Gulf Disaster and its Long Term Effects
What a disaster. Deepwater Horizon, the deep sea oil rig, estimated to be worth more than $500M, caught fire an
d went to the bottom of the gulf in flames. Eleven people are reported missing. Seventeen people were reported injured, four of them critically. A total of 126 workers were reported aboard the rig at the time of the incident.
Most of the coastal waters of the Gulf States have become a toxic cesspool. It has been more than 6 weeks and the crude continues to contaminate the waters of the gulf.  The crude has started to reach the beautiful beaches of the area already. This crude is also expected to reach to the Atlantic because of the usual weather patterns and water currents. It is also expected to contaminate Cuban waters and beaches. It is destroying the eco system all around in these states. The marine life is at risk for years to come, because of the toxicity of the dispersants used to break the crude. The crude lea
kage estimates are over a wide range. Worst case 4 Million plus gallons to conservative half a million plus gallons per day.
BP was caught off guard to cope with the disaster. Their existing deep water well containment procedures either did not work or were not sufficiently adequate to provide any emergency shut off. It could not handle the current situation and shut off the well promptly. In the aftermath of the event they have been experimenting different containment strategies. The initial method of putting a dome on the gusher did not work for various technical reasons. They have been trying different methods. The one called “The Top Kill” did not produce the desired results either. Now they have placed a modified containment dome over the top of the gushing area which seems to be partly successful. Their estimates are that this methodology is capturing almost half of the crude. They are further refining the containment procedures to increase the capture volume, while drilling two relief wells to reduce the pressure on the current one. The relief wells are expected to come online in early August. Assuming the well is capped by then, it would have pumped close to 50M gallons of the crude, if not more, into the gulf.
The cleanup of this crude, which produces “tar ball” , on the beaches and the reefs of the gulf coast will be a monumental task. Though some of it is being dispersed using dipersal agents, it is not without problem. The interaction between dispersal agents and the crude creates toxic materials harmful for marine life. The marine life and hence the commercial fishing business will take a long time to recover. The tourism and the hospitality industry will suffer for a long time as well.
President Obama was recently briefed by the Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the federal government’s response manager for the  disaster in the gulf. He was cautiously optimistic about the progress to contain this mess. In response to a reporter’s question at White House Briefing he agreed that it may take years to restore the environment and the habitat.
AndIThoughT© …….. about….. all the states affected by this terrible event. The state , c
ounty and city governments that will have another headache to confront with besides unemployment due to the current state of economy. The shortfalls in their budgets. With no business , no sales taxes, no employees paying state taxes ……..
AndIWondeR© ………………….. in the final analysis …….. if BP will really come thru to rescue and make all these entities and individuals whole as they have promised , and not nickle and dime people …………………….. Well, they have the money ………. They have been making tons of it ….. !!!!
or there will be no money left after all the bonuses have been disbursed to all the executives ………….
Posted by
Saba Rahman -
June 6, 2010 at 4:34 pm
