Gulf oil leak from rig explosion puts more than 400 species in potential harm's way

[seafan]

God, this is going to be a catastrophe.



Times-Picayune archive
An ibis flies through the Tiger Ridge marsh near the Caernarvon freshwater diversion. The array of life that depends on a clean Gulf of Mexico and functioning coastal estuaries can stun even those who make a living studying the area.



Gulf oil leak from rig explosion puts more than 400 species in potential harm's way

By Bob Marshall, The Times-Picayune
April 28, 2010, 10:27PM

Advocates for preserving Louisiana's battered coastal ecosystem are sometimes accused of hyperbole in assessing its diversity and productivity. But that criticism may end after the list of species coastal scientists said are threatened by the oil spill moving toward the coast reached more than 400.

From whales and tuna to shrimp and neo-tropical songbirds, the array of life that depends on a clean Gulf of Mexico and functioning coastal estuaries can stun even those who make a living studying the area. Many of those experts are shuddering at the possible consequences of a months-long oil spill washing up on the coast.

"When you stop and begin considering everything that this could impact, it really is stunning," said Karen Foote, biologist administrator with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.


A complete list of coastal wildlife at risk from an oil spill


Because of the influence of wind and tides pushing the oil northward, the area in harm's way reaches from the deep-water Gulf of Mexico across sandy beach fronts into the intricate maze of the nation's largest coastal marshes, ending only on the northernmost stretches of the freshwater wetlands dominated by cattails and cypress trees. Because of those varied environmental regimes, the area is one of the world's most productive fish and wildlife habitats.

The area under threat produces the largest total seafood landings in the lower 48 states, is a vital wintering or resting spot for more than 70 percent of the nation's waterfowl, is used by all 110 neo-tropical migratory songbirds, and produces 50 percent of the nation's wild shrimp crop, 35 percent of its blue claw crabs and 40 percent of its oysters. (Researchers) say 90 percent of all the marine species in the Gulf of Mexico depend on coastal estuaries at some point in their lives, and most of those estuaries are in Louisiana -- endangered by an oil spill that could last months.

"This is a really important time for so many species in this ecosystem, because they're just begun spawning and nesting," said Melanie Driscoll, a Audubon Society staffer who is director of bird conservation for the Louisiana Coastal Initiative.

Peak nesting, migration season

This is an especially critical time for bird life because it is peak nesting and migration times for hundreds of species. For the next two weeks the Gulf of Mexico will be the O'Hare Airport of the neo-tropical bird world with Louisiana's coast a main runway. A study by LSU reported as many as 25 million neo-tropical birds can cross the Gulf each day during this two-week peak, many of them making their first rest stops on the Louisiana a coast and barrier islands.

.....

And this clip does not include the marine species in danger such as whales, turtles, dolphins, shrimp, oysters, tuna wahoo, billfish, trout, crabs, drum, flounder, snapper.....

"I'm worried about mottled ducks, but if this thing lasts that long, I'm just as worried about the four to five million ducks that will be trying to spend next winter here,' said Reynolds.

"What happens when a large amount of oil gets in these freshwater areas, kills these plants and remains in the soil? What does that do for the wintering habitat for waterfowl? What does that do for anything?

"This ecosystem is just so important to so many species, it gets pretty scary."

And we humans, in our arrogance and our vast ignorance, are putting the entire planet in peril.

[Submariner]

1. Sub-standard crappy engineering

The blow-out preventer valve system should have been designed to handle any worse case scenario going on above it. There is no excuse for this continuing spill other than rotten engineering by the greedy. That valve should have been designed to fail in the shut position.

The damage that is going to occur to the coastal ecology is a damn shame and did not have to happen. All oil company bonuses and profits should goes towards the cost of containment and cleanup.

Next step, nationalize the oil companies and take charge of what the oil companies can't, or won't.

[pitohui]

2. how do you suggest we nationalizel BP????

it's british petroleum, hon, we're not the nation in question -- louisiana is still one of the 50 united states not part of the uk much as i for one would love to have the benefits of uk citizenship

i also wish there were simple answers to simple questions, guess what, that's isn't the way of the world

the day you engineer a way that an accident simply cant happen no matter what, you won't just be bill gates or warren buffet, you'll be god...so why don't you do what you suggest and show us how?

oh, because it isn't physically possible to create a world where no accident happens ever? thank you, that was my point

[seafan]

3. Report: Deepwater Horizon rig was reportedly not equipped with a shutoff switch

.....because the U. S. "regulations" don't require them.


W T F



Updates, April 29, 2010:


Washington Post

.....

Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, said in a "Today" show interview Thursday that the company welcomes the offer of U.S. military help. He did not, however, specify what type of help might be coming.

On Wednesday, the Coast Guard said the company corralled the thickest areas of the oil slick inside fireproof booms, lighted it late in the afternoon and burned it for 28 minutes. By burning off several thousand gallons of oil, the Coast Guard said, it could limit damage to coastal areas.

The unusual strategy has been used for damaged tankers in World War II, in an oil spill off Britain and in rare cases on inland waters in Louisiana and Texas. But a burn off U.S. shores and the prospect of oil landing on the gulf coastline could become powerful symbols of the perils of offshore drilling, just as President Obama and Congress appear set to open new areas to offshore oil and gas exploration.

.....

At its current rate, the spill could surpass by next week the size of the 1969 Santa Barbara spill that helped lead to the far-reaching moratorium on oil and gas drilling off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, a ban that Obama recently said he wants to modify. It would take about 260 days for this incident to exceed the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, but it took several weeks for a similar oil well blowout to be brought under control off the coast of Australia last year.

.....

A BP official said controlled burns can get rid of 50 to 99 percent of oil within a limited area, but Robert Bea, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California at Berkeley who worked on controlling the damage of the Santa Barbara spill, warned that in open seas, companies have generally captured less than 10 percent of oil spilled.

"It's premature to say this is catastrophic," said Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry. "I will say that this is very serious."

(Pardon us for noticing, but this Coast Guard official has not inspired confidence in her assessments.)




ABC News:

With five times more oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico than originally estimated and the price tag for last week's explosion predicted at $8 billion, questions about BP's response and level of responsibility are mounting.
Doug Suttles, the energy company's chief operating officer, admitted some responsibility for the disaster "because we're the lease holder," but assigning blame, he said, should come after the cleanup.

.....

The new leak estimate is about 5,000 barrels a day, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

.....

The Deepwater Horizon rig was reportedly not equipped with a shutoff switch that could have been used to try to close the well. Such switches are not required in the United States, but are used in other countries such as Norway and Brazil.

But Suttles said the rig was equipped with some safety devices that should have prevented this kind of spill.
"They didn't do that, we don't know why they didn't do that and ultimately we will find out," he said.

Suttles was quick to point out that another company was operating the rig at the time of the explosion, not London-based BP.

"I can say that we had equipment required by the regulations," he said. "We don't know why, when the accident occurred, and I should probably clarify, the lease we are drilling on is owed by BP and a few other companies."

.....

Oil from the area is called sweet crude, but LSU's Overton said the name is deceptive. It contains heavy compounds, called asphaltenes, that do not burn easily or evaporate, even in the warm climate off Louisiana.
"When you've got a spill like this," said Overton, "there are three things you can do. You can burn it, scoop it up out of the water, or use chemical dispersants to break it up. This oil is not particularly good with any of those three."

"With light crude," he said, "you could burn most of it -- 70 or 80 percent. With heavy crude, I don't know. I'm not optimistic."

These are the questions I want answered at this point:


1. Who are the other companies in addition to BP that own this lease?

2. Which company was operating this rig at the time of the explosion?

3. Why does the U. S. not require the use of shutoff switches to close these wells, as is required in Norway and Brazil? What year did that regulation fall by the wayside?

4. How many oil rigs off our shores are not equipped with shut off switches?



When we obtain answers to these questions, we will be a good distance down the trail of responsibility for this ecological disaster.

.....

Shorebirds and coastal species such as pelicans and cranes are nesting on beach fronts, barrier islands and marsh rookeries, many directly in the path of the approaching slick. Mottled ducks, the state's native duck species, is in the midst of its nesting season.

Larry Reynolds, waterfowl study leader for the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said a large number of mottled ducks had already hatched, and hens have begun leading their broods into shallow marsh ponds.

"With the forecast we have for 20 mile per hour winds out of the south, that oil could be carried well past shorelines and deep into the marshes where those duck and chicks are," Reynolds said.

.....

Marine species in harms way include mammals such as whales and dolphins as well as turtles, all of which must surface to breath and may inhale oil. But tuna, wahoo, and billfish and other pedators will be feeding on smaller species that could be coated in the oil.

Inshore fisheries are also at a very critical al period in their life cycles. Shrimp have just begun to grow in the interior marshes, oysters have begun to reproduce, speckled trout have started their summer-long spawning season.

Oil that settles onto the bottom could be ingested by micro-organisms that are important to the larval and post-larval stages of shrimp, crabs and numerous commercially and important fish species, from trout and reds to drum, flounder and red snapper.

If the spill were just a weekend-long event, the damage could be severe but short-lived, biologists said. But with officials projecting the flow could last two months, they have grave concerns about long-term effects.

.....