- Sept 3, 2010 - BP replaces failed blowout preventer ...
- Aug 26, 2010 - BP employing unmanned 'Wave Gliders' ...
- Aug 16, 2010 - With oil well capped, scientists begin assessing ...
- Aug 15, 2010 - President Obama and First Family visit Gulf Coast
- Aug 11, 2010 - HRI's Larry McKinney says Gulf will recover
- Aug 4, 2010 - GMF Director quoted by NPR in oil spill pod cast
- Aug 4, 2010 - BP says 'Static Kill' holding back flow of Gulf oil
- Aug 4, 2010 - Federal report details fate of oil from BP spill
- Aug 4, 2010 - Report says most of Gulf oil spill is gone
BP replaces failed blowout preventer on damaged oil well
Copyright 2010 Environment News Service. All rights reserved.
HOUSTON, Texas, September 3, 2010 (ENS) -
Under the direction of the federal science team and U.S. government engineers, BP has lifted
the damaged blowout preventer from its position atop the cemented Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico and replaced it with a fully
functioning and tested blowout preventer.
National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen said today, "We will continue to closely monitor progress as the [failed] blowout preventer,
which along with the latching device weighs approximately one million pounds, is lifted to the surface in the next 24-36 hours."
Yesterday, BP removed another set of valves called the capping stack, which was used to shut in the well on July 15. These procedures were
undertaken in accordance with specific conditions Admiral Allen set forth last week in a directive to BP.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE ONLINE AT ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
BP employing unmanned 'Wave Gliders' to measure oil spill impacts
Copyright 2010 Press Register. All rights reserved. By Brendan Kirby
THEODORE, AL - August 26, 2010 - BP PLC officials showed off a gadget called the Wave Glider Wednesday, the latest tool in their efforts to measure the long-term impact of nation’s largest oil spill.
Roger Hine, president and CEO of Liquid Robotics, and Mike Utsler,
chief operating officer of BP's Gulf Coast Restoration Organization,
discuss the Wave Glider with the press Wednesday Aug. 25, 2010 at
Construction Solutions International.
(Press-Register/Victor Calhoun) |
Manufactured by Liquid Robotics, the device can cruise through the water on a pre-programmed course for up to a year or, at a moment’s notice, can be given new instructions remotely from shore. It has a global positioning satellite antenna, a weather station and sensors that can detect dispersed oil and microscopic phytoplankon that makes up the bottom of the food chain.BP officials said the data will help them monitor the effects of the spill and respond to them.
“The neat thing is, it never runs out of fuel,” the California company’s CEO, Roger Hine, told BP’s top representative to the Unified Area Command.
The device, which looks like a surfboard, is propelled through the water by converting even the smallest waves into energy. Solar panels produce all of the power necessary to operate all of the electronics.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE ONLINE AT AL.COM
With oil well capped, scientists begin assessing spill's environmental toll
Copyright 2010 Press Register. All rights reserved.
MOBILE, AL - August 16, 2010 - With the Deepwater Horizon well capped, federal officials have turned their energies toward holding BP accountable
for the environmental damage caused by hundreds of millions of gallons of oil loosed into the Gulf.
An oil soaked pelican takes flight off the coast of Louisiana in
May. Scientists are beginning to calculate the toll of the oil spill
on the Gulf Coast environment.
(Gerald Herbert/AP) |
An army of federal scientists 300 strong is focused on the area surrounding Mobile. Hundreds more work in Mississippi and Louisiana.
The goal is to create an official reckoning of the environmental toll, from the most obvious -- 3,761 dead birds and counting, according to BP --
to losses so subtle that no one is even sure how to measure them. How, for instance, do you attach a dollar sign to trillions of dead planktonic
organisms that can be identified only with a microscope?
Complicating the process, BP has an army, too, with scientists spread along the coastline from Texas to Florida hunting for the same answers
that the government seeks. Both sides say that they hope to reach a consensus on what has been damaged and what it will take to begin to restore the Gulf of Mexico.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE ONLINE AT AL.COM
President Obama and First Family
visit Gulf Coast
Copyright 2010 Deepwater Horizon Response. All rights reserved.
President Obama makes a statement to the press on Gulf Coast recovery plans in Panama City, Florida, on August 14. (Pete Souza/White House)
WASHINGTON – August 15, 2010 - The President and his family wrapped up their vacation in Panama City, Fla., taking a boat tour of St. Andrews
Bay and stopping for ice cream before departing for a return flight to Washington. Yesterday, the President remarked about the beauty of the Gulf Coast
and the vital importance of the tourism industry across the region.
“I also want to point out that as a result of the cleanup effort, beaches all along the Gulf Coast are clean, they are safe, and they are open for business.
That’s one of the reasons Michelle, Sasha, and I are here. The Governor and the mayors and others invited us down to enjoy the beach and the water — to let
our fellow Americans know that they should come on down here. It is spectacular. Not just to support the region; come down here because it’s just a
beautiful place to visit,” the President said.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE ONLINE AT DEEPWATER HORIZON RESPONSE
HRI's Larry McKinney says
Gulf will recover from oil disaster
Copyright 2010 Caller-Times. All rights reserved. By Jaime Powell
CORPUS CHRISTI, TX — August 11, 2010 - The good news is the Gulf of Mexico mostly will recover after 184 gallons of oil spewed into it.
The bad: 31 years after a similar oil spill in the Gulf, we haven't learned much about preventing, containing or cleaning up environmental disasters.
That's how Larry McKinney, director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, assessed the Gulf's current state to about
100 World Affairs Council luncheon attendees Wednesday.
"It's a resilient body of water," said McKinney, who heads the institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico mirrors a 1979 Ixtoc rig spill off Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula that spilled 140 million gallons during 10 months, he said.
Americans must work to maintain the health of the Gulf for it to survive these disasters, he said.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE ONLINE IN CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES
GMF Director quoted in NPR pod cast
Copyright 2010 NPR. All rights reserved. By Phoebe Judge
August 4, 2010 - A federal report released Wednesday finds that
most of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico poses little additional risk to people
and the environment. It's a view not necessarily shared by people living in
the affected area. [Parts of the pod cast have been
omitted.]
Dr. QUENTON DOKKEN (Executive Director, Gulf of Mexico Foundation): "This is
what we've all been waiting for and watching for and keeping our fingers
crossed. And, you know, over the last two weeks as we've moved towards this
point, we've all been excited, but cautiously excited about it. And now it
seems to be working and this is a big step forward."
READ ENTIRE TRANSCROPT ONLINE AT NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
BP says 'Static Kill'
holding back flow of Gulf oil
Copyright 2010 AP. All rights reserved. By Gerald Herbert
August 4, 2010 - President Obama said Wednesday that the worst oil spill in U.S. history was nearing an end after BP reported initial
success in killing the ruptured well and a new government study painted a more optimistic picture of damage to the Gulf of Mexico.
The Helix Q4000 (center), the vessel being used to conduct the
"static kill" procedure, was surrounded by ships Tuesday at the site
of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
(Gerald Herbert/AP) |
Obama said he was heartened that "the long battle to stop the leak and contain the oil is finally is finally coming to an end" after BP announced
hours earlier that its "static kill" had stoppered the flow of oil.
Crews began injecting heavy mud through the temporary cap and into the mile-deep well on Tuesday afternoon. After eight hours, they managed to achieve
what engineers call a "static condition," in which the pressure of the mud from the surface and that of the oil pushing from the bottom are equalized.
"It's a milestone. It's a step toward the killing of the well," said BP spokeswoman Sheila Williams.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE ONLINE AT NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
Report details fate of oil from BP spill
Copyright 2010 Deepwater Horizon Response. All rights reserved.
WASHINGTON – April 4, 2010 - The vast majority of the oil from the BP oil spill has either evaporated or been burned, skimmed, recovered from the
wellhead or dispersed using chemicals – much of which is in the process of being degraded. Much of this is the direct result of the federal response efforts.
A third (33 percent) of the total amount of oil released in the Deepwater Horizon/BP spill was captured or mitigated by the Unified Command recovery
operations, including burning, skimming, chemical dispersion and direct recovery from the wellhead, according to a federal science report released today.
An additional 25 percent of the total oil naturally evaporated or dissolved, and 16 percent was dispersed naturally into microscopic droplets.
The residual amount, just over one quarter (26 percent), is either on or just below the surface as residue and weathered tarballs, has washed ashore or
been collected from the shore, or is buried in sand and sediments. Dispersed and residual oil remain in the system until they degrade through a number
of natural processes. Early indications are that the oil is degrading quickly.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE ONLINE DEEPWATER HORIZON RESPONSE
Report says most of Gulf oil spill gone
Copyright 2010 AP. All rights reserved.
August 4, 2010 - BP claimed a key milestone Wednesday in the effort to plug its blown-out well as a government report said much of the spilled oil is gone, heartening officials who have taken heat during the tricky cleanup but leaving some Gulf Coast residents still skeptical.
BP PLC reported that mud forced down the well overnight was pushing the crude back down to its source for the first time since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded off Louisiana on April 20, killing 11 workers.
And a federal report being released Wednesday indicated that only about a quarter of the spilled oil remains in the Gulf, with the rest having been contained, cleaned up or otherwise disappeared.
President Barack Obama, while noting that people's lives "have been turned upside down," declared in Washington that the operation was "finally close to coming to an end."
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE ONLINE AT NOLA.COM
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