Diving the spill

[seaducer]

Neither you nor your children will live see an end to oil as a primary source of energy.

But it would be nice if I or my children saw some more seriousness in the industry. Accidents are inevitable, and that is something we must all understand.

However many of the worst spills were caused by preventable actions.

Would it not be fantastic if all oil tankers in history steamed under the command of a sober crew?

How about making sure that all recovery, transport and refinery assets are actually well maintained and can't simply fall apart?

My brother is a "turnaround" planner at the largest refinery in NJ. He is in charge of determining what parts and equipment need to be replaced, and has to aquire those parts, and makes the schedule of how things go during a plant shutdown, etc. It is dismaying to hear the type opposition from the bean counters to his work.

On the one hand, there is doing the job correctly. This takes time, costs money and causes the plant to make less money due to reduced capacity during the maintenence period.

The bean counters on the other hand are constantly trying to undermine the effort, advocating a path that is the cheapest, cuts corners, and does "just enough" to keep the equipment running.

If everything is done correctly, there is no iron clad garuantee that there will never be a problem at the facility.

But if the executives get their way, and corners are rounded off, and a problem occurs? Most likely the executives are long gone into another business anyway, but regardless:

the people working in the yard near the issue will die.
my brother will be one of the scapegoats.
The people who forced the weaker project through will "get their lives back" eventually anyway.

We need oil, and will continue to need oil for a very long time to come. That is zero excuse to run these operations the way they have been run. When you consider these companies can afford to plate an entire refinery in platinum, there really is no excuse to cut any corners. Ever.

There is too much at stake.

And now how do we clean this mess up? That is the important question. That and how do we make sure human error and greed cannot allow this to happen again?

We can lynch BP, Haliburton, Transocean, Bush, Obama, Congress, Cheney and whoever else later on. Let's fix this first, then we can fix stupid later.

 

[Lead_carrier]

Let's fix this first, then we can fix stupid later.

Unfortunately, we can't fix stupid. We will re-elect them again in November because it is everyone elses represenative that is screwy, not mine. When they get re-elected and continue to act in the same way, will we start complaining again or look in the mirror and try to figure out who is stupid.

 

[Dr Neil]

The CEO of BP wants this to be over so he can have his life back.

ARE YOU FREEKIN KIDDING ME?

Go talk to the citizens of the Gulf Coast, when do they expect to get their lives back?

 

[Mortis65]

I saw this article this morning, and my first thought was to share it here. I see that others had the same thought.
I believe that we will not see the end of oil consumption in my lifetime. I recall hearing that the oil released from this well represents less than one day of consumption for the US alone. I'm prepared to be corrected on that number.
What are we to do about this? It seems that everyone has an idea ranging from "cold turkey" to off shore drilling bans, to do nothing because "the oil is having a negligible impact on the environment".
I have difficulty believing that the answer lies at the extremes, but I do know that the issue here is lax oversight and lax regulations. Many news articles have stated that BP has a history of environmental and personnel risk. I ask myself, what allowed this type of behaviour to continue? I find myself without a satisfactory answer.
I commend the reporter for putting himself at significant personal risk to show the non-diving world just how much damage is being done.
We have a long and terrible history of damage to the environment above the surface. Perhaps it is time to for the population in general to learn how terrible our history is below?

Thoughtfully,
Mortis.

 

[vladimir]

We've further compounded the error by putting the perpetrator in charge of fixing the problem

What was the alternative? Who else, besides the industry, has the technical capability to solve the problem? I suppose we could have contracted with another driller, but would they have greater expertise? Would they have greater incentive?

Does anyone here know why all of the the oil is not floating on the surface? Is this because of the use of the chemical dispersants?

What are dispersants, and what are the pros and cons of using dispersants?

Hopefully somebody who really knows will chime in, but my layman's understanding is that they are a lot like detergent, and break down the oil into soluble chemicals that are presumably less toxic or less harmful once dissolved.

 

[vladimir]

My brother is a "turnaround" planner at the largest refinery in NJ. He is in charge of determining what parts and equipment need to be replaced, and has to aquire those parts, and makes the schedule of how things go during a plant shutdown, etc. It is dismaying to hear the type opposition from the bean counters to his work.

On the one hand, there is doing the job correctly. This takes time, costs money and causes the plant to make less money due to reduced capacity during the maintenence period.

The bean counters on the other hand are constantly trying to undermine the effort, advocating a path that is the cheapest, cuts corners, and does "just enough" to keep the equipment running.

In this job market, I'd be a little bit more vague about my brother's employer in a public forum.

 

[TSandM]

My reaction to the video was that it simply wasn't horrible enough. Too many scenes of life proceeding much as usual on the rig. I think non-divers would come away shrugging and saying, "What's the big deal?"

 

[doctormike]

Not to mention a robust PR offensive. It was reported yesterday that BP has paid search engines to list them first, and good news about them preferentially. Google "Oil Leak", for an example.

Here's this about that...

 

[doctormike]

My reaction to the video was that it simply wasn't horrible enough. Too many scenes of life proceeding much as usual on the rig. I think non-divers would come away shrugging and saying, "What's the big deal?"

That was exactly my thought... which is why I didn't post it on Facebook for a non-diving audience. There have been a lot of threads here about the spill, and this video released today looked like something that our little group might like to see.

However, TSandM is correct (as always! ) in that non-divers may ironically see this as reassuring that things aren't so bad.

And while the oil coated pelicans drive all the public anger, killing the deepwater reefs has a LOT more impact on the whole food chain than the visible stuff...

M

 

[fairybasslet]

I dove a couple of rigs in the Gulf a few years back and I was astounded by the life that they supported. Now, it's all going to die. I cry every day about this. And the turtles. The beautiful turtles smothered by the oil. It's heartbreaking.

I saw these videos this morning and came here to post them but I'm glad someone else did, and I'm also heartened to see that some people who have been anti-environmentalist in the past are seeing the light.

But just for a little comic relief, is this going to be a new PADI specialty? I know. Sick joke. Just trying to cheer myself up somewhat.