parallel Ocean program, a 3-D ocean circulation model design at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Intel researchers plugged in the latitude and longitude of the Gulf disaster to see where an electronic "dye tracer" dropped in the water might land. The results aren't encouraging. Once the oil moves past Florida to the Gulf Stream, it could carry oil up to 3,000 miles each month--to the East Coast and beyond.

Researchers working on the project say that the supercomputer can't provide exact calculations. The physics involved in the interaction between oil and water are impossible for the computer to calculate (researchers are working on that problem as we speak), and dispersants muddy the predictions even further. But in an interview with Wall Street Journal (PDF), one oceanographer working with Encanto stressed its reliability:

From these simulations we can say with a high degree of certainty that it is very likely sometime in the next six months that oil from this spill will get into the Atlantic," said oceanographer Synte Peacock of the NCAR, who is running the project. "We can say that when it happens, it will be fast, much faster than anything we have seen so far," she said.

Grim news, perhaps, but making some sense of the disaster's direction does offer some comfort. If only we knew how to stop the toxic undersea oil cloud from creeping toward our shores.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DS6smLuzBk&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAiG-TPYIFM&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[IvanSurvivor]

Is anyone watching the live ROV feeds right now? The new cap is being positioned, but I don't see oil anymore? Are the cameras positioned in a way that I can't see oil or is it possible that this actually might be working?

[gtalum]

At the moment, it looks like no oil is being released. They're supposed to be testing the well integrity to determine whether they can just seal the well completely (preferred), or whether they need to start producing oil like mad at the sUrface (not as good, since they'd have to stop for bad weather).

Either way, hopefully the leak is stopped and we can concentrate on cleanup.

[CajunMama]

I see oil escaping on the Skandi ROV2 camera

BP Live Feeds

[ConvergenceZone]

Yep, I see the oil escaping too from the ROV2...Much more contained than it was before though. They seem pretty confident about stopping it completely this time around, unless the relief wells are drilled and then the permanent fix comes into play. Then the massive cleanup begins.

[lurkey]

Round-up of the pictures of the damage caused by the oil spill

[MGC]

There are clean up crews working the beach in Harrison County Mississippi every day and evening. The oil is being scooped up and put in bags. It is being disposed of in the county garbage dump owned by waste management. County official didn't approve the disposal, it was done higher up in the government food chain. Wonder how long it will take the oil to leak into the ground water?

I was over in Pensacola Beach last Friday to see the Blue Angles. While I didn't observe any oil you could tell the beach had oil on it. The sand was not the usual brilliant white color but a stained white color. Several shells I picked up had oil residue on them. I wonder how many years it will take to clean up all the oil now in the GOM?........MGC

[vbhoutex]

There are clean up crews working the beach in Harrison County Mississippi every day and evening. The oil is being scooped up and put in bags. It is being disposed of in the county garbage dump owned by waste management. County official didn't approve the disposal, it was done higher up in the government food chain. Wonder how long it will take the oil to leak into the ground water?

I was over in Pensacola Beach last Friday to see the Blue Angles. While I didn't observe any oil you could tell the beach had oil on it. The sand was not the usual brilliant white color but a stained white color. Several shells I picked up had oil residue on them. I wonder how many years it will take to clean up all the oil now in the GOM?........MGC

I thought disposal like that(bolded) was illegal?? The media needs to know about that. If it was indeed approved it was approved at the very top of the government food chain.
Your second paragraph sickens me as I grew up on those pristine sugar white beaches at Pensacola Beach. All because of the greed of man which lead to cutting corners that shouldn't have been cut.

[gtalum]

The "bright side", if there is one, is that the GoM is swarming with oil-eating bacteria. The oil residue will disappear much more quickly than it has in the cold Prince William Sound in Alaska.

[Category 5]

There are clean up crews working the beach in Harrison County Mississippi every day and evening. The oil is being scooped up and put in bags. It is being disposed of in the county garbage dump owned by waste management. County official didn't approve the disposal, it was done higher up in the government food chain. Wonder how long it will take the oil to leak into the ground water?

I was over in Pensacola Beach last Friday to see the Blue Angles. While I didn't observe any oil you could tell the beach had oil on it. The sand was not the usual brilliant white color but a stained white color. Several shells I picked up had oil residue on them. I wonder how many years it will take to clean up all the oil now in the GOM?........MGC

Wait a second, that cannot possibly be legal....

[gtalum]

Wait a second, that cannot possibly be legal....

That depends on several factors, not the least of which is whether or not the local landfill is capable of dealing with petroleum waste. I suspect it is capable of that. Every area has at least one landfill capable of dealing with this stuff. Petroleum waste is generated and dealt with every day all across the country. Most of it is incinerated. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the "dump" discussed here has an incinerator.

[fwbbreeze]

Wait a second, that cannot possibly be legal....

That depends on several factors, not the least of which is whether or not the local landfill is capable of dealing with petroleum waste. I suspect it is capable of that. Every area has at least one landfill capable of dealing with this stuff. Petroleum waste is generated and dealt with every day all across the country. Most of it is incinerated. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the "dump" discussed here has an incinerator.

GT is right. I sat through a lengthy presentation given by WM and certain landfills are capable of handling this type of waste. In fact it sounded to me like most of WM landfills had this capability along the gulf coast.

This is not something that is totally new to the landfill system. Pertoleum waste is an ongoing disposal situation...this one is just on a larger scale

[Category 5]

Wait a second, that cannot possibly be legal....

That depends on several factors, not the least of which is whether or not the local landfill is capable of dealing with petroleum waste. I suspect it is capable of that. Every area has at least one landfill capable of dealing with this stuff. Petroleum waste is generated and dealt with every day all across the country. Most of it is incinerated. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the "dump" discussed here has an incinerator.

Alright that makes sense.

[gtalum]

They're also taking oiled sand to asphalt plants, if there are any nearby. The roads you drive on starting this summer may be paved partially with oil from the spill.

[Category 5]

They're also taking oiled sand to asphalt plants, if there are any nearby. The roads you drive on starting this summer may be paved partially with oil from the spill.

Meh, at least they ain't wasting it I guess.

[KWT]

Yeah its not much of a comfort for people but at least if a little of it does go to good things then thats good.

Amazing to think the cost is already upto 2.65 billion, lets just keep the tropics away for a little longer yet.