Offshore drilling bill passes house - CONTACT YOUR SENATORS!

[pj5]

The chocolate colored water in Galveston Bay is more an issue of geography than pollution. Think sediment. Sediment does not equal man made pollution.

Galveston Bay is not a good poster child for what oil spills can do. It self corrects very well and has vastly improved over the last 40 years in spite of an increase in oil spills (which may be due to better detection rather than a real increase in spills). Much of the pollution was run-off related, so the issue was not even close to just oil. Pesticides and sewage had a lot to do with the problems, too. But the same mechanisms that dump all the pollutants (and sediment) there also clear them out. Particularly once the upstream sources clean up. Weekly fish kills of the 80s don't happen any more. You don't see oil slicks floating in and out with tides any more. Galveston Bay is not without issues, but look at the trends.

SOB

Houston Ship Channel, however, is nasty...too much like a pond to self correct. But even it has shown some improvement.

These improvements are not due to decreasing oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil production in the Gulf peaked in 2002 when the state of bay report at that URL was released.

 

[Hockeynut]

I heard that alien spies are drawn to oil spills and the oil companies know this. And they routinely spill oil to flush them out. They've been protecting us from alien invasion for years and we owe them thanks.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I think we should focus efforts from the Senate to find a way to convert stupidity into energy. Now THAT is a renewable energy these days.

 

[DennisS]

I think we should focus efforts from the Senate to find a way to convert stupidity into energy. Now THAT is a renewable energy these days.

Mr. Obama said SWAT teams were being dispatched to the Gulf to investigate oil rigs and said his administration is now working to determine the cause of the disaster.

I didn't know SWAT training included oil platform engineering.

Guys in black with auto weapons do give a sense of urgency to any situation. They let the public know the govt is in charge and handling it. Some nice photos of the SWAT team rappeling from helicopters on to existing rigs would really let us know the govt is on top of the situation.

 

[AquaExplorer]

I just hope that this unfortunate issue does not stop the efforts to continue to move fore more off shore drilling!

 

[jhelmuth]

In reading the more recent posts here, I'm mildly shocked at the attitudes (on both sides) overall. While not necessarily representative of America as a whole, I think the diving community has a very important role in helping us (our country) to understand what we need to do to provide a balanced and sensible solution for today - and tomorrow.

[1] Oil rigs - by themselves - can (and are) a valuable part of an increasing support in habitat and have a positive environmental impact. Drilling need not be a negative (if done right)

[2] Oil spills - particularly like the one currently in the news - are a major disaster to the environment and our economy. It shouldn't be an acceptable loss when such a disaster happens. The possibility of a spill is a very sound reason for not supporting offshore drilling. But there is a possibility of having successful drilling offshore IF we are willing to accept the added costs of containment plans and strategies, as well as additional measures and redundant devices which would check any disaster that might cause a spill. The technology does exist, and we MUST take all measures to protect our environment.

[3] Getting off the grossly ancient petro-energy diet is a must for America and the rest of the free world. There is NO doubt that our dependency to foreign oil is killing America and our economy. But the solution is NOT to continue to drill - but to get off our prodigious diet of petroleum based energy. It’s not about finding new ways (albeit we need to continue those efforts)... we already have the technologies and means to greatly reduce our carbon footprint on the planet and seriously reduce our need for oil consumption. We just have to act aggressively to make those changes happen NOW!

[4] Our near-shore waters are polluted from many sources... but very little to none of it has come directly from oil rigs in the Gulf. We have a far greater problem in what we do daily with our own garbage, run-off, pesticides, lawn fertilizers, toxic dumping into our ground waters (which eventually leaches into our shorelines), etc. At one time, our shores were very beautiful and near pristine - as late as the early 1960's we had some very beautiful coastline and bays. The solution to which is different than what we need to do with respect to our demand for oil - but like that problem, we have existing technologies and measures that would make a hugely positive impact.

[5] Mother nature will help us - but only if we help her. It's a fact that with positive changes (that we can make right now), our near shore environment can begin to make a drastic recovery.


No reasonable, educated person would deny that making any change to reduce our carbon footprint is a smart and necessary goal. As we take this to a more serious level and begin to really make changes, we will foster a far healthier and prosperous near shore environment. Do we still need to drill? Probably.... but it MUST be done with a greater sense of protection and that would probably add cost. More importantly, we need to more quickly wean ourselves from our massive petroleum diet and use the alternative energy sources and technologies which make a sustainable and environmentally positive life possible.


YOU are the most important part of the solution! Decide to make a difference, and you will!



All the best,

Jim Helmuth
Divemaster - NAUI

 

[Laustimus]

How many oil well mistakes does it take to create a catastrophe?

one!

Wow it only took one year for that ownage to come full circle.

 

[pj5]

[2] Oil spills - particularly like the one currently in the news - are a major disaster to the environment and our economy. It shouldn't be an acceptable loss when such a disaster happens. The possibility of a spill is a very sound reason for not supporting offshore drilling. But there is a possibility of having successful drilling offshore IF we are willing to accept the added costs of containment plans and strategies, as well as additional measures and redundant devices which would check any disaster that might cause a spill. The technology does exist, and we MUST take all measures to protect our environment.

The problem in this case is that the redundant devices that were supposed to prevent this spill failed. Which leads to a lot of questions.

Was this caused by a design flaw?

Was this caused by defective material? If so, where did it come from and why wasn't it caught?

Was this due to hurricane damage that was overlooked (not even checked for) or not detected (insufficient inspection/testing to assess for damage)? Was this due to hurricane damage that was detected but not fixed?

Is this an isolated problem with this one platform or is this a widespread problem with all the platforms?

Is this an issue with the company operating/maintaining this platform, or with platform operations/maintenance in general? (Trying to answer this can turn into a blamestorming session)

Time to do a thorough investigation and root cause analysis while the evidence is relatively fresh. Should have started within 24 hours. That and mop up are probably not mutually exclusive since they call for different skillsets of people. There are tools out there to guide the process to ensure these issues and more are examined when trying to determine what led to this disaster.

It happened, it sucks. At this point, the most important thing is to mop up as quickly as possible. But finding the cause and its prevalence in the Gulf is a pretty close second. Plenty of time for blaming and debate after that.

 

[Laustimus]

"Spill baby spill"

there is no quick mop up.. prepare for this to end up on the east side of Florida.

Oh well it was worth it to get my gas down from $2.60 a gallon to $2.58 a gallon instead.

 

[Scott L]

The problem in this case is that the redundant devices that were supposed to prevent this spill failed. Which leads to a lot of questions.

Was this caused by a design flaw?

Was this caused by defective material? If so, where did it come from and why wasn't it caught?

Was this due to hurricane damage that was overlooked (not even checked for) or not detected (insufficient inspection/testing to assess for damage)? Was this due to hurricane damage that was detected but not fixed?

Is this an isolated problem with this one platform or is this a widespread problem with all the platforms?

Is this an issue with the company operating/maintaining this platform, or with platform operations/maintenance in general? (Trying to answer this can turn into a blamestorming session)

Time to do a thorough investigation and root cause analysis while the evidence is relatively fresh. Should have started within 24 hours. That and mop up are probably not mutually exclusive since they call for different skillsets of people. There are tools out there to guide the process to ensure these issues and more are examined when trying to determine what led to this disaster.

It happened, it sucks. At this point, the most important thing is to mop up as quickly as possible. But finding the cause and its prevalence in the Gulf is a pretty close second. Plenty of time for blaming and debate after that.

Great post!