Major oil spill feared on Mississippi River (pic)

[donsu]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9175553/


-snip-

In a statement late Friday, the department said that “the slick is visible and is leaking into the river from an area near two storage tanks. Because the area is not accessible at the moment, there is no way to verify that the tanks are the cause of the leak. Also, there is no confirmation on how much of the product, which appears to petroleum based, has leaked.”

-snip-

The slick is just north of Venice, a town in the Mississippi River Delta located 65 miles southeast of New Orleans.

-snip-

Kelly said the department still doesn't know who owns the tanks and therefore can’t be sure how much oil is in them.

-snip-

Coast Guard officials in St. Louis said they were looking into the report but that their priority was search and rescue in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The state department added that it hoped to soon have two helicopters dedicated to assessing wider areas for environmental problems.




sigh

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Wow! Another big cleanup contract for Halliburton!!! $$$$$$$$$$

[MADem]

2. Fuck, they need to deploy boom, get some skimmers, and some pumps

there ASAP. If they can boom the leak before it spreads too much, they can at least contain the oil. Then comes the task of removing it from the water, and that is a MAJOR, backbreaking pain in the ass.

I have worked medium oil spills before, and it took DAYS, even when we identified the source immediately and took swift, proactive measures. This looks to me like many, many LARGE spills, and is going to take a massive amount of manpower and equipment to clean up.

[rzemanfl]

3. I read these tanks might hold 2million barrels! n/t

[MADem]

4. Deep boom, lots of skimmers, and pumps, pumps, pumps!!!!

To say nothing of people, people, people!!!!! Believe it or not, it CAN be contained and the environmental insult mitigated, but they need to move NOW.

Some of the surface material will evaporate, but depending on the weight and grade, it could kill alot of fish, shore creatures, and really screw up the waterway and shoreline for some time to come if they do not get off their asses immediately.