[Coral-List] BP Oil Spill Response Where's FACTS and TRUTH??

Fri May 7 22:54:25 EDT 2010

Keeping to the FACTS and TRUTH would be great - WHERE are they, has BP given them out??  Do the FEDs have them??

Let's focus on 
1...Informed Consent needs reliable information and process of consenting
2...Do no harm 

Where are the facts regarding what they were doing before and during the situation of the explosion, fire, and collapse?

Where are the facts regarding the record of operations, inspections, and QC/QA?

Can't we say something about the situation without ALL of the FACTs?? Isn't this the situation with Global Warming vs Climate Change?? Smoking cigarettes, DDT/DDE, tetraethyl lead, etc.

Maybe this is why I did so much engineering for 30+ years because we didn't have to have "perfect" knowledge, all FACT, and only Truths

I guarantee that when you are working in 4-5000ft of ocean, FACTS are seldom available, and BP does not worry too much about TRUTH

So let get real and develop our multiple hypothesis and get the info to test and eliminate the ones we can...

SOME
Rig was approved and inspected by the Bush Feds
Operations had been monitored and inspected by Bush and Obama Feds
Drilling was reported to be underway and a Gas Zone was encountered
The required BlowOut preventer didn't work 
Report was drill stem was in the preventer when the gas blow occurred
Stem in Preventer prevented the BOP from closing off the gas (>4000psi)
Gas bubble came up the stem and enveloped the floating rig

Questions - were they shooting/fracing the casing at the time...

Who did the QC/QA on the preventer, its installation, its operations...??

TOM

> From: Quenton Dokken <qdokken at gulfmex.org>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] BP Oil Spill Response
> To: "'Steve LeGore'" <slegore at mindspring.com>, "'Coral List'" <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Date: Friday, May 7, 2010, 2:32 PM
> Steve is correct!  I've just finished a week long tour of the north Gulf 
> coast. This event is being hyped for political and economic reasons.  
> Lawyers are advertising on T.V. for locals to join class action suits.  
> I've been interviewed constantly all week and my position is let's keep 
> the discussion based on facts and truth.  

> Subsequently, I and the Gulf of Mexico Foundation are being hammered,
> particularly by interests in the North East with a shut down oil and gas 
> agenda.  
> The scientific community needs to stick to facts and the truths these 
> facts support. 

> Quenton Dokken, Ph.D.
> Executive Director
> Gulf of Mexico Foundation, Inc.
> PMB 51 5403 Everhart Rd.
> Corpus Christi, TX 78411
> 
> Office:  3833 South Staples Suite S214
>                
> Corpus Christi, TX 78411
> 
> 361-882-3939 o
> 361-882-1262 f
> 361-442-6064 c
> 
> www.gulfmex.org
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov]
> On Behalf Of Steve LeGore
> Sent: Friday, May 07, 2010 2:24 PM
> To: Coral List
> Subject: [Coral-List] BP Oil Spill Response
> 
> I am going to contribute something that may well be
> unpopular, but I believe it must be said.  I implore
> the scientific community to abstain from crying wolf about
> the BP oil spill.  Cries of “disaster” and
> “destruction of fisheries” will, I believe, ultimately
> return to bite us in our collective asses.
> 
> Look, I am not stupid or uninformed.  My Ph.D.
> dissertation research at the UW (Seattle) concerned toxicity
> of Prudhoe Bay crude.  I have responded to several oil
> spills and I managed the year-long field sampling response
> to the Ekofisk Bravo Blowout in the North Sea – at the
> time the largest spill in history.  I have participated
> in training oil spill responders, and I evaluated IMO
> response procedures and policies to the Desert Strom spills
> in the Persian Gulf.
> 
> The BP spill is of course a problem that should not have
> happened.  Spilled crude oil makes a mess; it oils
> birds and turtles and is potentially devastating to
> air-breathing marine mammals.  BP must be held
> accountable for its shortcomings, which are many and
> profound.  BP should be encouraged to return to the
> days when its Environmental Affairs Department reported to
> its Chairman of the Board rather than its PR Department Head
> – as it did when BP earned the respect of the world’s
> entire environmental community.
> 
> However, we must remember that crude oil is not as toxic as
> refined petroleum products.  It is a mix of many
> hydrocarbons, including many heavy complex compounds as well
> as lighter fractions.  Leaving aside potential
> carcinogenicity, it is the latter that generally exhibit
> toxicity.  Fortunately, crude oil floats, and in doing
> so it provides opportunity for the more toxic lighter
> fractions to differentially evaporate into the atmosphere,
> removing them from the water column environment.  These
> same lighter fractions tend to dissolve into the water
> column, but fortunately they do so only to a limited
> extent.  They are, almost by definition,
> hydrophobic.  The only light component that dissolves
> to an appreciable extent is benzene, which, if I remember
> correctly, can reach 17 ppm in a super saturated
> state.  This means that there is a profound limit to
> the depth at which these compounds can exert their toxic
> impacts.  They are generally limited to the top few
> centimeters of the water column, which is of concern for
> floating eggs and some other planktonic components.
> 
> Yes, the rough weather and wind following the spill will
> tend to exacerbate these issues, causing more mixing and
> potentially affecting availability of toxins to marine
> organisms.  And yes, the extreme depth at which this
> oil is released in the marine environment may well create
> unprecedented opportunities for mixing and
> dissolution.   These factors may well enhance
> impacts of the spill in the GoM, but what concerns me much
> more profoundly is the wholesale use of dispersants. 
> The furor to control the spill, and BP’s concern for its
> public image with a  view to oil-coated shorelines,
> have resulted in pouring amounts of dispersants into the
> marine environment that I would have personally thought
> unthinkable before this spill.   Dispersants
> are in themselves toxic and run the risk of disrupting
> lipid-based cell membranes of fish eggs and other
> plankton.  They also emulsify spilled hydrocarbons,
> making them more biologically available in the water
> column..  I question whether BP would have used so much
> of these ill-advised compounds if public pressure had been
> more measured.
> 
> Oil spills are nasty when they reach shore.  There is
> no question about it, and the oil will indeed cause many
> environmental problems in these environments for many years
> to come, depending on how much oil reaches these
> areas..  But the oil will most likely NOT cause
> destruction of all GoM fisheries for the foreseeable
> future.  Deepwater fisheries likely will be affected
> more by fouling of gear by oil than by oil killing the
> target fish.
> 
> Yes, this spill is awful and was almost certainly
> preventable.  And yes, it will likely cause very
> unfortunate damage to the marine environment and marine
> fisheries, especially in shoreline environments that it may
> strike.  And yes, BP and its partners must be held
> fully accountable.  But the spill will not turn the GoM
> into a biological desert.  By screaming “Murder” I
> believe well-meaning environmentalists run the risk of
> providing “Drill Baby Drill” people an argument when the
> ultimate environmental effects fail to measure up to extreme
> panic calls.  Let us please be measured and realistic
> so as to not provide a free advantage to those who would
> overlook the real issues involved here.
> 
> Steve LeGore
> 
> 
> Steve LeGore, Ph.D.
> LeGore Environmental Associates, Inc.
> 2804 Gulf Drive N.
> Holmes Beach, Florida 34217 USA
> Tel: 941/778-4650
> Fax: 941/778-4761
> Cell: 941/447-8010
> GMT + 4 hrs
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