Okay, we all know that oil has been spilling into the Gulf of Mexico since the oil platform Deep Horizon exploded, burned and sank into the gulf. It was a sad day as eleven hard working “roughnecks” lost their lives in the pursuit of black gold. Environmentally, it is a disaster as well. This has now become the largest oil spill in the history of the United States and maybe the world. First things first, we still do not know the exact cause of the explosion and fire but what we do know that the BOP (or blow out preventer) failed to stop the oil leaching in the water. Why did this sophisticated device fail? Good question and no one has an answer for that either. This much I am sure of: the engineers will examine the evidence and find the cause of the failure and re-engineer it so that this never happens again. Why am I so sure of this? Because I believe in engineering, math, physics and the reasoning ability of man himself. Think of it this way, no two commercial airplane crashes have ever been caused by the exact same failure. In each crash, the FAA and NTSB investigated, found the problem and the engineers redesigned the system in question and the failure of that particular system has never happened again. Okay, I can here you saying, “But Pocket, what about all those 737 crashes that were undetermined? Weren’t they all cause by rudder instability?” Hmmm, I’ll give you that one but remember those crashes were undetermined and it was only after USAir flight 427 crashed in 1994 that the NTSB was able to determine the cause of the crash. Subsequently, this information was applied to the previous crashes as a possibility but was not the definitive reason for the crashes.
The second problem is the impact on the environment. Yes, this is bad and yes, it will take a lot of work to clean it up. And of course Mother Nature will need time to heal her wounds. Let’s face some cold hard facts here people. This disaster was manmade and as such it can be cleaned up by man. How do I know this? Two prime examples we shall examine from history. Number one, do you remember a little thing called acid rain? It was all the rage in the late 1980’s. Acid rain was going to kill us all! It was destroying the northeastern forest of Canada and polluting the lakes and water ways of the same region. What caused this acid rain? Why, it was all the sulfur being emitted from the smoke stacks of coal fired power plants. Once the source of the problem was identified the engineers attacked the problem. They designed scrubber systems that were retrofitted to the smoke stacks. These scrubber units cleaned the sulfur from the burning process and collected it. The sulfur is used in gunpowder and the vulcanization of rubber. History also shows us that the oil spilled can be reclaimed and cleaned up. The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William sound has been studied extensively. The crash of the oil tanker lead to, at the time, the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Scientists, engineers and chemists descended on the oil and devised new ways to clean the oil and collect it. Is the sound back to the way it was? Yes and no. Scientists are still debating the lasting effects of oil spill but the oil is gone and Mother Nature has healed her wounds. In the gulf, with the oil continuing to flow, the environmental impact could be greater but I don’t think it will be. First off, this spill/leak is much farther offshore then the Exxon Valdez was and second, we know how to contain and combat the oil. Skimmers, dispersants and controlled burns will help control the oil but we are still at the mercy of the gulf currents. Will there be environmental damage done? Yes. Can it be cleaned up? Yes. Will it take a long time to recover? Yes, and if Prince William Sound is any indication than the mess may truly be over in about 30 years.
So with oil still flowing in the Gulf, the big question is can BP stop the uncontrolled flow of oil? Yes, they can. Come August, when the relief wells have been drilled. Until that happens the oil will continue to flow mostly unchecked. Why hasn’t BP fixed the problem sooner? And what can be done? I don’t have the answers but it was funny watching Bill Nye the Science Guy shoot down the the people who sent in ideas to to the CNN website. Although some of the clean up ideas were sound none of the capping of the well ideas were. What people seem to forget here is that BP is bleeding money as fast as the oil is spilling out. So BP has the best and brightest minds in the country and the world working on a solution to the problem. Look folks this well is ONE MILE below the surface of the water. The pressure is immense. The pressure exerted by the water on the ROV (remote operated vehicle) is 2400psi or over 1 ton for every square inch! Yet at this depth and at the cold temperatures people are expecting miracles to happen. People also seem to forget that this location in in the Gulf of Mexico. It takes 10 hours from the the nearest port to get there. It’s not like there is a Lowes or a Home Depot just down the road. Another problem is that each time the ROV’s starts the saw blade and cuts into the pipe a large cloud of oil and derbies obscurers the view the operators have. The first idea BP had was the top hat and that failed due to the freezing methane gas crystals being caught under it. I am surprised that they did not anticipate this happening but it is easy to sit back and arm chair quarterback. Next they tried pumping high density mud into the pipe to choke down and then stop the flow of oil. This might of worked had it not be for the large amounts of methane gas “burping” and forcing the mud out. The broken and damaged pipe was another problem and it was preventing a funnel cap from being lowered over top the pipe. They tried to get a clean cut with a diamond saw but the saw got stuck (remember that pressure problem). So they shear off the pipe with a huge pair of scissors. This succeeded but left a rough edge that meant that the containment cap would not fit as snugly as hoped. At this time BP has the cap in place and is in control of the leak. Not at the oil is being captured but some is better than none.
Throughout this disaster the Government has been sticking their noses in to places it it does not belong. To call the CEO of BP in for congressional hearing is a joke in my opinion. If members of congress believe that we should not send more troops to Guam because the island will tip over and sink then what do they know about deep water offshore drilling? That’s right nothing. The next problem is that the White House forced BP to keep the live video feed from the ROV’s streaming on the internet. I believe this was wrong. Okay we know its broken. Are you trying to fix it? Yes. Are you doing everything humanly possible? Yes. Then call me when it’s fixed. There was no need for everyone to see the different containment attempts fail. It just served the purpose of the this administration that BIG OIL is bad and shouldn’t be allowed to drill for oil. By having the cameras on, BP hesitated and made sure that what they were going to try had the highest chance of success. In this case caution should be thrown out the window and wacky ideas should be thrown at the leak and whatever sticks, sticks. Alas BP was not given this freedom to do as they wished. Since I’m on about the government I find it very interesting that Obama is “looking for and ass to kick” Interesting choice of words from the teleprompter for a man so highly educated. I though at first that maybe he was just made but when I heard it in context I realized that what he said was deliberate. He chose these words carefully as to attract attention from the environmentalist who want all drilling stopped everywhere and to resonate with all the blue collar workers who just want him to be tough on BP. Nice move politically O-Show.
So what would Pocket have done? Well since the accident I wanted to put a large funnel over the pipe and collect all the oil in a tanker until the relief wells were drilled. Ultimately this looks like what BP is doing/has done. Now all we need are a few hurricanes to break up the oil. So remember the disaster was manmade and so the spill will be cleaned up by man with Mother Natures help. The engineers will find the cause of the problems and redesign their systems so this doesn’t happen again. And lastly……
Drill baby, drill!