After a month of spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico the crude oil finally made its' way to the Louisiana marsh lands. An area where fish spawn and costal birds nest. It's an area that also protects the cities against hurricanes by providing a buffer against high winds and tides. Many groups had spent thousands of hours trying to rebuild that area by planting mangrove trees which can survive in salt water. Oil for them is another story.
BP is planning to do a "top kill" which should be ready by Sunday. That is shooting mud at the leaking pipe to stop the flow then covering that with cement. Good luck with that one. I've heard estimates of the pressure coming out of that pipe. First BP said it was something in the neighborhood of 1400 psi. Yesterday they said it was more like 13,000 psi. I've dealt with hydrolic lines that were 3600 psi. Not something you want to be around when they fail.
To date some 6 million gallons have leaked into the Gulf. If they can't get the flow rate slowed then at that rate there'll be 18 million gallons by the time they get the relief wells finished in August. I'm sure at that point it will take an effort of all the oil companies foreign and domestic to put a dent in this problem because when the oil hits that Gulf current it can travel as far as Britain killing a good chunk of the fish and other marine life in the process. Oh and something I forgot about. When the oil gets lifted into the atmosphere by the process of natural evaporation you get a nice oily rain. That happened during that European spill some years back.
My suggestion in all this would be to get a bunch of oil tankers some vacuum rigs and a whole lot of oil water seperators and have at it. What they're doing now is nothing more than trying to blot up a swimming pool with a cotton ball.
Keep your drums upright and your pipes covered.
13 comments:
I am disgusted with BP. They are still lying and downplaying this. Thick oil is now in the Mississippi river delta to miles in. I am thinking those massive underwater plumes are going under the booms and entering the Delta and estuaries.
BP blames TransOcean they blame Haliburton they blame BP.
What we have here is a failure to communicate. And a failure to take responsibility.
I hear what you guys are saying and agree. Thing is I'm also big time pissed at Our Government. What the hell, seems they're standing on the sideline like regular observers watching a freaken parade.
Send out a call for help with other nations. Do something! BTW shut down the Atlantic drilling platform until we figure out what to do what that possible nightmare. Damn it, we have to be smarter than that.
I said a week ago that it is going to wind up in the Mediterranian before it is said and done,any takers?
I have five bucks says it does.
Busted
Hydraulics, let's see, I've worked with them some. My wood splitter for example is a 20 ton unit, that's 40,000 pounds of pressure.
The hydraulic pressure from the pump isn't that much of course, the size of the ram is what multiples it to 20 ton. The pump pressure is 3500 psi and when I'm splitting a heavy knot the flexible hose is almost as stiff as a pipe.
I'm pretty sure that it'll be a waste of time trying to push liquid mud and cement into a high pressure pipe using a delivery pipe half the size it is, based on what I know about such things.
Shoot, the first containment box they put over it was something like a 100 ton wasn't it? And it didn't slow it down any.
I don't think it can be stopped without squeezing the pipe closed with explosives and that would have to be done just right to work.
My suggestion in all this would be to get a bunch of oil tankers some vacuum rigs and a whole lot of oil water seperators and have at it.
For the next 20 years? Na, it has to be plugged off somehow. I'm not taking any bets that drilling another well into the same oil deposit will help either, I don't think it will reduce the pressure on the busted pipe that much.
To shove something into that pipe that you could expand would require a hell of a lot more powerful sub than any there now.
Oh what the hell, I only buy shrimp from the North anyway.
On the bright side, Southern vacations may become affordable.
Once again, we are going to whip the Souths stupid asses for doing stupid shit, hahahaha
Last I heard, BP stands for British Petroleum.
England is wayy the fuck north of the Mason Dixon line.
BBC's skepticism is justified. I don't get how pumping mud on the leak would work. If the oil is coming out forcefully, under pressure, it seems to me the oil would just shoot up and through the mud being dumped.
I think BP mostly wants to be seen as doing one thing after another, whether those things stand much chance of helping or not.
I wonder if lowering a steel funnel into the pipe, one with a few iron or lead rods in the narrow part of its opening, then lowering a shaped-charge projectile just over the funnel, then firing the projectile down into the pipe, might drive the rods and funnel down and in, forming a plug welded in place, would finally stop the leak.
Excellent f'n posting as far as informative, I dont know as much about this shit as you, but common sense tell me that trying to "pour/ shoot" mud(?), seem's with a pressure like that, like pissing in the wind. I had an old roomie year's back in Houston who done hydroblasting work, in them large gas tank's, he was telling us that the water pressure alone from them hand held devices can cut a mother fucker in half the pressure is so powerful .... the pay was decent though. I can only imagine at 5000' ft under water and gushing like it is so freely .... what kind of pressure that's putting out!
BP's one step away from Bart Simpson. I can't promise I'll try, but I'll try to try.
The following is a paste of a comment I made on a treehugger post.
It's not easy to cork a pipe with up to 13,000 PSI of pressure in it that can push just about anything out of it. I think the only thing that will work is to crush it with explosive charges arranged around the outside of it. And even that would be iffy. It appears that it's going to just keep getting to be a bigger mess.
It's the governments responsibility to protect the country and coasts, in my humble opinion. If I was the president I would ask the military if they thought they could shut off the flow, and if they thought they could I would let them try.
At this point, BP can just be seen as a different kind of terrorist to be dealt with. In my humble opinion.
Good update on this topic.
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