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The Oil BP Tried To Hide Has Been Discovered In Thick Layers On the Sea Floor Over An Area of Several Thousand Square Miles
BP and the government famously declared that most of the oil had disappeared.
But as I've noted, as much as 98% of the oil is still in the ocean.
I have repeatedly pointed out that BP and the government applied massive amounts of dispersant to the Gulf Oil Spill in an effort to sink and hide the oil. Many others said the same thing.
BP and the government denied this, of course.
But the oil is not remaining hidden.
Indeed, as the Wall Street Journal noted on December 9th:
A university scientist and the federal government say they have found persuasive evidence that oil from the massive Gulf of Mexico spill is settling on the ocean floor.
The new findings, from scientists at the University of South Florida and from a broad government effort, mark the latest indication that environmental damage from the blowout of a BP PLC well could be significant where it's hardest to find: deep under the Gulf's surface.
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Scientists who have been on research cruises in the Gulf in recent days report finding layers of residue up to several centimeters thick from what they suspect is BP oil.
The material appears in spots across several thousand square miles of seafloor, they said. In many of those spots, they said, worms and other marine life that crawl along the sediment appear dead, though many organisms that can swim appear healthy.
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Tests now have started to link some oil in the sediment to the BP well could add to the amount of money BP ends up paying to compensate for the spill's damage.
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The test results also raise questions about the possible downsides of the government's use of chemical dispersants to fight the spill.
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Under federal direction, about 1.8 million gallons of dispersants
were sprayed on the spilled oil in an effort to break it up into tiny
droplets that natural ocean microbes could eat up. At the time, officials said the dispersants shouldn't cause oil from the spill to sink to the seafloor. However, more recently, a federal report said dispersants may have helped some spilled oil sink to the sediment.
Scientific teams have reported in recent months finding a strange substance on the Gulf floor, in some cases as far as about 80 miles from BP's ill-fated Macondo well, which blew out in April and spilled an estimated 4.1 million barrels of oil into the Gulf before it was capped.
***
"The chemical signatures are identical," said Mr. Hollander, who found the contaminated samples in an area of the Gulf floor off the Florida Panhandle. Although it's conceivable the tests could show a false match with the BP oil, "the statistical probability of something like that is unimaginable," Mr. Hollander said.
The federal government also has found oil matching Macondo oil in Gulf sediment, Steve Murawski, a top National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist, said in an interview. He declined to disclose how much sediment contamination the government found, or exactly where in the Gulf it was, saying experts still are analyzing the test results.
***
Sam antha Joye, a University of Georgia oceanographer, also has found what she believes to be evidence of BP oil in Gulf sediment. She is awaiting lab results tracing the chemical fingerprints of sediment samples she took.
On a research cruise in the Gulf that ended Friday, she saw worms that crawl along the Gulf floor "just decimated," she said. But eels and fish, which can swim away, often appeared fine, she said.
The Journal noted on December 18th:
Oil from BP PLC's blown-out well has lodged in the sediment of the Gulf of Mexico at levels that may threaten marine life, according to a federal report released Friday.
***
There is no practical way to clean up the spilled oil that has settled deep in the Gulf, officials said, adding that microbes in the water could eventually eat it up.
The massive application of dispersants to hide the amount of oil spilled has caused major problems to the Gulf:
- The use of dispersants prevented clean up of the oil by skimming, by far the easiest method of removing oil from the water
- Dispersants make the toxins in crude oil more bioavailable to sealife, and scientists have found that applying Corexit to Gulf crude oil releases many times more toxic chemicals into the water column than would be released with crude alone (and see this)
- Dispersant might have caused some of the chemicals in oil to become airborne (and see this and this)
- The crude oil which does not become aerosolized sinks under the surface of the ocean, and can delay the recovery of the ecosystem by years or even decades (see the Wall Street Journal article quoted above)
- The overwhelming majority of studies find that dispersants slow the growth of oil-eating microbes
- Dispersants may bioaccumulate in seafood
- Blood tests show elevated levels of toxic hydrocarbons in Gulf residents
Extend-And-Pretend Will Fail
As I noted
in May - shortly after the spill started - the responses of the
government to the Gulf Oil spill and to the financial crisis are remarkably similar,
as both have focused on covering up the problems, instead of actually
fixing them. Because the financial system was never really reformed,
the next financial shock will send the economy reeling. Because the oil
was never properly cleaned up, the next hurricane will stir up immense
quantities of oil now lying on the sea floor.
Extend-and-pretend
is being attempted in both cases, and - in both cases - it will fail,
because nothing has been fixed, and the fundamentals can only remain
hidden for so long.
Moreover, in both cases, the government
used "highly toxic" measures to try to hide the real problems. The
government has used "emergency measures" and virtually all of its
resources to prop up the giant banks instead of using the proven methods
of restructuring insolvent banks and prosecuting the criminals who caused the crisis, which has caused major problems for the real economy.
Similarly,
the government applied close to 2 million gallons of highly toxic
dispersant to hide the amount of oil instead of using it's resources to
deploy tried-and-true clean up methods, which has caused significant problems for the Gulf.
Finally,
new and potentially bigger crises will take place, because regulation
hasn't been put in place to prevent them. Regulation of the financial
system - including international agreements like Basil III - have been gutted. And as Time magazine notes:
Congress never managed to pass legislation that would have overhauled drilling safety.
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thank you george for reminding us of what rapacious greedy lying sack of shit assholes bp and the 4th reich's ministry of truth are...as i passed bp stations on the way home today i kept praying that they would sink into to the crust of the earth and be swallowed in a sea of magma....
fuck bp and fuck the liar obama...
Most morons, don't think this incident has very much merit. The gulf is dying.
It is the biggest coverup in American History, to date.
Those of you nutters, in denial can go swim in that toxic shit pool, everyday to prove me wrong. Otherwise, fuck BP and you, too.
Obama failed at cleaning up the oil spill and that is impeachable.
I wish Obama would lighten up.
Thank you GW for taking the time to accumulate and present the facts.
Merry Christmas!
You are a beacon of light GW. I thank you.
Yes, but bacteria are eating it all up and because of that, those bacteria will stop global warming and make a end on the economic crisis.
WHEN PREDATORS RULED THE EARTH.
Appropriate title for book about the 21st century, so far.
The water column within the 5,000 + feet of ocean has many seperate currents at various temperatures that move in different directions.
In some-cases the water can and does move in opposite directions and a varying speeds.
My understanding is that the spill changed the dynamics of this to a great degree and may be causing the loop current to stay within the Gulf and not move the warm water around Florida and up the E. Coast on its way to Europe.
Thus changing the weather, like we're seeing now.
The loop current may have been degraded if not stop, from the crazy weather we have had this year and right now. Well see when january and march comes around, if they are still having climate issues by this time the current has been damaged. I may see an ice age in my lifetime.
Your conclusion and logic, based on "thin to non-existent, reproducible data" is seriously flawed....
Regarding weather changes, suggest you read
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
and Dr Jeff Masters, I have enjoyed reading his site for many years, his explanation are very good, and the research/data he references impeccable..
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1710
nsidc.org???
why not just direct him to read the works of James Hansen? or perhaps some of the excellent science that comes out of East Anglia?
Have you personally reviewed or read any of James Hensen's work? Have you read the emails out of England? Your comments demonstrate that your knowledge on these subjects are sophomoric at best......
Slightly off main topic, but what the heck - novel observation on climate change
http://www.heartland.org/bin/media/newyork09/PowerPoint/Richard_Keen.ppt
would love to see a credible source for that claim, with *any* kind legitimate science behind it.
http://climatechange.imva.info/news/warned
You have been warned...
The video near the bottom (after it finishes) links to several other videos that are also informative.
i took myself and friends on a balloon ride. Hi above the town i asked how we would move directionally. Turns out air currents at different altitudes move in differing directions.
As above so below.
i'm pickin up what you're puttin down, merehuman.
Don't know about the loop current around Florida, but the Gulfstream's effect on Europe's climate is well established. One eco-disaster scenario would occur if Greenland's ice cap melted significantly, changing the salinity (and thus the density) of the surrounding Atlantic waters. This would upset the North Atlantic Conveyor, which normally carries colder, deeper waters southwards and allows warmer surface waters to reach Europe. Without the Conveyor, global warming leads to Europe freezing.
This possibility was suggested by William Calvin at the University of Washington a while back, if you want to do some Googling. Calvin thought the process, once begun, would be very rapid, and in a decade it would be too cold to grow wheat in Europe.
Give it up. AGW is a proven fraud. The same clowns who insisted that England would be ice free by 2010 due to global warming are now using the extreme cold weather conditions as proof of AGW. Another good example of the agenda driven junk science.
As for the collapse of the Gulf Current, this certainly requires further study. Good article, GW.
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/ukxx0085?ref=topnav_weather_sav...
Even wildly outlandish pseudo-science would be good.
In fact, they HAD to put down all that Korexit to INCREASE THE FRICTION, or else Europe would've just burnt up.
You want more pseudoscience, hey we're on a roll here with pseudoscience, baby.
All that oil will just lubricate everything and the Gulf stream currents will flow faster and more leading to global warming in Europe.
Well, that's what I heard!
http://projectworldawareness.com/2010/09/life-on-this-earth-just-changed-the-north-atlantic-current-is-gone/
If it covers several thousand square miles of sea floor how come it was so hard to find?
Are you aware of the depths of the Gulf in the vicinity (say 100 mile radius) of the Deep Water Horizon incident? Do you understand the complexities, cost and risks of deep sea "surface" exploration?
Tyler, would it be possible to increase the sophistication of the math problems (to log on) to this site?
Let's have a Calculus week and see how many people show up and post!
That would be most entertaining, I'm down. Show me an integral.
Whats calculus :-)
As offensive as some posts may be, Tyler does not stop people from posting. Generally speaking, the people who like to rant get tired and go off to stalk Megan's List sites or volunteer at the local animal shelter, killing puppies with claw hammers. Calculus is not really needed here, just some patience.
The comment regarding math was said tongue and cheek...... should have added (sarcasm off) on the end of it... I Know plenty of engineers that are trolls...... This was a good article, difficult not to flame people that are so very ignorant......... more so those that are proud of their ignorance.
zzzzzzzzzzzz.........zzzzzzzzzzz........zz
Look, I get it. You're auditioning to be an elite sociopath. Why don't you just take the entrance exam and be done with it?
I just can't make myself wake up; it hurts too much. Can you help me?
For a moment there I thought this might be Myspace.
thats going to cost another $7 Billion when the cleanup workers start suing the Government in 9 years
At $90 a barrel, you guys might want to go grab some of that for yourselves and profit handsomely from it -- you know, instead of sitting on your fat ass in front of a computer and bitching about it....
"go grab some of that for yourselves and profit handsomely from it.."
Once again... "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt."
Indeed!!
+
Dude, free oil sitting on the bottom of the ocean.
Don't even have to drill for it.
$90 a barrel, my friend. If you don't do it, I might have to get off my fat ass and do it myself. Cha-ching!
Headlines says: "Over An Area of Several Thousand Square Miles"
Oh, wait... but if you read further, it's actually only "spots" over several thousand square miles. Perhaps the word "spots" should have been bolded, instead.
Never mind. Not worth it. Fat ass is staying put.
In any event, continue on with the screeching and negativity. I'm sure that will get you far!
extend & pretend again. it "worked" for the banks, now it's "working" for the oil. by the time body bags start to pilo on and cancer cases shoot off the charts nobody will even remember th spill.
When the 9-11 cleanup happened, weren't people told the air was safe? Perhaps you are right, and no one will remember. I still remember.
Are you suggesting that a gulf-bailout is required for [shutting up] first responders in the gulf?
Hell, everyone else gets one -- patriotism for hire!
The level of ignorance exhibited in this post is staggering.
"There are high levels of mercury and lead in our food supply.
Yawn.
And before that, the lead and mercury were in the Earth's crust.
Yawn."
Got anything else Clint?
Hatrick,
You really should have considered different food choices a long time ago.
This is for you Clint,
http://www.counterpunch.org/mangano12222010.html