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Here Are The Refineries And Nuclear Power Plants Threatened If The Morganza Spillway Is [Opened|Shut]
As we reported previously, Obama has found himself on the verge of another environmental scandal now that he has no choice but to redirect the Mississippi river via the Morganza spillway - either lose millions in barrels of daily refined production and potentially the impairment of the Colonial Pipeline, two events which would promptly cause gas prices to soar to new records, or redirect the river via the Spillway, and cause the flooding of millions of acres, and numerous towns and cities, and possibly another New Orelans bases crisis. It seems Obama has picked the lesser of two evils: i.e., protect the oil: "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said on Friday it anticipates opening the Morganza Spillway on the western bank of the swollen Mississippi River to divert floodwaters into the Atchafalaya River basin and protect Baton Rouge, Louisiana, New Orleans and refineries from flooding. The Corps of Engineers had been planning next week to open the spillway, about 45 miles (72 km) northwest of Baton Rouge, but could do so as soon as Saturday as high water continues making its way downriver." On the other hand, opening the spillway will also lead to plant impairments: " Opening the spillway will disrupt operations at Alon USA Energy's 80,000-bpd Krotz Springs, Louisiana, refinery. An Alon spokesman said on Friday that the plant was operating normally as crews continued to build a second levee to prevent Atchafalaya River waters from flooding the refinery within 10 to 14 days of the Morganza opening. The new levee will supplement existing levees." And there is more: it appears that not only are refineries in danger, but three nuclear power plants are also in danger of being flooded: Entergy's 1,176-megawatt Waterford nuclear plant in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana; its 978-megawatt River Bend nuclear plant in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, and the 1,268-megawatt Grand Gulf nuclear station in Clairborne County, Mississippi."
Below are the refineries which are threatened unless the Morganza is open:
- Alon USA Energy <ALJ.N> Krotz Springs, Louisiana : 80,000
- Chalmette Refining <XOM.N> Chalmette, Louisiana: 192,500
- ConocoPhillips <COP.N> Belle Chasse, Louisiana: 247,000
- Exxon Mobil Corp <XOM.N> Baton Rouge, Louisiana: 504,500
- Marathon Oil Corp <MRO.N> Garyville, Louisiana: 436,000
- Motiva Enterprises <RDSa.L> Convent, Louisiana: 235,000
- Motiva Enterprises <RDSa.L> Norco, Louisiana: 234,700
- Murphy Oil Corp <MUR.N> Meraux, Louisiana: 120,000
- Valero Energy Corp <VLO.N> Memphis, Tennessee: 180,000
- Valero Energy Corp <VLO.N> St. Charles, Louisiana 185,000
And here are those in danger if the Spillway is open:
- BP <BP.L> America Production Co 10,703
- Petroquest <PQ.N> Energy LLC 8,757
- Apache Corp <APA.N> 4,986
- ConocoPhillips <COP.N> Inc 2,661
- Stone Energy <SGY.N> Corp 2,232
- Chevron <CVX.N> USA Inc 1,467
- Dune <DUNR.OB> Operating Co 1,407
- Swift Energy <SFY.N> Optg LLC 1,241
Additionally, the following traffic has been impaired:
SHIP TRAFFIC:
The tanker Zaliv Baikal turned back from going to a dock in Baton Rouge because its captain didn't think the vessel had enough clearance beneath the I-10 Bridge over the Mississippi at Baton Rouge.
Berths at Exxon's docks in Baton Rouge were flooding on Thursday, which may make docking tankers difficult in the coming days, according to sources familiar with refinery operations. Exxon said the refinery continues to operate normally.
BARGE TRAFFIC:
Barge traffic is moving along the Mississippi River with some restrictions and no closures. Barges were running near Baton Rouge, but facing difficult river conditions.
Mississippi River restrictions include length of barge (no greater than 600 feet), energy requirement (greater than 250 horsepower), speed (3 miles/hour) and prior notification requests before navigation starts. To that end, barge traffic is open in places like St. Louis and Memphis with restrictions.
TERMINALS SHUT:
Magellan Midstream Partners <MMP.N> said it discontinued operations at its 2.8 million-barrel storage terminal in Marrero, Louisiana, close to New Orleans, after it finished loading barges on Friday.
Nearly 20 percent of barge terminals that the U.S. Coast Guard monitors on the Ohio River remained closed on Thursday. The Smithland Lock and Dam at mile marker 918.5 on the river remains closed, obstructing barge traffic both up and downstream.
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True enough. The risk of the cities flooding is too great. They have opened the Bonnet Carre spillway just upriver of NOLA to divert some of the water into Lake Pontchartrain. I am not sure how high the lake would get if a mucher larger portion of the flow went into the lake because of a levee breach. I would imagine it would flow out through the Rigolets before the lake would rise high enough to cause NOLA a problem.
this is s'posed to be a monster big flood surge. that's why they diverted the ohio into the flood plains, last week.
weather: HPC Surface Analysis/Radar Loop
still raining & storming a bit, and the hi pressure which had been building behind the lo's is getting pushed around, may build in, now, for some relief.
way too much water, already; don't need any more.
I'm in New Orleans where there is a lot more info about this fiasco circulating. We think that the Feds are worried that if they open the Morganza all the way, the Mississippi will make the inevitable cut through to the Gulf through the Atchafalaya basin, thereby rendering the port of New Orleans useless. Economically devastating for the whole U.S.
If they don't open it, the Corps of Engineers says Baton Rouge and New Orleans could be under as much as 25 feet of water which would kill, I would guess, a couple hundred thousand people.
Best case scenario is they open the Morganza and manage to close it in a few weeks, the river remains on its current course, and Baton Rouge and New Orleans are spared.
Even the best case scenario here will be ugly.
Yes that is correct. I have read somewhere many years ago that there was much fear about the river washing away the Morganza structure and permanently diverting the river and flushing Morgan City out to the gulf.
From a friend of mine who is retired from the BLM and has some knowledge of these things:
the Mississippi has been trying to take the shorter route through the Atchafalaya Bayou for nearly 100 years, and has been stopped by the CoE - so far. One of the problems is that the levees have confined the Miss. bed for so long that the yearly silt deposition has not been spread over the several million acres of floodplain (as happened pre-CoE), but instead is confined to the channel between the levees. This has resulted in raising the bed of the Miss to the point where it is probably above most of the surrounding farmlands in many places. So when the levees break, it's like draining a bathtub into the lower lands - huge amount of force trying to spill out of the existing channel. You see the same thing on the Yangtse River in China - it has been diked and channeled for thousands of years, so when the levees blow it floods millions of acres of now-lower lying lands.
See also yesterdays Stratfor comments on the subject the risk they are taking with this action is that the Mississippi may just decide to go another route to the Gulf, bypassing New Orleans and the port...
Did you take mineralogy? were you in my hydrodynamics class?
No? You can force water to do whatever you have the time, energy and resorces to do it with.
There is no reason you cant pump that water into Texas. In fact, thats about what the Romans did with aqueducts.
Not to be harsh but water will do what it wants to do if left alone to do it. If you force water to do something it will do it.
But will hate you for it.
Levees are a thing of the past. What you need are Duel channel paths a channel for silt and a channal for water.
Anyway the biggest problem with the world and with the Mississippi is that (scientists are on "tap" not in charge.)
Scientists are mostly stupid and arrogent but if shown logic and reason most will accept it. Scientists are trained to yield to logic even if their egos have to suffer for it.
The flood is not a technical or even a moral problem its a political problem.
Science and engineering can solve this problem if given free rein to do so.
Science on top and always on tap.
Fine. Let the scientists pay for it.
good point eagle, thanks for bringing it up.
i remember the old commercial -
"it's not nice to fool with mother nature."
water seeks it's level. always has and always will.
glad i am near a deep ravine, the house might stay high and dry.
Piss on mother nature she will get what she wants later.
Nature has millions of years to get what she wants if i want to piss her off for 10,000 years she can suck it up till im done.
What's a million years to a planet that counts in billions. Nature will just have to wait.
Yes, the river is propped up by the CoE much like the S&P is propped up by Benny. Many years ago, I once worked on a Miss River tugboat and saw the water level difference first hand and it is scary to think about. We went through the Port Allen locks across the river from LSU during a normal runoff season and our damn boat dropped somewhere between 20 and 30' to meet the level of Bayou Sorrel which fows into the Atchafalaya.
'squitos are going to be HUGE in the Bayou.
Here's the solution...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VICaWgD-76w
Im not drunk enough to comment on this epic level of stupid. I will have to get back to you and reply later with an insightful and humoris posting.
Drowning the wealth of the poor and unfortunate seems to need a higher blood alcohol content then i currently have.
Follow the link to read the open letter sent to NILU regarding their suspension of Fukushima Radiation Emission reports. This is a serious development that concerned readers should be aware of:
http://redpillfactory.blogspot.com/2011/05/norsk-institutt-for-luftforsk...
thanks for the link. you are right this is WAY too hush hush.
i can TASTE when the radioactive clouds are "heavy" and this has been occurring more and more. At first it was one day a week, now it's more like one day a week i do not taste it. really f-n scary, but there isn't a whole heck of a lot one can do. the damage is done and more damage continues. meanwhile MSM blockout because it's no longer "news". puppets and parrots can't be on tee vee saying;
"well the radiation levels took a leap when the doors were opened yesterday, sending massive levels of radiation that will poison the earth for longer than you'll ever live...." "yes, we are all going to die, but you already knew that so let's move on to some real news from hollywood...."
cool to see "legal" on your blog. i've been forced to dabble. lol.
my "legal" battle is with crooks who think they can steal my home. i caught the "pretender lender" when i learned of fraudclosure and did some digging. now in "court" without "assistance" of one of the court's "agents", i see that the magistrate lies with counsel and counsel basis 90% of their argument on procedural rules and they ignore you as if you said nothing in opposition.
needless to say, i keep their feet right up on that fire. the blending of equity and admiralty make the "legal" situation so intriguing. i have made "counsel" print some pretty funny things that he actually filed into the court proving the fraud, well i laughed at them... the key lies in the jurisdiction and my alleged leaders have been given notice. acquiesence builds up your case when the inquiries are pre-answered with another inquiry. glad to see on your blog some other people have enough kahonas to demand basic rights be upheld, whether they are one's own rights or the "rights", if you will, of the market.
the market is its own entity therefore no one can truly control it. manipulate it? abso-fuk-in-lutely ! but the market seeks it's level like water in a flood.
now, for a word about this article!
i'm kind of surprised they wont just flood out the refineries, then the normal event-related usual gas $ increase followed by they are ruined but its great because new jobs can rebuild the refineries!
my limited research on refineries in the u.s. suggests that, much like our reactors, we are mostly "running" on old "infrastructure" averaging 30 to 50 years in age.
so, wouldn't this a great time for mother nature to thwart the ol' water control plans?
Uh refineries have all kinds of nasty chemicals you don't want to spread around. BAD BAD idea.
Rest in Peace. These problems are being handled by our affirmative action President and his carefully choosen advisors (those who have not resigned, retired or left). Surely, this will all end well--according to the press and Wall Streeet, and will shortly become a non-event.
Let the Good Times Roll.
Yeh, we need to relax about the Japan situation, too. Obama, I am confident, has that under control (as well as the National Debt), and no lives will be lost nor important property damaged.
It is not in the publics' interest to know, be worried, to comment.
What the shit, no one is going to tell us the truth anyway. And America sinks further...
Let the good times roll....
bp put artifical bacterium in the gom to eat corexitized petrol.
aquatic continuity with cell membrane solubilizer (corexit) and heretofore unknown artificial barterium dna which has most probably mutated.
this'll be a bumpy ride.
bp put artifical bacterium in the gom to eat corexitized petrol.
aquatic continuity with cell membrane solubilizer (corexit) and heretofore unknown artificial barterium dna which has most probably mutated.
this'll be a bumpy ride.
So whats wrong with mutants? Can't be any worse than humans.
RoboCop-Cajun
This may end badly, I truly think so.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1798
I guess a lot of you are going to be trying to pack out a lot of guns, ammo, silver, and canned hams from your about to be washed away bugout farms huh? LOL
Not me...on higher ground. Fukk you.
Floodzilla.
Does this mean we get to watch our very own nuclear meltdown on local TV instead of having to look at Japanese Cable?
"Don't worry. Be Happy!" ;-(
Follow the link to read the open letter sent to NILU regarding their suspension of Fukushima Radiation Emission reports. This is a serious development that concerned readers should be aware of:
http://redpillfactory.blogspot.com/2011/05/norsk-institutt-for-luftforsk...
haha cant help it thats fucking funny
omg was referring to the skeeter comment
Time for y'all to re-read McFee's "The Control of nature". The last time the spillway was really needed it was nearly lost from cavitation and undermining. Good luck guys.
Re. above:
Money/energy. If that were true then there would be no reason why there would be desert land anywhere, like AZ - just pump the Mississippi there!
Romans didn't pump any water anywhere, aqueducts are gravity fed.
!! As if silt can be just simply separated from water... The majority of a river's silt load is carried during flood stage. Hmm, that's what flood plains do, except they're now called farms and cities.
The problem is technological hubris and short term vision. As above, time to re-read McFee.
And, maybe, dredge the main channel 20 feet every year - $20M - $25M/mile (if average cost is ~$15+/cy; industry typical). Not a full solution, but a lot more than currently done. If they floated bonds now for 20 years work (~$100B) the dollar devaluation will reduce the real cost dramatically.