The take home here is that the
oil spill has left the water column and has settled into the sediments on the
sea bottom to depths not exceeding several centimeters. Since no natural sediments saturated in oil
are observed, although ample opportunity for their occurrence exists, it is
reasonable that this layer will be consumed within even a couple of years
though no one actually knows. Or if they do, they are not saying.
Whatever the length of time
involved, the bulk of the damage is now constrained to the sea bottom itself
and will eventually clean up. This item
beats the drums of outrage a bit, but the alternatives were even more unimaginable.
It all ends with a whimper. The real achievement was that the well was
plugged before it was cut off with a relief well. We now know how to tackle the problem and we
hope never see it again. Recall these dispersants
were created because of certain previous disasters.
The good news is that we were
able to engineer a solution on the fly one mile down to the sea bed.
The Oil Slick BP Tried To Hide Has Been Discovered In
Thick Layers On the Sea Floor Over An Area of Several Thousand Square
By Washington
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22487
BP and the government famously
declared that most of the oil had disappeared.
But as I've noted, as much as 98% of the oil is still in the ocean.
But as I've noted, as much as 98% of the oil is still in the ocean.
I have repeatedly pointed out that BP and the government applied
massive amounts of dispersant to the Gulf Oil Spill in an effort to
sink and hide the oil. Many others said the same
thing.
BP and the government denied this, of course.
But the oil is not remaining hidden.
Indeed, as the Wall Street Journal noted on December
9th:
A university scientist and the federal government say they have found
persuasive evidence that oil from the massive Gulf of Mexicospill
The new findings, from scientists at the University of South Florida
***
Scientists who have been on research cruises in the Gulf in recent days
report finding layers of residue up to several centimeters thick from what they
suspect is BP oil.
The material appears in spots across several thousand square miles of seafloor, they said. In many of those
spots, they said, worms and other marine life that crawl along the sediment
appear dead, though many organisms that can swim appear healthy.
***
Tests now have started to link some oil in the sediment to the BP well
could add to the amount of money BP ends up paying to compensate for the
spill's damage.
***
The test results
also raise questions about the possible downsides of the government's use of
chemical dispersants to fight the spill.
***
Under federal direction, about 1.8 million gallons of dispersants were
sprayed on the spilled oil in an effort to break it up into tiny droplets that
natural ocean microbes could eat up. At the time,
officials said the dispersants shouldn't cause oil from the spill to sink to
the seafloor. However, more recently, a federal report said dispersants may have helped
some spilled oil sink to the sediment.
Scientific teams have reported in recent months finding a strange
substance on the Gulf floor, in some cases as far as about 80 miles from BP's
ill-fated Macondo well, which blew out in April and spilled an estimated 4.1
million barrels of oil into the Gulf before it was capped.
***
"The chemical signatures are identical," said Mr. Hollander,
who found the contaminated samples in an area of the Gulf floor off the Florida
The federal government also has found oil matching Macondo oil in Gulf
sediment, Steve Murawski, a top National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration scientist, said in an interview. He declined to disclose
how much sediment contamination the government found, or exactly where in the
Gulf it was, saying experts still are analyzing the test results.
***
Samantha Joye, a University of Georgia oceanographer, also
has found what she believes to be evidence of BP oil in Gulf sediment. She is
awaiting lab results tracing the chemical fingerprints of sediment samples she
took.
On a research cruise in the Gulf that ended Friday, she saw worms that
crawl along the Gulf floor "just decimated," she said. But eels and
fish, which can swim away, often appeared fine, she said.
The Journal noted on December
18th:
Oil from BP PLC's blown-out well has lodged in the sediment of the Gulf of Mexico at levels that may threaten marine life,
according to a federal report released Friday.
***
There is no practical way to clean up the spilled oil that has settled
deep in the Gulf, officials said, adding that microbes in the water could eventually eat it up.
The massive application of dispersants to hide the amount of oil
spilled has caused major problems to the Gulf:
- The use of
dispersants prevented clean
up of the oil by skimming, by far the easiest method of removing oil from
the water
- Dispersants make
the toxins in crude oil more bioavailable to sealife,
and scientists have found that applying Corexit to Gulf crude oil
releases many times more toxic
chemicals into the water column than would be released with
crude alone (and see this)
- Dispersant might
have caused some of the chemicals in oil to become airborne (and
see this and this)
- The crude oil
which does not become aerosolized sinks under the surface of the ocean,
and can delay the recovery
of the ecosystem by years or even decades (see the Wall Street Journal
article quoted above)
- The overwhelming majority of
studies find that dispersants slow the growth of oil-eating microbes
- Dispersants
may bioaccumulate in seafood
- Blood tests
show elevated levels of toxic
hydrocarbons in Gulf residents
Extend-And-Pretend Will Fail
As I noted in May -
shortly after the spill started - the responses of the government to the Gulf
Oil spill and to the financial crisis are remarkably similar, as both have focused on covering up the
problems, instead of actually fixing them. Because the financial system was
never really reformed, the next financial shock will send the economy reeling.
Because the oil was never properly cleaned up, the next hurricane will
stir up immense quantities of oil now lying on the sea floor.
Extend-and-pretend is being attempted in both cases, and - in both
cases - it will fail, because nothing has been fixed, and the fundamentals can
only remain hidden for so long.
Moreover, in both cases, the government used "highly toxic"
measures to try to hide the real problems. The government has used
"emergency measures" and virtually all of its resources to prop up
the giant banks instead of using the proven methods of restructuring insolvent banks and
prosecuting the criminals who
caused the crisis, which has caused major problems for the real
economy.
Similarly, the government applied close to 2 million gallons of highly
toxic dispersant to hide the amount of oil instead of using it's resources to
deploy tried-and-true clean up methods, which has caused significant problems for
the Gulf.
Finally, new and potentially bigger crises will take place, because
regulation hasn't been put in place to prevent them. Regulation of the
financial system - including international agreements like Basil III - have been gutted (and
see this). And as Time
magazine notes:
Congress never managed to pass legislation that would have overhauled
drilling safety.
