BP's Oil Booming Failure

[Vekseid]

BP Fails Booming School 101 Gulf Oil Spill (MIRROR)

Strong language here, but short, to the point, and educational.

[Sabby]

Disgusting...

[Paladin]

Sounds to me like mechanical failure. If the safty devices designede to cap the wells failed as the video says then its not human error. Its the one in a billion freak chance that every saftey failed. Now its gotta be cleaned up. If its not fixed soon then I'll start getting bitchy, but we are the ones that are dependant on oil. So you can't just blame BP, you have to blame everyone. If you use oil or an oil byproduect in any way, you are at fault. We all are... even me.

[Vekseid]

Paladin, this is discussing booming and oil recapture procedures. Did you even bother to watch the video? Please stay on topic.

[Paladin]

Paladin, this is discussing booming and oil recapture procedures. Did you even bother to watch the video? Please stay on topic.

yes i did watch the video, and i feel that remnarking on the fact that even the tape mentions mechsnical failure is apropriate

[Vekseid]

Given the ballooning evidence that BP, Haliburton and Transocean cut corners, your statement is specious at best and if findings of fact indicate that corners were in fact cut, and measures were in fact ignored, your statement would be demonstrably false.

[Paladin]

Given the ballooning evidence that BP, Haliburton and Transocean cut corners, your statement is specious at best and if findings of fact indicate that corners were in fact cut, and measures were in fact ignored, your statement would be demonstrably false.

Umm I'm going by what it says in the very video you posted man. This will be my last post in this thread cause I know I will get jumped by everyone else.

[Aiden]

That video is pretty rage worthy, I did not know anything about booming until the video.

[Brandon]

Interesting thought: A lot of people are complaining about this, for all those that are and live in the area how many of them will go out and help with the situation?

[Trieste]

I have family in the area helping the cleanup. My uncle is retired Coast Guard who went back out on a boat to help.

Please don't even go there.

[Brandon]

Then Ill applaud them for that. The question in my mind is, are they a few people of many that could make a difference but dont (and complain about it) or are most of the people who complain about it also going out there? I tend to think its the former

For the record, I would be out there too if I lived remotely close to the Gulf

[Oniya]

There are hair salons all over the place that are donating hair-cuttings to help soak up the oil (apparently hair does a good job of that).

[Will]

I have to question how many Gulf residents have proper booming equipment.  And besides, they didn't make the mess; BP did.  BP should clean it up.

[Brandon]

Booming permits and equipment are not required to help the situation. Does a person need a permit to get some hot soap/water ready and scrub off a few animals or the rocks that oil has washed up on?

Its yet to be seen if BP was really at fault. As paladin mentioned earlier, its possible (unlikely but possible) that it could have been a one in a million freak accident where every safety failed. Its up to the courts and inspectors to decide whos at fault. For now, whats more important is to clean the oil up before it does further damage but I tend to think most people will just play the blame game when they could help the situation

Oniya: That made me laugh. I would have never thought of that but it shows the ingenuity of people

[Oniya]

Oniya: That made me laugh. I would have never thought of that but it shows the ingenuity of people

It's both funny and heart-warming, as it shows that people are taking the time and energy to bundle up something they usually discard to help make a difference.

[Will]

Booming permits and equipment are not required to help the situation. Does a person need a permit to get some hot soap/water ready and scrub off a few animals or the rocks that oil has washed up on?

Its yet to be seen if BP was really at fault. As paladin mentioned earlier, its possible (unlikely but possible) that it could have been a one in a million freak accident where every safety failed. Its up to the courts and inspectors to decide whos at fault. For now, whats more important is to clean the oil up before it does further damage but I tend to think most people will just play the blame game when they could help the situation

Oniya: That made me laugh. I would have never thought of that but it shows the ingenuity of people

Uh... it's their equipment.  Who else is going to be at fault?  Even if it was %100 accidental, with no negligence involved, it's still BP's responsibility to clean it up.  It looks like BP might not even have the means or know-how to get that done, and I don't see how that can be painted as anything less than awful.

[Brandon]

You're right, I should have said "Its yet to be seen if BP was really negligible". However as I said the blame game can be played after the oil spill has been cleaned up.

It is absolutely their responsibility to clean it up, I didnt mean to imply otherwise. However that doesnt mean that residents around the Gulf cant help in their own way (and some of them are).

[Trieste]

Booming permits and equipment are not required to help the situation. Does a person need a permit to get some hot soap/water ready and scrub off a few animals or the rocks that oil has washed up on?

... *winces at the thought of untrained personnel chasing wild animals with a bottle of undiluted Dawn, oh god*

[Ket]

Booming permits and equipment are not required to help the situation. Does a person need a permit to get some hot soap/water ready and scrub off a few animals or the rocks that oil has washed up on?

The thing is, when oil makes it to a shoreline, the devastation moves from catastrophic to beyond catastrophic. It's not just birds and mammal who live above the water who are affected. It's the plants, the soil, the larva of small animals, the tiny crustaceans and fish...and then on up the food chain. My local paper put a great visual chart out today, which I will scan after dinner and post.

You don't want oil hitting the shore. At all.  It won't just affect the coastline for a day, a week or a month. More like years. Possibly even decades. The more oil you can keep from hitting the shoreline, the better of the habitat is. Which is where the booming and collecting comes in.

[Vekseid]

Uh... it's their equipment.  Who else is going to be at fault?  Even if it was %100 accidental, with no negligence involved, it's still BP's responsibility to clean it up.  It looks like BP might not even have the means or know-how to get that done, and I don't see how that can be painted as anything less than awful.

Transocean and Halliburton will also share some liability, along with potentially a few others. It's quite possible that we will see BP utterly destroyed as a result of this. Transocean, being responsible for far more than its share of Gulf drilling accidents, would also be nice to see dismantled.

[Zakharra]

 Give it a few years and there will likely be very little sign of any disaster. Look at the Prince William Sound in Alaska. That is clean. Despite all of the uproar, oil is a natural thing. It's not an artificial creation, but a completely 100%  natural product. Nature has ways to clean up after it and will do so.

[Trieste]

Sure. Let's try an experiment. Let's coat you in oil - that you can't wipe off. In fact, the only way you can clean it off is by licking yourself clean. Perhaps you could try preening, like a duck. Go ahead, do it. Don't worry, it's perfectly natural and you'll probably be okay in about twenty years. :)

[Zakharra]

Sure. Let's try an experiment. Let's coat you in oil - that you can't wipe off. In fact, the only way you can clean it off is by licking yourself clean. Perhaps you could try preening, like a duck. Go ahead, do it. Don't worry, it's perfectly natural and you'll probably be okay in about twenty years. :)

Try a year. I've left oil outside when I have changed the oil on the tractors. The only thing that got in the oil was rain water. What happened to it? It turned into a grey organic sludge that is easily wiped off. It smells like.. rotting vegetation. Which it is effectively. Nature has ways to get rid of oil, a natural product of the planet and it will have most of the effects of this oilspill cleaned up in a few years even if we did nothing. Bacteria and microbes eat the stuff because it is organic. It never lasts as a slick oily mess for decades. That's stupid thinking.

Look at Prince William Sound. The Exxon Valdez(sp) disaster was the worst on record for the US at the time and the Sound is healthy and full of life.

Will the oil coat things? Yes. For a short time before it starts to break down and disssolve. But it will go away on it's own. Within a few years. Certainly not 10 or 20 years.

[Oniya]

And what happens to the wildlife and plants that are coated with it for a year?

[Vekseid]

Did you seriously just compare a few gallons of dirty, refined oil that you left in your back yard to several million gallons of chemically laden crude washing into an erosion prone marshland?

No one's doubting that nature will 'recover', and to make claims like that is completely dodging the point that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of livelihoods will be destroyed for the next three-ten years because of this, and in the case of the marshlands, the increased die-off in vegetation will lead to an increase in erosion. The marsh serves an incredibly important purpose - it weakens hurricanes - and funding for rebuilding them has not been provided.

To say nothing of the chemical dispersants, whose effect we are not currently aware of.

Nashville was flooded. North Korea torpedoed a South Korean vessel. We've only begun to recover from a recession only to face deflationary pressures once again. A few days ago, it reached 95 degrees Fahrenheit in Minnesota, can you imagine what this summer is going to look like for the United States?

There is so much crap going on right now, and in the case of Louisiana in particular - it's still recovering from Katrina. And, because of BP's mess, the next hurricane is going to hit it that much harder.