06/29/2010

Mike Soraghan, E&E reporter

Environmental and liberal groups announced today that they have collected more than 400,000 signatures urging President Obama to reverse his plan to allow drilling in new offshore areas.

“The American public does not want more drills and spills,” said Anna Aurilio, director of the Washington office of Environment America, at a Capitol Hill news conference. “If anything, they want more windmills.”

Aurilio stood in a hearing room with cardboard boxes that bore the names of the eight environmental groups that circulated petitions against the expansion of drilling. Among them were Environment America, Greenpeace, Oceana, MoveOn.org and the Sierra Club. She was joined by Athan Manuel of the Sierra Club and three Democratic House members, Kathy Castor of Florida, John Garamendi of California and Frank Pallone of New Jersey.

“The American people are way ahead of the U.S. Congress on this issue,” Castor said at the event. “We’ve got to fight through Big Oil’s PR campaign. They downplay the risks. They contribute to campaigns.”

The oil industry says the environmental campaign does not prove any groundswell of opposition to offshore drilling.

“Hundreds of thousands of Americans have said they are in favor of offshore drilling,” said Cathy Landry, spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute. “And even after the spill, polls indicate the majority of Americans support expanded development.”

The comments solicited by environmental groups were submitted to the Interior Department as part of the process of evaluating the Obama administration’s offshore drilling policy, embodied in a five-year plan released in March. The deadline for comments for this stage of the process is tomorrow.

In releasing the five-year plan, Obama announced what he called an “expansion” of offshore drilling, proposing new drilling off the coasts of Alaska, Florida and Virginia. Most of those proposals have been scaled back, but the environmental groups want Obama to turn more fully away from drilling (E&E Daily, March 31).

As he tried to assert his control over spill response and policy in late May, Obama delayed the proposed oil lease sale off the coast of Virginia and suspended two planned exploration projects by Royal Dutch Shell PLC off the coast of Alaska. He also declared a moratorium that was later lifted by a federal judge (E&E Daily, May 28).

That still allows preliminary exploration activities along the southern Atlantic Coast and could allow the Virginia and Alaska drilling projects to restart in the next five-year plan. The petitions sought to block those possibilities. Each group’s wording was somewhat different, but each stated that new drilling should be stopped.

Special thanks to Richard Charter.

COASTA~2

Hello All,

I put together some photos that illustrate what we have been seeing during our surveys over the last eight weeks on the Gulf coast in terms of pre and post oil landfall impacts to beach-nesting birds, shorebirds and shorebird habitat. This can be considered part of the visual data that the CBC is collecting.

You may circulate this PDF to any appropriate parties.

Best,

Margo

Margo Zdravkovic
Director
Coastal Bird Conservation/Conservian
Conserving Coastal Birds and their Habitats throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Phone 561-504-4251

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/30/biologists-find-oil-spill-
deadzones

Methane at 100,000 times normal levels have been creating oxygen-depleted
areas devoid of life near BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill, according to two
independent scientists

Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
Thursday July 1 2010
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/30/biologists-find-oil-spill-
deadzones

Scientists are confronting growing evidence that BP’s ruptured well in the
Gulf of Mexico is creating oxygen-depleted “dead zones” where fish and other
marine life cannot survive.

In two separate research voyages, independent scientists have detected what
were described as “astonishingly high” levels of methane, or natural gas,
bubbling from the well site
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/08/deepwater-horizon-blast-m
ethane-bubble” title=””>”astonishingly high], setting off a chain of
reactions that suck the oxygen out of the water. In some cases, methane
concentrations are 100,000 times normal levels.

Other scientists as well as sport fishermen are reporting unusual movements
of fish, shrimp, crab and other marine life, including increased shark
sightings closer to the Alabama coast.

Larry Crowder, a marine biologist at Duke University, said there were
already signs that fish were being driven from their habitat.

“The animals are already voting with their fins to get away from where the
oil spill is and where potentially there is oxygen depletion,” he said.
“When you begin to see animals changing their distribution that is telling
you about the quality of water further offshore. Basically, the fish are
moving closer to shore to try to get to better water.”

Such sightings ? and an accumulation of data from the site of the ruptured
well and from the ocean depths miles away ? have deepened concerns that the
enormity of the environmental disaster in the Gulf has yet to be fully
understood. It could also jeopardise the Gulf’s billion-dollar fishing and
shrimping industry.

In a conference call with reporters, Samantha Joye, a scientist at the
University of Georgia who has been studying the effects of the spill at
depth, said the ruptured well was producing up to 50% as much methane and
other gases as oil.

The finding presents a new challenge to scientists who so far have been
focused on studying the effects on the Gulf of crude oil, and the 5.7m
litres of chemical dispersants used to break up the slick.

Joye said her preliminary findings suggested the high volume of methane
coming out of the well could upset the ocean food chain. Such high
concentrations, it is feared, would trigger the growth of microbes, which
break up the methane, but also gobble up oxygen needed by marine life to
survive, driving out other living things.

Joye said the methane was settling in a 200-metre layer of the water column,
between depths of 1,000 to 1,300 metres in concentrations that were already
threatening oxygen levels.

“That water can go completely anoxic [extremely low oxygen] and that is a
pretty serious situation for any oxygen-requiring organism. We haven’t seen
zero-oxygen water but there is certainly enough gas in the water to draw
oxygen down to zero,” she said.

“It could wreak havoc with those communities that require oxygen,” Joye
said, wiping out plankton and other organisms at the bottom of the food
chain.

A Texas A&M University oceanographer issued a similar warning last week
on his return from a 10-day research voyage in the Gulf. John Kessler
recorded “astonishingly high” methane levels in surface and deep water
within a five-mile radius of the ruptured well. His team also recorded 30%
depletion of oxygen in some locations.

Even without the gusher, the Gulf was afflicted by 6,000 to 7,000 square
miles of dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi river, caused by run-off
from animal waste and farm fertiliser.

The run-off sets off a chain reaction. Algae bloom and quickly die, and are
eaten up by microbes that also consume oxygen needed by marine life.

But the huge quantities of methane, or natural gas, being released from the
well in addition to crude presents an entirely new danger to marine life and
to the Gulf’s lucrative fishing and shrimping industry.

“Things are changing, and what impacts there are on the food web are not
going to be clear until we go out and measure that,” said Joye.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6603TK20100701

Thu Jul 1, 2010 2:47pm EDT

Louisiana (Reuters) – A massive ship converted into a “super skimmer” has arrived in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico to assist with cleanup of the BP oil spill, a government spokeswoman said Thursday.

The 1,100-foot (335 meter)-long ore and oil carrier, dubbed the “A Whale,” is being provided by the owner, TMT Shipping of Taiwan, and can collect 500,000 barrels (21 million gallons) per day of contaminated water, said Chris Coulon, a spokeswoman for the joint incident command.

Financial arrangements of the deal to provide the ship were not immediately available. Coulon said it had not been contracted but added that BP Plc might begin formal contract negotiations if the ship proved to be useful.

The gray and rust-colored tanker, which has a large blue whale painted on its funnel, was converted in mid-June in Portugal to skim spilled oil from the sea but needs to be evaluated by the Coast Guard and others for use in the Gulf.

It rested at anchor in the Mississippi River north of Venice, Louisiana on Thursday. Three horizontal slits used to skim oil were visible at water level on the tanker’s port side.

The ship has been described as a “super skimmer” because it can scoop up millions of gallons of oily water mix every day, much more than skimming vessels already in use.

Rough seas and winds caused by Hurricane Alex, which went ashore in northeastern Mexico late Wednesday, were delaying plans to test the new skimmer.

“They can’t do their testing until the weather has died down,” Coulon said. “They are in close contact with ship owners to proceed with testing as soon as the weather permits.”

At a White House briefing on Thursday, Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the government’s point man for the spill response, said he had “high hopes” for the new skimmer.

About 500 skimmers were in operation prior to the halt of skimming operations as Alex threatened. At the peak, 650 such vessels were in operation.

More than 28 million gallons of oily water mix have been picked up since the beginning of the spill about two and a half months ago, and the cleanup rate has picked up recently. The total a month ago was about 14 million gallons.

Oil from BP’s blown-out well began spewing into the waters off Louisiana after an oil rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers.

(Additional reporting by Bruce Nichols and Eileen O’Grady in Houston, editing by Anna Driver and Paul Simao)
Special thanks to Richard Charter

Houston Chronicle
July 2, 2010

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/deepwaterhorizon/7090804.html

Scientists using research tools in new ways to look for signs of oil spreading down below, but have turned up nothing
By HARVEY RICE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
July 2, 2010, 12:37AM

ABOARD THE THOMAS JEFFERSON The 208-foot research vessel Thomas Jefferson slicing through swells off Florida’s Gulf Coast this week has been chasing an elusive ghost hatched from the BP well blowout: oil plumes.

The prospects of these monstrous plumes emerged as a frightening character in the Macando well narrative after limited data suggested that underwater plumes might be the size of some of the Great Lakes. But until BP’s well blew out April 20, no one had tried developing the technology for finding oil underwater.

For the last five weeks, scientists and the rest of Thomas Jefferson Cmdr. Shepard Smith’s crew have been working to develop such a method, using the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration vessel designed for mapping the ocean bottom in shallow water.

Scientists haven’t found a sure-fire method so far, but they are closer to doing so because of this group’s research.

They have found no monster plumes of oil extending dozens or hundreds of miles, as had been feared.

Smith said new data suggest the plumes may be a few miles across. He is reluctant to use the word “plume,” preferring “anomaly,” because scientists are still awaiting lab results to verify their conclusions.

“I’m not aware of a single sample that shows we found oil underwater,” acoustics specialist Lt. Sam Greenaway said.

Clues in the deep

In the commander’s office, Greenaway huddles alongside Smith at computer screens showing dark blue columns turning to purple as they descend toward the ocean depths near where BP’s Macando well is spewing oil.

The officers are looking for clues in sonar data gathered a week ago that will help them figure out how to find underwater oil. The Thomas Jefferson and other research ships are inventing techniques as they look for something they don’t even know how to describe.

“Is it in tiny droplets?” Greenaway wondered aloud. “Is it in large droplets? Is it emulsified? Is it there at all?”

The Thomas Jefferson was two weeks into a five-month mission to chart hazards to navigation along the Gulf Coast when the Macando well erupted. Worries about underwater plumes arose as the blowout continued to spew millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf.

To confront the disaster, the NOAA converted the Thomas Jefferson into a plume hunter.

NOAA upgraded the ship’s sonar and equipped it with a “fish,” a device towed behind the ship that can dive and look for a fluorescent light signature given off by oil.

Lt. Denise Gruccio, the executive officer, kept watch on the bridge Wednesday. She recalled that because the ship lacked computer steering assistance, it was difficult to keep it stationary for as long as two hours when the fish was cast deep. “It was nerve-wracking,” Gruccio said.

Never done before

The ship had borrowed a “rosette,” tubes clustered in a circle resembling a rose. Each tube in the rosette is set to sample water at a certain depth.

Although the crew knew how to operate each one of the devices, no one had ever used them in combination to find oil plumes, Smith said.

“We don’t normally do this type of work,” Smith said. “Nobody ever does this type of work because this deepwater blowout is an unprecedented challenge.”

During its first plume-hunting voyage, the Thomas Jefferson headed for the site of the blowout. But the ship was forced to stand off at a distance of five miles so that its sonar wouldn’t interfere with equipment being used in the effort to cap the well.

Weeks later, allowed within a half mile of the blowout, they found data suggesting a wake was forming behind the oil column as it spirals to the surface. Greenaway sat at a computer Wednesday and calculated the top of the column, a blue swath on the screen, as about 3,600 feet wide. A U-shaped bump on the screen indicated the possibility of a wake formed by currents pushing against the plume.

“This tells us where to find the oil,” Smith said, because any that broke off into plumes would be pushed in the direction of the wake.

Microbial mystery

He said the wake appeared to extend more than 3,000 feet from the bottom of the 5,000-foot column of oil.

The Thomas Jefferson also found data suggesting that microbes were eating the oil as it moved away from the blowout site. Smith said it appears that microbes are breaking down the oil, but it’s not clear what remains after they finish dining.

The ship also discovered that, rather than a river of oil, the plumes are more like clouds of oil droplets being pushed through the depths by currents.

harvey.rice@chron.com
Special thanks to Richard Charter