I've drilled through concrete (core drills) so I can say even under the best conditions things can go wrong. This is at best a difficult task. BP's objective was to drill three miles under the ocean floor at nearly a mile under the open ocean. Nothing like trying to correct a problem remotely with robots. You realize of course that there will be no real clean up of the millions of gallons spilled. At best they'll get 10% of the spill. Not because they didn't try but because that is how things work out when doing oil spill clean ups.
So what to do? If they are ever even allowed to try another deep water drill then they'll have to rethink the whole thing. My guess would be to have an underwater containment collar around the drill head that's heated to prevent ice build up and several back up shut off valves with some type of relief valve or expansion tank, but then that's just a wild guess on my part. I know that when I do a dangerous job I'm always thinking about the "what ifs". First and formost is an escape plan. Next is how to rescue co workers and the very last thing on anyone's mind at that point is protecting the environment. But it really shouldn't be that way. They really should assume that anything can and will go wrong and have a plan A, B, C, and D. At least that's how I've managed to survive all these years with all fingers and toes intact. Remember Murphy's Law? And as they say Murphy was an optomist.
Funny how we don't hear a peep out of Ms. Palin and the drill crowd. Does this mean we can let BP drill some more in Alaskan waters?
Update: This was just too good to pass up from Tengrain:
Sounds dirty - BP is putting a giant box over a stiff pipe that is spewing. Oh, BP, where were you during sex ed?
10 comments:
Demeur
A lesson learned is a lesson earned in my book. Some on the Right have distanced themselves from the drill baby drill thing and instead have said "We never said that" we said "drill here drill now". I guess they haven't mastered the video tape. Of course you have them funny hat people who remember nothing. I don't expect to have learned anything from this. Some of the biggest bastards of the lot have been political leaders in the south.
You know who I mean and from both party's. The Gall is amazing.
I could go on and on but I won't.
This disaster will be felt for the next hundred years or more.:(
Murphy was an optOmist?
HilariOus ;-)
Even if they manage to cap that well ten minutes from now, the Gulf is totally fucked for a generation at least.
I see some of that dispersant they are using is Propylene Glycol, anti freeze!
They are turning the Gulf into a Dead Zone.
There was a story on Think Progress a few days ago, that the Right is trying to pretend they never heard of "Drill Baby Drill."
"Oh yeah, I think I remember, vaguely, it was a slogan or something, I think I heard somebody say it during the Republican convention."
Nice try, A$$holes.
Bustedknuckles is right. But there's more dispersant than just antifreeze in use, and some of it is highly carcinogenic. That will get into the food chain.
I feel bad for the shrimpers, fishermen, the sport-fishing boats and all the rest. I don't see how they will be able to stay in business. The whole area is going to be toxic for a long time. New Orleans especially didn't need another disaster, but here it is.
'And as they say Murphy was an optimist.'
Starry-eyed, he was - hey, maybe he was actually an optometrist.
;>)
Salazar is getting credit for this but It first could have been avoided by the scum Cheney.
Remember the secret energy meetings at the WH with Cheney, Bush, and all the oil company czar's He nixed those fail proof acoustic emergency shutoffs as too expensive for the oil companies and nothing would ever go wrong.
They are 1/2 million apiece and the rest of the world by law must use them. What is a half million to this unfolding disaster. Those guys deserve the worst period!
That mess will never be cleaned up in our life time. What is it 20 years after Valdez and it's still dead, oil is still around, marriages and livelihoods destroyed, rampant alcoholism.
How is BP going to pay fro that and the lost revenue from tourists and rentals? They are not!
I've drilled through concrete (core drills) so I can say even under the best conditions things can go wrong.
So have I, nasty work at best. Right up there with most jobs in a smelter but I only worked there a week and a half. That was enough of that shit.
As for the gulf area, there hasn't been any wise people living there for years. It's plumb full of idiots and party people that were stupid enough to allow drilling in the gulf at 5000 feet cuz they're dumb enough to believe that it would be safe and they wanted the jobs.
No worries, according too the stupid christians god is going to be fixing everything, when he gets here tell him to plug that fucking pipe. Jesus is coming, look busy. ROFLAO…
New Orleans especially didn't need another disaster, but here it is.
Yes it did, even with the engineering back in those days they were told not to build there. The idiots did anyway so they are getting what they have coming to them.
Nature needs that gulf area to work right, but idiots can't see that.
Actually The Palin couldn't keep her mouth shut. She made a statement somewhere that she thought we need to continue drilling, but then again so does Mary Landrieu!
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