Dead deep-sea corals found near BP well

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25,000 barrels of oil a day, 25,000 barrels a day, take 1 down...

Having trouble wrapping your head around 25,000 barrels of oil? Equal to 1,050,000 million gallons. The amount we have been using to estimate the amount of oil gushing into the gulf everyday for the last 62 days! This is a startling and helpful visualization.

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Letter to BP from 3rd Graders

Surfrider received a copy of the following letter from a 3rd grade class at Children's Day School in San Francisco:

Dear Tony Hayward of BP,

We are respectfully asking for an inspection of the Atlantis. We have been following how the Horizon leak has affected the creatures and the people living in and around the Gulf of Mexico.

We know some of the effects of oil in the environment include fish gills getting clogged with oil, and native plants and habitats being destroyed. We learned that birds cannot fly or stay warm with oil on on their wings, and that they will ingest the oil when cleaning themselves and get sick. It may also prevent them being able to hatch their eggs. Oil limits the amount of oxygen available in the water for animals, and may alter the migration paths of animals. Threatened animals may become endangered or extinct.

We know that some of the human impacts include people's eyes and lungs burning. People might leave and businesses would suffer. The oil may contaminate the drinking water. Fishermen are not able to fish or make a living. Communities outside of the gulf are suffering as well.

We respect what your company does but sometimes you need to stop, and make it safe for others. Stopping the pumps will cost money, but another disaster like this may destroy your company. Think of your employees, your customers and people everywhere. What you do affects everyone.

If you don't prevent another leak from happening you are setting yourself up for disaster.

Please consider what we are saying.

Sincerely,

The Blue Jays

MMS apologizes for inappropriate Drill, Baby, Drill cake

Just in case you didn't feel that MMS was too cozy with the oil drilling industry, their Alaska office removed all doubt. See apology below after NY Times reported on MMS office celebrating the recent finds about their office lacking appropriate environmental standards in review proposed oil drilling efforts in the Arctic with a cake decorated with "Drill, Baby, Drill" on it.

From: Goll, John
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2010 7:53 AM
To: MMS Employees Nationwide
Subject: Apology to MMS

As the manager in charge of the Alaska Region, I apologize to
everyone in the Minerals Management Service with regard to the cake
at a recent Alaska Region All Hands meeting, as reported in a New
York Times article today. The cake had the words "Drill, Baby,
Drill', plus other words which were meant to take light of the words.
This was simply wrong to have. I failed in preventing this from
happening in my office.

jg

John Goll

Regional Director, Alaska

U.S. Minerals Management Service

3801 Centerpoint Drive, Suite 500

Anchorage, AK 99503

907-334-5200

This week Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled a plan to separate MMS into three agencies because the energy development, enforcement and revenue collecting functions have conflicting missions and must be separated. Lack of oversight on safety devices and procedures are partly to blame for the BP blow out.

EPA Orders Use of a Less Toxic Chemical in Gulf

One month and 700,000 gallons later, the EPA decides that Corexit, the dispersant that BP has been pumping into the gulf in massive quantities, is too risky to use.

Wow. It took our lead environmental agency a month to figure this out and then only in response from scientists and politicians who have pointed to less toxic alternatives. We must do better.

In directing BP to select a less toxic dispersant, the Environmental Protection Agency said it was exercising caution because so little is known about the chemicals’ potential impact.

BP has sprayed nearly 700,000 gallons of Corexit dispersants on the surface of the gulf and directly onto the leaking well head a mile underwater. It is by far the largest use of chemicals to break up an oil spill in United States waters to date.

Scientists and politicians have questioned why the E.P.A. is allowing use of the Corexit products when less toxic alternatives are available.

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Stupid is as stupid does...

Just when you thought BP couldn't get any stupider...

In the wake of yesterday's failed attempt to place a containment dome over the breach of the Macondo well (as they are referring to it now), BP is now proposing a new idea - something called a "junk shot."

The effort quite literally involves taking junk - shredded automobile tires, golf balls and other debris - and trying to jam it into the opening of the leak to clog the flow of oil.

That's all we need...an ocean full of oil AND trash!

With growing acrimony over BP's handling of the spill, paired with this weekend's failure to place a dome over the leak, company officials are already acknowledging that the junk shot option offers only marginal chance of success. And there's also this - experts have warned that any further damage to the blowout preventer (you know, that valve that was supposed to prevent a blowout, but didn't) could cause the oil to start shooting out at up to 12 times the current rate.

Meanwhile oil continues to wash ashore along Louisiana, Mississippi, and now Alabama.

-- UPDATE: Monday 2:00 p.m. pst --

Another idea from the great minds at BP...

BP and local officials in Louisiana are also contemplating a plan to build up almost 70 miles of barrier islands by dredging sand and mud from a mile out in the Gulf of Mexico and depositing it onto the outer shores of the islands. A project of this scale normally requires years of environmental assessment to ensure that the cure is not worse than the disease, but officials say there is no time for that now.

Effort to place dome over the leak fails

The effort to place a containment dome over one of two remaining leaks from last month's Deepwater Horizon oil spill has failed.

According to CNN, BP was unable to place the structure over the breach due to large volumes of hydrates - crystals which form when gas combines with water - accumulated inside the dome.

The structure is now sitting on the ocean floor off to the side of the wellhead.

Surfrider Foundation has also received unconfirmed reports that the effort may have somehow actually made the situation worse.

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.