Oil Spill Commission Report Finds Systemic Failure

The President's Oil Spill Commission, who was charged with determining the cause of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster and making recommendations to guard against future oilspills, released their report today.

The report is a scathing indictment of the industry for failing to have adequate response plans in place for rig blow outs and of the government for decades of lax oversight. The report makes it clear that the Deepwater Horizon spill is not an isolated incident, but the result of a systemic failure of the management and oversight of the offshore oil drilling industry.

Further, the report makes clear current practices put us in dire risk of another spill and calls for serious reform of the governments oversight of the oil industry. The report's conclusions can be summarized in three broad categories: managerial foul-ups, systemic failure and regulatory weakness. The report also suggests that the liability cap for oil spills should be dramatically increased and that most of the mitigation funding for the spill go the Gulf for restoration.

A more thorough summary of the recommendations can be found here

The report makes it clear that Obama's decision to prohibit leases in the continental US is a wise decision and is necessary to avoid another spill of this magnitude along our coasts.

See the statement released by Environment America and the Surfrider Foundation here.

More on the Oil Spill Commission and the full report can be found on their official site here.

More stories on the commission report:

Failure in the Gulf

Oil and Gas Journal - Spill panel: More government, industry reforms needed

Panel Spreads Blame For BP Oil Rig Explosion

What? It's not 100% safe?!? Oil companies' disaster plans criticized

Why have a disaster plan if your technology is 100% safe?

Apparently, that was the attitude the oil industry who seem to believe that the most important technology needed for a disaster plan is a xerox machine.

You think we are kidding?

At today's congressional hearing, Congressman Markey quipped, the only technology the companies seemed to be relying on in these plans was a Xerox machine.

Read more...

Human health effects from gulf oil spill

Crude oil contains a brew of substances dangerous to human health, including chemicals such as benzene that are known to cause cancer in humans, and others that are toxic to the brain and central nervous system, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

“There is overwhelming evidence that many of the compounds found in crude oil are dangerous,” said James Giordano, director of the Center for Neurotechnology Studies at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Arlington, Va.

A lot of the hazard will depend on the degree of exposure — placing cleanup workers, not surprisingly, at the highest risk. Brief contact with crude oil is not considered harmful, but sustained exposure or high enough doses of the chemicals can sicken people rapidly, said Dr. Cyrus Rangan, assistant medical director for the California Poison Control System.

“If you breathe them or ingest them or absorb them through skin they can cause headaches, fatigue, dizziness, even changes in mental status,” Rangan said. “The severity depends on how much you are exposed to. The longer you out there and being exposed, the higher the risk.”

Read more...

If you are considering getting involved with any clean up activities associated with the Gulf oil spill, please read our Oil Spill Volunteer Toolkit first.

Updated Oil Spill Counter: Gulf Oil Disaster is spilling 1,092,000 gallons/day

This is update on our revised estimate of the total amount of oil spilled from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Our original calculation was based on the approach used by SkyTruth, which is explained below.

A more accurate assessment of recent satellite images reveals that the volume and therefore the rate of the spill must be much higher than previously predicted. The current estimate is 26,000 barrels (1,092,000 gallons) per day.

Read how Dr. Ian MacDonald and SkyTruth made this calculation here.

Here's a summary of our prior estimate.

Oil from Gulf spill is reaching Louisiana coastline

With an oily stench permeating the air across southeastern Louisiana, a massive oil spill was expected to start coming ashore in the Mississippi River delta early Friday, triggering all-out efforts to stave off an enironmental and fishing industry disaster as some state officials feared a repeat of the botched response that doomed the region during Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.

Read more...

Oil Spill Counter: Gulf Oil Disaster is spilling 210,000 gallons a day

This is an explanation of how we determined what number to use to count the total amount of oil spilled from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

We based our calculation on the approach used by SkyTruth, which is explained below.

Using their method it is estimated that 5,000 barrels or 210,000 gallons of oil has been spilling each day since the incident began.

U.S. Coast Guard estimates:

When the Deepwater Horizon initially caught fire at 11 PM on Thursday, April 20th and burned until it sank mid morning on Thursday, April 22nd, the U.S. Coast Guard estimated that approximately 8,000 (or 336,000 gallons) barrels of oil was leaking per day.

On early Friday, April 23rd, the U.S. Coast Guard reported that the leak appeared to have stopped.

Sometime on Saturday, April 24th, the U.S. Coast Guard reported that oil was leaking from the sea floor (5000 feet below the surface) at 1,000 barrels (or 42,000 gallons) per day. Until today, that was the number they were reporting.

To our knowledge, the U.S. Coast Guard has not provided any specific justification for how these numbers were estimated.

SkyTruth estimates:

The folks at SkyTruth took a different approach. On April 27th (approximately Day 6 of the spill) they calculated the total volume of the spill based on satellite observations and divided by the amount of time that oil had occurred. This approach yields a conservative estimate that the spill is leaking approximately 5,000 barrels (or 210,000 gallons) of oil each day. It does not account for the oil that burned or has been cleaned up to that point, which, if accounted, for would make the daily estimate higher. This estimate is based on empirical evidence - the area and minimum thickness of the spill to be visible.

You can read this post by SkyTruth here to see precisely how this calculation was made.

February 21, 2011 Update: SkyTruth wanted us to note that Dr. Ian MacDonald from FSU was the one who initially calculated the 26,500 barrel a day estimate. Read here.

Oil Spill Continues; Slick Grows; Coasts Threatened

National Geographic reports:

Response teams were deploying remote-operated submarines in an urgent effort Sunday to stop the flow of oil from the site of the accident in the Gulf of Mexico that destroyed the BP-leased rig, the Deepwater Horizon.

If the gambit fails, it could take months to stop the leak-now estimated at 42,000 gallons per day of crude oil, according to the joint U.S. government and oil industry task force.

Response teams were deploying remote-operated submarines in an urgent effort Sunday to stop the flow of oil from the site of the accident in the Gulf of Mexico that destroyed the BP-leased rig, the Deepwater Horizon.

The best hope is that the remote-operated submarines-at least four are deployed at the scene--would be able to activate a huge device on the sea floor called a "blow-out protector," a series of valves meant to control pressure in the well. "This is a highly complex operation," said Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for BP's exploration and production division. "And it may not be successful."

If that operation fails, the next option is to drill a relief well-a process that would take at least two to three months, said Suttles. A BP rig equipped for this task is to arrive at the scene by Monday.

In the above graphic, note the Wildlife Reserves in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Also, should the oil become entrained in the Florida Loop Current it could be transported along the Florida Reef Tract, through the Keys and to the Florida east coast. A recent aerial photograph of the oil slick, plus additional images of the Deepwater Horizon blowout can be seen here.

-- UPDATE: 1:30 PM PST --

According to the NY Times, "Coast Guard officials said Monday afternoon that the oil spill near Louisiana was now covering more than 1,800 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico, and they have been unable to engage a mechanism that could shut off the well thousands of feet below the ocean's surface." Also "The unified command is monitoring the situation and is working closely with officials from Fish and Wildlife, National Marine Fisheries Service and NOAA to understand the impact the spill and response activities may have on whales and other marine wildlife in the area."

Coast Guard: "We are dealing with a very serious spill"

The U.S. Coast Guard announced today that the agency has found not one, but two leaks in the line below the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which sank 50 miles off the Louisiana coast this week. After using submersibles to survey the site, Coast Guard officials announced that the breaches were leaking approximately 42,000 gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.

"We thought what we were dealing with as of yesterday was a surface residual (oil) from the mobile offshore drilling unit," said Rear Admiral Mary Landry. "In addition to that is oil emanating from the well. It is a big change from yesterday ... This is a very serious spill, absolutely."

News agencies are reporting that the surface slick, which measured just a few miles yesterday, had grown 25 times that size overnight and was now nearly 20 miles long by 20 miles wide.

According to the Minerals Management Service fixing the leaks will not be easy given the depth (nearly 5,000 feet).

Both government officials and environmental organization are preparing for the worst. When asked about the situation, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal acknowledged that the spill could impact not just his state, but the Mississippi, Alabama and Texas coastlines as well.


"This type of accident is certainly one of the worst-case scenarios you can imagine," said Jindal.

According to a Coast guard spokes person, high winds and 10 foot seas are hampering clean-up efforts.