Latest BP oil spill Updates - (Please only post TEXT or PHOTOS here)

[Gita]

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Oil SlickAround Mississippi Barrier Islands



As of June 27, 2010, the entire gulf-facing beachfront of several barrier islands in eastern Mississippi (offshore of Pascagoula) had received a designation of at least “lightly oiled” by the interagency Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Team that is responding to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. A few small stretches of Petit Bois Island had been labeled heavily or moderately oiled.
This high-resolution image shows Petit Bois Island (top right) and the eastern end of Horn Island (top left) on June 26. In general, oil-covered waters are silvery and cleaner waters are blue-gray. This pattern is especially consistent farther from the islands. The intensely bright patches of water directly offshore of the barrier islands, however, may be from a combination of factors, including sediment and organic material, coastal currents and surf, and oil.

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[Gita]

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Storm to hurt BP spill clean-up

HOUSTON - High winds and large waves expected in the Gulf of Mexico as the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season passes to the west are likely to slow efforts to contain the largest oil spill in US history.

As costs associated with the spill mount, shares in London-based energy giant BP Plc are languishing near 14-year lows, prompting the New York Federal Reserve to investigate potential systemic risks posed by the company.

The Gulf oil crisis is in its 71st day with no firm end in sight. The economic and ecological costs -- to tourism, wildlife, fishing and other industries -- continue to mount for four states along the US Gulf coast.

Tropical Storm Alex, forecast to reach hurricane strength on Tuesday, is projected to travel well west and south of the undersea gusher about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast.

But plans to move a third containment vessel to the leaking well could be pushed back by about a week by high waves associated with Alex, a BP spokesman said on Monday.

US government officials estimate that 35,000 to 60,000 barrels are leaking from the blown-out well each day.

BP's current containment system can handle up to 28,000 barrels daily. The planned addition would have raised that to 53,000 bpd, said Kent Wells, a senior vice president with BP.

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[Gita]

Gulf oil disaster: Pensacola Beach (click to see all 22 photos)


Kevin Reed, 36, of Pensacola breaks down and weeps upon seeing the oil-defiled shores of Pensacola Beach on June 23, 2010. Reed's father taught him to swim in these waters, and Reed just taught his five year old son to swim here. "This will never be the same," he says. "I'd like to take the CEO of BP and jam his face in that pile on the beach."



Oil pools on Pensacola Beach after being stepped in by David Crocco, 42, of Los Angeles. Crocco intentionally stepped into the oil as part of a film being produced by Truth-Action Productions.

[Gita]

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California Notified Of Gulf Evacuation Plans

A well-placed source in California told WMR that the California Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) has been briefed by its counterpart agencies in the Gulf coast states that there are plans to conduct a mass evacuation of millions of Gulf coast residents due to the catastrophic environmental and public health effects of the BP oil disaster.

CEMA officials have been briefed on the planned evacuations by counterparts in the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, and the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

The Gulf states’ emergency planners stressed to their California counterparts that they are dealing with a disaster of unprecedented proportions and that contingency plans are being constantly updated and revised on ways to deal with the transformation of the Gulf of Mexico into a deadly “toxic soup” of oil and Corexit 9500 oil dispersants and the atmosphere into a dangerous mixture of hydrocarbon gases.

CEMA was briefed on the impending mass evacuation since California would be expected to absorb a large number of evacuees from the Gulf states. CEMA officials did not say how the state of California, which is virtually bankrupt, would pay for the influx of hundreds of thousands and perhaps greater numbers of evacuees from the Gulf coastal region.

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Source

[Gita]

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Panic brews on Gulf coast under suspicions of oil spill media blackout of threats to public safety

A quiet panic is brewing among residents of Florida’s Gulf coast. People are starved for updates and official information, and the lack of them is accelerating conspiracy theories and rumors of a media blackout. Founded or not, to residents they are quite real.

Unconfirmed reports of evacuations have been circling the internet, along with suggestions that they will never be implemented because the scale is too enormous. Why announce a plan that can’t be carried out? That has led to theories that human life is more expendable than political careers and BP’s public image.


Official government websites like the Deepwater Horizon Response and FEMA are not providing the news people are looking for. Additionally, the mainstream media seems to be airing less information about the crisis rather than more.

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[ahamkara]

Thank you to all the members posting updates. I noticed today in a New York Times article that BP announced "back up" plans, should the relief wells fail.

U.S.
BP Discussing a Backup Strategy to Contain Oil
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: June 28, 2010
The contingency plan is a sign that with an engineering challenge like snuffing a gusher 5,000 feet down, nothing is certain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/us/29wells.html

[Grizzom]

FEMA Has Plans to Evacuate Tampa Bay Area In Place ?



Source

[astrid]

FINALLY!!!

US accepts international assistance for Gulf spill

By TOM BREEN, Associated Press Writer Tom Breen, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jun 29, 9:14 pm ET

NEW ORLEANS – The United States is accepting help from 12 countries and international organizations in dealing with the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the State Department said Tuesday.

The State Department said in a news release that the U.S. is working out the particulars of the help that's been accepted.

More than 30 countries and international organizations have offered to help with the spill. The U.S. hasn't made a final decision on most of the offers.

The United States rarely faces a disaster of such magnitude that it requires international aid, but the government did accept assistance after Hurricane Katrina.

Most of the countries and groups have offered skimmers, boom or dispersant chemicals, according to a chart on the State Department's website.

"To be clear, the acceptance of international assistance we announced today did not mean to imply that international help was arriving only now," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. "In fact, before today, there were 24 foreign vessels operating in the region and nine countries had provided boom, skimmers and other assistance."

He said as early as May 11, boom arrived from Mexico, Norway and Brazil.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_o...FjY2VwdHNpbnQ-

[astrid]

Obama Declares State of Emergency In Texas

June 29, 2010

My Fox Chicago

(NewsCore) – U.S. President Barack Obama declared an emergency in Texas Tuesday as tropical storm Alex gathered strength.

Federal aid would be made available to supplement state and local response efforts, a White House press release said.

Obama’s action also authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate disaster relief efforts — in such areas as identifying, mobilizing and providing equipment and resources.

The president’s announcement comes after Texas Governor Rick Perry sent a letter to Obama requesting a pre-landfall emergency declaration.

Authorities issued hurricane warnings in Texas and northeastern Mexico Tuesday as forecasters predicted that Alex would reach hurricane strength within hours, AFP reported.

On its current path the center of Alex will make landfall just south of the U.S.-Mexico border late Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said.

http://theintelhub.com/2010/06/29/ob...ency-in-texas/

[astrid]

Alert: Obama Warns World Leaders ‘Millions Could Die’ From Gulf Oil Disaster

A sobering report circulating in the Kremlin today from President Medvedev’s meeting with other World leaders at the G8 summit in Muskoka, Ontario states that President Obama has warned his counterparts that the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster “will most likely kill millions, perhaps tens of millions” of people during the coming year.

Fueling Obama’s dire assessment of this “Gulf Apocalypse”, this report says, are the oil and toxic rains now being reported to be falling throughout the US Gulf Coast region due to the fracturing of the Gulf of Mexico seafloor allowing untold millions of gallons of oil and millions of cubic feet of methane gas to escape unchecked into our World’s seventh largest body of water, not to mention the millions of gallons of dangerous disbursements being used that is poisoning everything in its path.

So dangerous has the Gulf Coast environment become to human beings the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a warning that, in part, says: “People, including pregnant women, can be exposed to these chemicals by breathing them (air), by swallowing them (water, food), or by touching them (skin). If possible, everyone, including pregnant women, should avoid the oil and spill-affected areas.”

more here......

http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2010/0...Alert+Press%29

[Gita]

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Examiner Bio Tropical Storm Alex speeding up: Satellite video, hurricane warnings for Texas, forecast maps

Hurricane warnings have been posted for parts of the Texas coast as Alex is poised to strengthen between now and landfall. Winds are currently holding at 70 mph and tropical storm force winds extend 105 miles away from the center. The movement has increased to the northwest at 13 mph. This may speed up landfall to Wednesday night. This also puts it over warmer water in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico which will help strengthen this storm.



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[Gita]

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Gulf oil cleanup stalled by tropical storm

BP and the U.S. Coast Guard sent oil-skimming ships in the Gulf of Mexico back to shore Tuesday as tropical storm Alex churned up rough seas and powerful winds.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Dave French said all efforts had been halted for now off the Louisiana coast. Efforts had also been halted off the coasts of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.

French said workers were using the time off the water to replenish supplies and perform maintenance work on equipment.

"We're ready to go as soon as conditions allow us to get those people back out and fighting this oil spill," French said.

The loss of skimming work combined with 40 km/h gusts that are driving water into the coast has left beaches especially vulnerable. In Alabama, the normally white beaches were streaked with long lines of oil, and tar balls collected on the sand. One swath of beach 12 metres wide was stained brown.

Although its outer edges were causing problems out in the Gulf, tropical storm Alex was projected to stay well away from the spill zone itself. The storm was expected to make landfall as a hurricane on Wednesday just south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

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[Gita]

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 2010 Photos: Images from June 29, 2010

[Gita]

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There’s no easy solution for the puzzling fish kill in St. Johns

If you think the month-long fish kill on the St. Johns River is an annual event that just came early this year — think again.

That's the message that two men with close ties to the river want you to know.

The persistent plague of dead fish on the St. Johns that began around Memorial Day isn't caused by a cycle of summer oxygen depletion, insists Jimmy Orth, the executive director of the St. Johns Riverkeeper.


A dead red fish floats belly up in the St. Johns River north of the Buckman Bridge Monday, June 7, 2010. A multitude of dead red fish have been reported for the past two weeks with the cause being unknow at present.


"This kill is unprecedented," he said. He explained that fish kills due to low oxygen levels are typically confined to smaller areas, not as widespread as the problem has become.

Fish continue to die in an area from roughly the Buckman Bridge south to Lake George — where the algal bloom is the worst.

Liz Miller, environmental manager of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said in an e-mail last week that dissolved oxygen is monitored by the St. Johns River Water Management District throughout the river — from Lake George to two miles north of Palatka.

"Monitoring at these stations has not indicated any D.O. [dissolved oxygen] crashes" at those sites, she said.

As of Thursday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Fish Kill Hotline had received 290 calls regarding the St. Johns River. Catalina Brown, who oversees the hotline, said the frequency of calls is slowing. But Orth counters that the number of dead and dying fish is not diminishing — only the phone calls.

"Most people will call once, not every time they see a dead fish."

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[Gita]

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Oil spill: Is Gulf safe for swimming?

The Escambia County Health Department lifted a health advisory on Pensacola Beach on Friday on the advice of a beach official and against the advice of a federal environmental official.

And hours after the Pensacola Beach advisory was lifted, the health department asked for state approval to issue an oil-impact advisory that leaves the decision to swim in the Gulf of Mexico up to the discretion of individual beachgoers.

The signs would be posted on 41 of the 43 miles of Escambia County beaches — from the Florida-Alabama line to just west of Portofino Beach — impacted by oil.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency plans to put decontamination stations along the beach, possibly as early as this weekend.

These moves send conflicting signals about how safe it is to swim in the Gulf of Mexico as the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill broadens.

Dr. John Lanza, director of Escambia County Health Department, said the reason for leaving the decision up to beachgoers on whether to swim is because the oil situation on the beach is “very dynamic.”……….

So far, 400 people have sought medical care for upper or lower respiratory problems, headaches, nausea, and eye irritation after trips to Escambia County beaches, Lanza said.

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[Gita]

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Obama Is Deliberately Protracting Gulf Oil Disaster

If you were the President of the United States and you see that Gulf wildlife are dying and fishermen and tourist businesses are suffering from the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, wouldn’t you do EVERYTHING humanly possible to help? I would. I would be down on the beach with my sleeves rolled up to help with the cleanup, picking up tarballs and cleaning off oil from seabirds.

Instead, Obama has turned down 13 countries’ offers to help clean up the BP oil spill. The Dutch were the first to offer assistance that, if accepted, would have cleaned up the spill in a matter of weeks.

Frustrated by the federal government’s inaction and BP’s ineffectiveness, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal took action and got oil-fighting vacuum barges to remove the oil. But then the Coast Guard shut down all 16 barges last Wednesday, claiming their operations needed to be halted until inspections and certifications could be done.

In other words, the situation as it stands now is as follows:

BP is ineffective at stopping the roiling oil spill.
The spill is getting worse. CBS News is reporting that there could be as much as 1 billion barrels of oil under the damaged BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and that it could keep flowing for more than a decade.
Obama inexplicably and irrationally refused 13 countries’ offers to help.
The Obama administration is also thwarting Gulf coast states and private citizens from helping.
The unavoidable conclusion is this:

(A) Obama is either grossly incompetent and unfeeling; or

(B) He’s so evil that he’s deliberately protracting and worsening the spill so as to foist on us the Cap ‘n Trade Tax “climate change” bill. Just as ObamaCare is not about health care, so Cap ‘n Tax is not about the climate. It’s all about more power to the already too-big too-powerful government.

My vote is for (B).

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[Gita]

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Department of Energy: Segments of Oil Well Casing Were Violently Ejected Upwards Into the Blowout Preventer

Oil industry expert Matt Simmons has said for many weeks that the well casing was destroyed by the initial explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig. He said that when oil wells blow out, the casing often shoots up above ground.

He has been ridiculed on the basis that no one has seen well casing on the seafloor.

But the Department of Energy has just partly exonerated Simmons. As the Los Angeles Times notes today:

A team of scientists from the Energy Department discovered a new twist: Their sophisticated imaging equipment detected not one but two drill pipes, side by side, inside the wreckage of the well's blowout preventer on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

BP officials said it was impossible. The Deepwater Horizon rig, which drilled the well, used a single pipe, connected in segments, to bore 13,000 feet below the ocean floor. But when workers cut into the wreckage to install a containment cap this month, sure enough, they found two pipes.

The discovery suggested that the force of the erupting petroleum from BP's well on April 20 was so violent that it sent pipe segments hurtling into the blowout preventer, like derailing freight cars.

It also offered a tantalizing theory for the failure of the well's last line of defense, the powerful pinchers called shear rams inside the blowout preventer that should have cut the pipe and stopped the rising oil and gas from reaching the Deepwater Horizon 5,000 feet above. Drilling experts say those rams, believed to be partially deployed, could have been thwarted by the presence of a second pipe.

The doubled-up drill pipe joins a list of clues that is helping scientists understand the complexities of the Deepwater Horizon accident, and from that, craft changes in how deep-water drilling is conducted.

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[MorningSong]

US accepts international assistance for Gulf spill

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-acc....html?x=0&.v=2

US accepts international assistance for Gulf spill
US accepts international assistance in dealing with massive oil spill in Gulf of Mexico
ap

On Tuesday June 29, 2010, 6:43 pm EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States is accepting help from 12 countries and international organizations in dealing with the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The State Department said in a statement Tuesday that the U.S. is working out the particulars of the help that's been accepted.

The identities of all 12 countries and international organizations were not immediately announced. One country was cited in the State Department statement -- Japan, which is providing two high-speed skimmers and fire containment boom.

More than 30 countries and international organizations have offered to help with the spill. The State Department hasn't indicated why some offers have been accepted and others have not.

From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_630178.html

TOM BREEN | 06/29/10 09:14 PM | AP

NEW ORLEANS — The United States is accepting help from 12 countries and international organizations in dealing with the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the State Department said Tuesday.

The State Department said in a news release that the U.S. is working out the particulars of the help that's been accepted.

More than 30 countries and international organizations have offered to help with the spill. The U.S. hasn't made a final decision on most of the offers.

The United States rarely faces a disaster of such magnitude that it requires international aid, but the government did accept assistance after Hurricane Katrina.

Most of the countries and groups have offered skimmers, boom or dispersant chemicals, according to a chart on the State Department's website.

"To be clear, the acceptance of international assistance we announced today did not mean to imply that international help was arriving only now," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. "In fact, before today, there were 24 foreign vessels operating in the region and nine countries had provided boom, skimmers and other assistance."

He said as early as May 11, boom arrived from Mexico, Norway and Brazil.

The chart indicated offers have been accepted from six countries – Canada, Mexico, Croatia, Holland, Norway and Japan. Offers also were accepted from two groups – the International Maritime Organization and the Monitoring and Information Center, which is operated by the European Commission.

The two organizations are offering technical assistance. Mexico, Norway, Holland and Japan are providing skimmers; Canada is providing containment boom; and Croatia is pitching in with technical advice.

Only one offer has been rejected, according to the chart. Dispersant chemicals offered by France are not approved for use in the U.S.

The chart did not list the other four countries or groups from which the U.S. has accepted help.

The State Department referred calls to the Unified Area Command Joint Information Center in Louisiana, which didn't immediately have more information available Tuesday night.

Almost all the countries and groups expect to be paid for their help, although the technical coordination from the two international groups and some containment boom offered by Mexico are free.

[astrid]

This is from unknown origin , so take it as u wish......

[astrid]

Department of Energy: Oil Well Drill Pipe Was Violently Ejected Upwards Into the Blowout Preventer

Washington’s Blog

The Department of Energy says that drill pipe from the BP pil well was violently ejected upwards into the blowout preventer.

As the Los Angeles Times notes today:

A team of scientists from the Energy Department discovered a new twist: Their sophisticated imaging equipment detected not one but two drill pipes, side by side, inside the wreckage of the well's blowout preventer on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

BP officials said it was impossible. The Deepwater Horizon rig, which drilled the well, used a single pipe, connected in segments, to bore 13,000 feet below the ocean floor. But when workers cut into the wreckage to install a containment cap this month, sure enough, they found two pipes.

The discovery suggested that the force of the erupting petroleum from BP's well on April 20 was so violent that it sent pipe segments hurtling into the blowout preventer, like derailing freight cars.

It also offered a tantalizing theory for the failure of the well's last line of defense, the powerful pinchers called shear rams inside the blowout preventer that should have cut the pipe and stopped the rising oil and gas from reaching the Deepwater Horizon 5,000 feet above. Drilling experts say those rams, believed to be partially deployed, could have been thwarted by the presence of a second pipe.

The doubled-up drill pipe joins a list of clues that is helping scientists understand the complexities of the Deepwater Horizon accident, and from that, craft changes in how deep-water drilling is conducted.

"We still don't really know what's in" the well wreckage, said Energy Secretary Steven Chu, whose team discovered the second pipe using gamma-ray imaging. He added: "If there were two drill pipes down there when the shear rams closed, or two drill pipes below, is it possible that in the initial accident … there was an explosive release of force?…Did it buckle and snap?…The more we know about this, the better we can know what to do next."



more here.....
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/sec...een-demolished