Coast Guard: Oil leaking from well at blast site

My Way News ^ | Apr 24, 6:08 PM (ET) | By CAIN BURDEAU

[Texas Fossil]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The Coast Guard discovered Saturday that oil is leaking from the damaged well that fed a massive rig that exploded this week off Louisiana's coast, while bad weather halted efforts to clean up the mess that threatens the area's fragile marine ecosystem.

As recently as Friday, the Coast Guard said no oil appeared to escaping from the well head on the ocean floor. Rear Adm. Mary Landry said the leak was a new discovery but could have begun when the rig sank on Thursday, two days after the initial explosion.

"This is a very serious spill, absolutely," Landry said.

Coast Guard and company officials estimate that as much as 1,000 barrels of oil is escaping each day after studying information from remotely operated vehicles and the size of the oil slick surrounding the blast site. The rainbow-colored sheen of oil stretched 20 miles by 20 miles on Saturday - about 25 times larger than it appeared to be a day earlier, Landry said.

[Texas Fossil]

" The sunken rig may have as much as 700,000 gallons of diesel on board, and an undetermined amount of oil has spilled from the rig itself."

That might be the key in explaining the spill.

[Condor51]

...bad weather halted efforts to clean up the mess that threatens the area's fragile marine ecosystem.

(banging my head on the desk)

"the 'mess'?"
Where the heck did this guy go to school. The mess' ain't exactly professional sentence structure. It may be okay in common usage like at a Bar, but in a newspaper? I'd fire his butt pdq. Along with whomever proof read this article.

And pleeeeeease. Stop with the tired and old "fragile ecosystem" bullcarp. Buy a new cliché thesaurus will ya, sheesh.

'Every time a Bulldozer starts up, another 'fragile ecosystem' is at risk of extinction.'

[Texas Fossil]

The Big Lie from the MSM continues

[raybbr]

while bad weather halted efforts to clean up the mess that threatens the area's fragile marine ecosystem.

OMG, I didn't know the Gulf of Mexico was fragile.

Jeez, the hyperbole.

[depressed in 06]

Why is there so little noise from the don’t drill crowd? This would seem to be their Three Mile Island.

[thackney]

But later trips by the remotely operated vehicles, called ROVs, discovered oil shooting from the end of the pipe-like riser that had connected the rig to the blowout preventer.

A second, smaller leak was found in a section of drill pipe near the well head.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2499920/posts

[snoringbear]

“Jeez, the hyperbole”

Yeah, for sure. The enviro-nazis wildest wettest dreams have been answered. This incident will become their response to any attempted legislation to expand offshore drilling. Actually, 1,000 barrels per day is, as we say here in Texas, fly $hit in pepper. I wonder how much crude leakage naturally occurs during anh given day in the gulf? I’m betting it’s a lot more than 1,000 barrels.

[Texas Fossil]

Thanks for update. I was/am sceptical about the article I posted. It is a news item, but coverage should be factual. Our MSM coverage never is.

[knarf]

I’ll jes’ BeTcha’ an Alaskan land rig wouldn’t be so damaging to a “delicate ecosystem”

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

[IronJack]

the area's fragile marine ecosystem.

Have you ever noticed that you can't have a "marine ecosystem" that's not "fragile?" The modifier is de riguer when writing environmental alarmist stories.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

threatens the area's fragile marine ecosystem -- 42,000 gallons of oil are "spewing each day."

The ideological issue of Marxist-Alinskyite-Leninist alien Democrat youths (MALADY) of 1960s campus rabble arguably now the the Establishment sound the alarm: Save the world! end oil drilling in the Gulf!

Where were they for the last 145 million years?

http://geology.com/news/2007/enormous-oil-seepage-in-the-gulf-of-mexico.shtml

"The Gulf of Mexico is an area where such natural seepage occurs at a very high rate. Of the 200,000 metric tons of oil seepage that is thought to occur each year, about 150,000 metric tons escapes from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico."

150,000 / 365 = 411 metric tons a day

411 * 2,205 pounds per metric ton = 906,255 pounds

At 7 pounds per gallon: 906,255 pounds / 7 = 129,465 gallons a day naturally.

42,000 is about 1/3.

The Gulf of Mexico was formed during the Late Jurassic period, that's something like 145 million years ago. Now assuming that seepage didn't start until one million years ago it means that with 1\3 more seepage the damage done in those million years will now take a mere 670,000 years by my figurin'.

By all means, let's stop drilling for oil. Get those life-ending contraptions out of the Gulf. Now! Power to the people! Bring it all down, man.

[sionnsar]

the area's fragile marine ecosystem.

Is there no robust ecosystem anywhere in the world?

[BloodnGuts]

That should be on every front page.

[esarlls3]

This article has a picture of the end of the drill pipe with oil escaping.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8642518.stm

[Smokin' Joe]

OMG, I didn't know the Gulf of Mexico was fragile.

After all, all those Category 4 and 5 hurricanes did was slosh it a bit...it's still there!

[faucetman]

Logic tells me that drilling in the Gulf would REDUCE the pressure causing “seepage”, would it not? Hence LESS seepage.

[Republic of Texas]

If this had happened a few years ago, Bush would be blamed for the whole thing. From the decision to be there in the first place to the response. We need to start blaming Obama for everything, including this.

[Texas Fossil]

Thanks for the link.

Obozo said it is his administration’s number 1 priority. Is that reassuring?

[Vob]

“paved paradise”
http://www.physorg.com/news191397828.html

vob