This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
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.
***
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.
***
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.
***
The test results also raise questions about the possible downsides of the government's use of chemical dispersants to fight the spill.
***
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.
»
- advertisements -
I know right? Ecosystems are like the most boring thing ever. Do worms even have gold or silver in them?
I do not know if I should be horrified by Clint's response or not. There are **a lot** of people getting junked on GW's postings. Is that because the information is poor, or just a weak attempt at shutting people up? It would be nice if John Stewart were to take up this noble cause now that he managed to get help for the 9-11 clean up crews.
This is why I stick to writing comedy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5Ik6WSBrO4
Thanks for the update.
I've been hearing a lot of folks talking about the dispersant's causing issues with the Loop Current which is having a knock on effect on the Gulf Stream. Resulting, in the cold weather in the UK/EU. Any credible information on this?
you may not buy into everything on this site as some of it is a bit out there, but its a place to start.
http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/
Heard the same in reports this summer about the gulf stream being affected - therefore without reference to anything weather related made a mental note 'expect a very cold winter time around' - and here we: Arctic. Wouldn't that be a real kicker, Europe enters ice age as rest of plant fries. You start adding all this up and we look increasingly like we're heading for our own extinction event. Mind you given the crooked evil scum who inhabit this astonishing world its probably not a bad thing - cosmologically speaking.
They say the loop current has stopped before - but the gulf stream has been dying for a while and it's part of a natural cycle called ice ages.
www.iceagenow.com has a lot of information about this.
The web bot report said the gulf will gush for 19 months and then be stopped by a natural earthquake - so we've got nine more months to go if they're right...
Many sources say it's still gushing now, and has been since February.
That scares the crap out of me. I will take a look at your links, thanks.
Thank you George.
Trolls from the lower circle of Hell to follow....
The contracts BP put out for this particular task have all run out, I would think...
I suspect they have scaled back, but are still present.
Thats no shit. The "fuck 'em" attitude is a clear and present danger.
I predict an underwhelming troll response. GW has spent a lot of time on this.