Morning photo: Beaches

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Gotta keep ‘em clean!

Cape San Blas, Florida.

SUMMIT COUNTY — I spent much of Sunday reading and re-reading a very discouraging study on toxic oil pollution along Gulf Coast beaches. Despite all the chamber of commerce and government propaganda on how well everything has been cleaned up, it turns out that there are alarmingly high levels of carcinogenic oil-related PAHs still accumulating in the shallows all along the northern Gulf Coast, including beaches where our family waded and swam last spring and summer. You can read the story here. Just another reason to try and end our addiction to oil as soon as possible … (more…)

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Oil spill: Did politics trump science in the response?

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Greenpeace posts huge volume of documents obtained by FOIA; some emails suggest that certain response measures were not scientifically sound

One of the emails describing NOAA efforts to understand the impacts of the oil spill response on endangered sea turtles.

A Kemp's Ridley turtle is returned to the Gulf for release off Cedar Key, Florida, following rehabilitation from oil exposure resulting from the Deepwater Horizon/BP spill. PHOTO COURTESY NOAA.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — As oil gushed from BP’s ruined Deepwater Horizon drilling operation last summer, federal officials hastily approved all sorts of emergency measures, including major dredging projects aimed at protecting low-lying coastal areas and beaches with sand berms.

But a chain of emails among various federal officials obtained by Greenpeace under a Freedom of Information Act request indicate concern about an “extraordinarily high” level of sea turtle mortality and suggests that approval of the dredging was rushed, taking place even before the head of NOAA’s sea turtle program had a chance to review the plans.

The approval may have been a politically motivated decision, according to Barbara Schroeder, sea turtle coordinator for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service:

“This is insult to injury for a politically forced berm project that all experts say will fail and is ecologically unsound,” Schroeder wrote in a July 10 email to other NOAA officials. (more…)

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Deep sea research in Gulf to stream live on web

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Bob Berwyn

Deep sea divers will send live videos from the Gulf streaming o the web. Click on the image to learn more.

Teams to search for oil impacts around the failed BP oil well

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — Parts of a deep-sea mission to investigate the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will  stream live on the web next week (Dec. 6-14), as researchers from several universities roam over the seafloor in a research submarine named Alvin.

Scientists from Penn State University, Temple University, Haverford College, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are part of the mission, which will be based on the R/V Atlantis, and feature six dives using Alvin to document the ocean bottom and collect samples of animals and sediment.

The first dive site will likely be the location where a preceding expedition that ended in early November found signs of dead and dying corals near the Macondo 252 well, which blew out on April 20 and continued to pour oil into the Gulf for 86 days. (more…)

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Oil spill: Feds confirm seep, ‘anomalies’ at BP well

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Bob Berwyn

Water sampling equipment aboard the NOAA ship Pisces, which is monitoring the Gulf around BP's failed Macondo Well for signs of leakage or seeps. PHOTO COURTESY NOAA.

Integrity of cap, well bore still in question

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen Sunday directed BP to update its containment plans after confirming earlier reports of a seep at some undetermined distance from the well head. Allen also referred to “undetermined anomalies” at the well head in the letter. Read the letter here.

As the company tested  the sealed well, the lower-than-expected pressure raised concerns about the integrity of the entire system. BP and federal government officials suggested that either depletion of the oil reservoir beneath the seabed, or, a leak somewhere else in the bore could lead to the lower pressure readings. (more…)

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Oil spill: Look out, Europe!

Posted on July 8, 2010 by Bob Berwyn

This topographical map with a yellow bar shows the narrow section of the Straits of Florida that form a bottleneck for the Florida Current. GRAPHIC COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII.

20 percent of the Deepwater Horizon oil could reach Atlantic Ocean after one year

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — University of Hawaii oceanographers suggested this week that a filter system at the narrowest point of the Florida Strait could prevent some of the oil gushing out of BP’s failed Deepwater Horizon from reaching the Atlantic Coast.

The researchers suggested the idea after their computer models and tests with buoyant particles showed that about 20 percent of the oil will reach the Atlantic Ocean one year after the spill, first hugging the coast of North America, then spreading eastward toward Europe. Watch the animation in a YouTube video from the University of Hawaii after the page break. (more…)

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Oil Spill: Beach cleanups only partially successful

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Bob Berwyn
tar balls on a Gulf Coast beach

University of South Florida researchers found oil remnants across 20 to 40 percent of 'cleaned-up' beaches. PHOTO COURTESY USF.

Buried tar balls remain across 20 to 40 percent of ‘cleaned’ Gulf Coast beaches

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Cleaning up beaches marred by BP’s oil isn’t as simple as raking the sand and loading up a few dump trucks.

A team of Florida researchers reported this week that, even after an extensive cleanup effort near Pensacola, Florida, buried tar balls and other traces of oil remained in the sand across 20 to 40 percent of the cleanup area.

The scientists from the University of South Florida, including geologist Ping Wang, studied the beach after an eight-mile swath of oil washed ashore earlier in the week. Their research paints a grim outlook for the sugar-like sands soon returning to their pristine state, according to a press release from the University of South Florida. (more…)

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Oil spill could fuel 38,000 cars for a year

Posted on June 12, 2010 by Bob Berwyn

Oil off the Louisiana coast captured by a NASA satellite. Sea more of NASA's oil spill images by clicking on the photo.

Damages from spill could exceed $10 billion

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — It’s still not completely clear exactly how much oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from the failed Deepwater Horizon oil well, but a new tool designed by University of Delaware Prof. James J. Corbett helps put the amount in perspective.

Based on a spill rate of 19,000 barrels of oil per day, the total amount of oil lost could have powered 38,000 cars, and 3,400 trucks, and 1,800 ships for a full year, had the oil been used as fuel. Corbett, who specializes in marine policy, recently launched a website that reports the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in terms of lost uses of the lost fuel on a daily basis.

Visitors to the website can choose the spill rate they believe is most accurate from a range of reported estimates, and the website will automatically calculate how many cars, trucks, and ships could have been powered for a year, based on Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Here are just a few of Corbett’s findings:

•    By May 5 (15 days after the spill), the oil lost could have fueled 470 container ships serving New York and New Jersey ports for a year.

•    By May 25 (35 days after the spill), energy from the spilled oil could have provided a year’s gasoline for all registered automobiles (about 26,000 cars) in Newark, Del., where UD’s main campus is located.

•    By May 31 (41 days after the spill), the lost energy could have fueled one freight truck on 17 trips across all 4 million miles of U.S. highway. (more…)

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