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#51828
How to stop the oil spill...and could it affect the Flower Gardens?
Greg - 5/24/2010 12:33 PM
Category: General
Replies: 24

Never mind the clean up efforts for a bit, let’s consider how to STOP the spill. It’s pumping somewhere between 25,000 and 80,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico every day! BP has come up with some interesting ideas in attempt to stop the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, so far, none have worked. The spill is 5000 feet below the surface of the ocean! Can golf balls and tire shreds really stop it? What’s your idea?


Also, could it affect the Flower Gardens...?
"Currently, the oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon disaster is being propelled towards the southern US coastline by ocean and wind currents. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is projecting that the oil slick will continue movement east and west with little movement projected south towards the Flower Garden Banks coral reef. However, the leaking oil is not expected to be capped for at least several more weeks, leaving the oil spill that is currently the size of Delaware to continue to grow."
#20384
LatitudeAdjustment - 5/25/2010 9:00 AM
BP should have had these ideas and plans in place BEFORE they started drilling, not building a suggestion box a month after the blow out!
#4846
Eve - 5/25/2010 9:17 AM
No sense talking about what should have been done, no sense wasteing that time, why are they not drilling on either side and capping it, or are they? Did any one watch Good morning america this morning? Finally a view from a divers prespective. Sam Champion and Costeuas grandson, sorry did not remember the full name, went under the oil spill. What a nightmare. Can we not get more divers out there with cameras? I am surprised that there are not hundreds of boats, small and large throwing in towels if needed to help. This site is a perfect site to get people involved. Divers this is your lively hood and vacations beign effected here.
#51828
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Greg - 5/25/2010 9:59 AM
From Eve: Can we not get more divers out there with cameras?



At 5000 feet deep, not sure how much help divers are going to be. The video footage was taken by unmanned robots I’m sure.
#237
Jay168 - 5/25/2010 10:51 AM


I sure hope BP and the Gov are not trying to figure out how to capitalize on this. They better start thinking about the MRINE life, instead of worrying about how much oil and money they need to recoop. JUST CLEAN IT UP already STOP the LEAK , fight over who will pay later,


I said my peace Thanks
#51828
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Greg - 5/25/2010 12:01 PM
Why not just start dumping tons of concrete down the pipe and all around it? Create a square mile concrete seabed, 20 feet thick if you have to. The Hoover damn can hold back how much water? I think we can hold back a high pressure oil leak. I suppose the main complication would be the system to get the concrete down 5000 feet underwater.
#8046
Rich-D-Fish - 5/25/2010 1:45 PM
Greg I love the concrete idea. Can we put the BP Execs into that concrete as well?
#1712
slippin2darknezz - 5/25/2010 2:01 PM
To "stop" the leak is what should have been the focus from the beginning, however BP is trying to salvage the leak where as they will be able to maintain control of the well. Free to pump oil once everything is under control and resume making a profit.To stop the leak i.e blow the well up and let it collaspe in on itself would mean BP would have to rebuild the well from the beginning, Start all over again under a new set of rules, and we all know that wont happen in this life time. Correct efforts to stop the leak by turning the operations over to the Navy should have happened a long time ago.
#51828
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Greg - 5/25/2010 5:03 PM
From slippin2darknezz: blow the well up



You’re absolutely right slippin2darknezz, they want to salvage it if they can...but it’s getting out of hand. I second the idea to blow it up and let it cave in on itself! Do we have bunker buster style torpedos? One of those should do it!
#4846
Eve - 5/25/2010 7:17 PM
No sense in BP thinking they are going to save money by salvaging the well, they are going to spend millions in clean up and lawsuits. BLOW up the well already!
#1712
slippin2darknezz - 5/25/2010 11:37 PM
Actually in the first quarter of the year BP made 600 billion in profits, so a few million to clean up is a drop in the bucket to them. Ironically with all the distractions going on in the media, the public at large should be outraged at the distruction of one of our greatest natural resources which will take generations to clean up and definetly will have a significant impact on our eco system. One thing we can take away from the senate hearings. There will be tons of finger pointing as to who is to blame. Keep the focus..BP is to blame.
#993
Dusty - 5/26/2010 2:11 AM
We can go 2 the moon, visit other planets, fly in outer space. But can’t stop an underwater oil well from seeping and spreading that goop on the ocean. Bad planning and no safety factors were in place 4 a catistrofic event.
#4846
Eve - 5/26/2010 9:21 AM
I have a question, why can we not burn off the oil that is on top of the water? does it not burn, are the fumes any more toxic then the oil slick itself? We see the oil on the surface and what it is destroying, we do not see the real damage it is doing under neath the surface. I am bothered by the real lack of ecological damage reports. I strongly feel that this site with all of its diving members will be able to use its collective knowledge and bring awareness to the damage it is causing, then bring that information to the rest of the public. With 14 thousand members on divebuddy.com I feel very sure that there are people alot more knowledegable then I on what this oil leak is doing. Please take time and consider really making people aware of the real disaster.
#20384
LatitudeAdjustment - 5/26/2010 3:29 PM


From slippin2darknezz: Correct efforts to stop the leak by turning the operations over to the Navy should have happened a long time ago.



 No no, I work for the Navy, nothing would happen until the funding is in place, then the engineers would do a study, come up with a plan and then turn it over to contracts who would advertize it for thirty days, then take a few more monthes to review the bids and then the contract would be awarded to the lowest bidder. More than likely some of the higher bidders would protest the award and we would go back to square one.


 I’m sure BP would love to pass this buck to someone else and just pay the bill if it didn’t mean losing their wellhead.
#355
firediver57 - 5/27/2010 1:47 AM
I have asked this several times and can’t get a good answer. why use dispersants? Doesn’t that only spread the mess in smaller sizes? Why not use a coagulant or absorbant that can be skimmed or vacuumed up? Then the oil could still be used, it wouldn’t be coating everything, and the shoreline cleanup would be collecting clumps and chunks not sand, and dead animals. Even if the coagulated mess sank it could still be gotten off the bottom.
#572
joelp57 - 5/27/2010 11:04 AM


BP is doing everything that they can do to get this thing under control. We, as a community, certainly understand the pressures that are applied at those depths. Things that work at normal depths are not applicable when you’re at 5000 feet. Using generic concrete as was suggested would not help because as concrete sets it contracts. Add the pressure of 5000 feet to that and it would literally implode on itself. Then you add the other laws of physics concerning the pressure from the actual well and you’ve got yourself a huge mess. If you blow the wellhead then you could certainly allow it collapse on itself, but what if there’s another weak area somewhere down the hole? Maybe two, three, a dozen? Who knows for sure? They’ve already indicated that the annulars were breached by the gases on the BOP. We could go from what we have right now, which is a disaster, to something on a much larger scale.


In the past 31 years there has only been one other incident that is like this one. Unfortunately, the technology and response has not changed in that time. The only positive thing from this is that the response is quicker than in the 1979 blowout in Mexican waters.


I can tell you now that the top kill valve was made by a company that put it together in three days. They got the call on a Wednesday and it was sent to Oceaneering on Sunday. It was also pressure tested at 8000 feet. This was done by a company who had never built anything that large. People are moving and things are being done that have never been tried before.
#1712
slippin2darknezz - 5/27/2010 3:38 PM
Wow..and I thought the Navy was the way to go...GO ARMY...lol
#5471
DiveBuddyChgo - 5/27/2010 5:12 PM
Slide a nuclear explosion device halfway down between the sea bed and the oil deposite. And Ka Booom. That should seal it up.
#86
#932
Subscribed
Joe65 - 5/30/2010 9:07 AM


This is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. The effects on the marine environment will feel the effects of this disaster for years to come. It takes 100’s of years to grow a reef system and it is horrific to thing these natural wonders could be destroyed in no time at all. I heard the president say all would be compensated for this disaster. I don’t suppose he has participated any snorkeling let alone diving. For those of us who have had the experience of seeing these wonders first hand nothing compares.There for this statement of compensation is false and misleading.


From Greg: Never mind the clean up efforts for a bit, let’s consider how to STOP the spill. It’s pumping somewhere between 25,000 and 80,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico every day! BP has come up with some interesting ideas in attempt to stop the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, so far, none have worked. The spill is 5000 feet below the surface of the ocean! Can golf balls and tire shreds really stop it? What’s your idea?






Also, could it affect the Flower Gardens...?
"Currently, the oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon disaster is being propelled towards the southern US coastline by ocean and wind currents. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is projecting that the oil slick will continue movement east and west with little movement projected south towards the Flower Garden Banks coral reef. However, the leaking oil is not expected to be capped for at least several more weeks, leaving the oil spill that is currently the size of Delaware to continue to grow."
#51828
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Greg - 5/30/2010 11:22 AM
From firediver57: why use dispersants? Doesn’t that only spread the mess in smaller sizes? Why not use a coagulant or absorbant that can be skimmed or vacuumed up? Then the oil could still be used, it wouldn’t be coating everything, and the shoreline cleanup would be collecting clumps and chunks not sand, and dead animals.

I agree, this should be used as part of the clean up effort. But stopping the darn leak should be priority number one right now. If Obama said he’s taking responsibility for this, then send in a submarine and stop it NOW!

Lets look at this from another perspective...do you think the EPA would allow a factory several weeks or months to fix a busted pipe that is dumping over 50,000 barrels of pollutants into a river every day? OR would they have taken control after a few days and stopped it themselves?

The problem here has got to be money! How can our government stand by and let a money hungry oil company attempt to fix such a horrible accident just so they have the ability to drill from it in the future? Uncle Sam should have taken over weeks ago and destroyed that well.

And here is the lasting effect: more regulations on drilling, means higher costs for oil companies which will trickle down to higher prices for consumers. So regardless of what happens WE will be paying for this mistake.
#1712
slippin2darknezz - 5/30/2010 2:26 PM
Woke up this morning and watched the news on the oil spill..and then it dawned on me what I had heard previously..Bp is drilling a relief well to so call relieve pressure and stop the leak, they estimate the relief well to be done by August. Then I thought, with all these failed attempts to stop the leak any other way, maybe its all a stall tactic to get the "relief" well drilled which is actually the "replacement" well.With the majority of the public busy looking who to point the finger at.."BP"..Not the government, not the politicians.."BP"..They keep trying things they really dont believe will work and in the mean time stalling to save the well, not the marine environment. Just my thoughts but its gonna be interesting to see how it plays out.
#1386
Zoltrac - 6/01/2010 8:48 AM
I would think a blast from a torpedo or other explosive would cause the drilled hose to collapse on itself. As long as there is enough distance I would think this would be the easiest way to stop the oil from leaking and at a minimum it would slow it enough to look at other options.
#4002
WarmWaterTurner - 6/02/2010 2:49 PM
Just lost a trip to the Flower Gardens. Charter will not reschedule until after July. The season is not looking good. Going to be month to month.