WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2008
500,000 Gallons Of Oil Spilled Due To Ike
AP Study: Hurricane Destroyed Oil Platforms, Tossed Storage Tanks And Punctured Pipelines In Gulf
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A pump jack is seen toppled over in floodwaters left behind by Hurricane Ike on the High Island Oil Field, Sept. 17, 2008, in High Island, Texas. Several pump jacks were damaged or destroyed and left partially submerged in what is normally dry ground along the Gulf Coast. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
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An oil sheen can be seen floating on waters covering a flooded oilfield in Cameron Parish in southwest Louisiana, Sept. 15, 2008. (AP/La. Dept. of Enviro. Quality)
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Unified Command responders discuss conditions at a diesel spill site on Goat Island, Texas, Sept. 25, 2008. Teams have been working throughout the Houston-Galveston and Port Arthur, Texas, areas to identify, assess and remediate pollution sites since the passing of Hurricane Ike. (AP/U.S. Coast Guard/L.F. Chambers)
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Photo Essay
After Ike
A look at what the killer hurricane left behind
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Photo Essay
Back To Galveston
Thousands return to devastated island city for first time since Ike despite hazards.
In the days before and after the deadly storm, companies and residents reported at least 448 releases of oil, gasoline and dozens of other substances into the air and water and onto the ground in Louisiana and Texas. The hardest hit places were industrial centers near Houston and Port Arthur, Texas, as well as oil production facilities off Louisiana's coast, according to the AP's analysis.
"We are dealing with a multitude of different types of pollution here ... everything from diesel in the water to gasoline to things like household chemicals," said Larry Chambers, a petty officer with the U.S. Coast Guard Command Center in Pasadena, Texas.
The Coast Guard, with the Environmental Protection Agency and state agencies, has responded to more than 3,000 pollution reports associated with the storm and its surge along the upper Texas coast. Most callers complain about abandoned propane tanks, paint cans and other hazardous materials containers turning up in marshes, backyards and other places.
No major oil spills or hazardous materials releases have been identified, but nearly 1,500 sites still need to be cleaned up.
The Coast Guard's National Response Center in Washington collects information on oil spills and chemical and biological releases and passes it to agencies working on the ground. The AP analyzed all reports received by the center from Sept. 11 through Sept. 18 for Louisiana and Texas, providing an early snapshot of Ike's environmental toll.
With the storm approaching, refineries and chemical plants shut down as a precaution, burning off hundreds of thousands of pounds of organic compounds and toxic chemicals. In other cases, power failures sent chemicals such as ammonia directly into the atmosphere. Such accidental releases probably will not result in penalties by regulators because the releases are being blamed on the storm.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry also suspended all rules, including environmental ones, that would inhibit or prevent companies preparing for or responding to Ike.
Power outages also caused sewage pipes to stop flowing. Elsewhere, the storm's surge dredged up smelly and oxygen-deprived marsh mud, which killed fish and caused residents to complain of nausea and headaches from the odor.
At times, a new spill or release was reported to the Coast Guard every five minutes to 10 minutes. Some were extremely detailed, such as this report from Sept. 14: "Caller is making a report of a 6-by-4-foot container that was found floating in the Houston Ship Channel. Caller states the container was also labeled 'UM 3264,' which is a corrosive material." The caller most likely meant UN3264, an industrial coding that refers to a variety of different acids.
State and federal officials have collected thousands of abandoned drums, paint cans and other containers.
Other reports were more vague. One caller reported a sheen from an underwater pipeline and said the substance was "spewing" from the pipe.
The AP's analysis found that, by far, the most common contaminant left in Ike's wake was crude oil - the lifeblood and main industry of both Texas and Louisiana. In the week of reports analyzed, enough crude oil was spilled nearly to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and more could be released, officials said, as platforms and pipelines were turned back on.
The Minerals Management Service, which oversees oil production in federal waters offshore, said the storm destroyed at least 52 oil platforms of roughly 3,800 in the Gulf of Mexico. Thirty-two more were severely damaged. But there was only one confirmed report of an oil spill - a leak of 8,400 gallons that officials said left no trace because it dissipated with the winds and currents.
(AP Photo/Smiley N. Pool)
Air contaminants were the second-most common release, mostly from the chemical plants and refineries along the coast.
About half the crude oil was reported spilled at a facility operated by St. Mary Land and Exploration Co. on Goat Island, Texas, a spit of uninhabited land north of the heavily damaged Bolivar Peninsula. The surge from the storm flooded the plant, leveling its dirt containment wall and snapping off the pipes connecting its eight storage tanks, which held the oil and water produced from two wells in Galveston Bay.
By the time the company reached the wreckage by boat more than 24 hours after Ike's landfall, the tanks were empty. Only a spattering of the roughly 266,000 gallons of oil spilled was left, and that is already cleaned up, according to Greg Leyendecker, the company's regional manager. The rest vanished, likely into the Gulf of Mexico.
By Associated Press Writers Dina Cappiello, Frank Bass and Cain Burdeau
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Some states may now think twice before opening their coastlines to drilling.
Bill is not challenging his guests enough. The stupid question today was that the new woman on the block would take the Hilary voters! It''s like watching some teenager challenging another woman who has spent half her life in politics and has a wealth of knowledge behind her. Yes, they are both women, but hardly in the same league.
Also when they bring up the Vietnam war, no one says WE LOST! We killed hundreds of thousand civilians with bombs and napalm, poison the ground and water and we STILL lost! It was a pointless political mistake, and that is one the reasons France still cannot stand us. They told us after decades of colonial experience in that country that we should never go in. We did it anyway and lost our men and women with no gain whatsoever. The communists won. and the world did not fall apart as we were told.
Every time McCaine wraps himself in the flag, remind him that HE lost the war.
Here we see the result...
(its past time for an investment in alternative energy technologies: Obama is that way forward)
On the East coast alone, if you drive from Key West Florida to Bangor Maine it is 2000 miles. Multiply the 2000 miles by mineral seabed rights extending out 420 miles results in a total of 840,000 square miles of ocean acreage.
Because we have the world''s largest offshore coastline which is twenty-eight percent greater than our land area, it only makes common sense that we exploit our offshore resources to achieve our energy independence.
Today half of the oil production of Nigeria is now offshore and the odds of large offshore deposits off our east coast are very strong. There are also huge oil deposits off of east coast of Brazil. Brazil has tied up almost all of the world ocean drilling ships in the hopes of developing those deposits.
Given there is confirmed oil off of Brazil, likely oil off the Southern US east coast and there is confirmed large deposits south of Newfoundland then it is likely there is oil all up and down the entire United States east coast.
The United States has the largest coastline in the world and it is simple common sense to make use of those offshore resources to achieve our energy independence. John McCain energy proposals will bring about this development that we so desperately need.
Arco Oil Company developed and explored the Alaska North Slope and formerly owned eighty percent of our proven Alaskan reserves. With its substantial oil reserves Arco Oil Company should have bought British Petroleum instead of British Petroleum buying out Arco Oil Company during the second Bill Clinton administration. With the right business environment and support from both political parties in the United States, Arco Oil Company might have been more successful and been able to buy out British Petroleum instead of British Petroleum buying out Arco Oil Company. Look at Apple Computer and Microsoft. Their success in the computer world have made them bullet proof to corporate takeovers.
Longterm Democratic hostility and opposition to offshore drilling and periodic talk of windfall profits taxes contributed to the takeover of Arco Oil Company.
Governor Sarah Palin is a strong supporter of increased offshore drilling and she knows that Alaska has an offshore coastline greater than the rest of the country combined and is also comes in second among the states in oil production. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and John McCain understand that Obama and the Democrats would never consider government loan guarantees or tax breaks for a sure thing that will produce energy for the American gas tank.
In fact Democrats are trying to put together a so-called windfall profits tax which will have the effect of discouraging future investment in the United States oil industry. John McCain also knows that Governor Sarah Palin family situation also illustrates that longterm Democratic leadership hostility and policies toward United States owned energy companies have caused our current energy crisis. Sarah Palin%u2019s husband works for British Petroleum but instead should be working for the former American owned Arco Oil Company.
Lifting the offshore oil drilling ban is the right and appropriate thing to do and should not have been used as a Democratic leadership fillibuster or extorsion tool to extract concessions on other issues.
The current gas lines and closed gas stations with no gas in the Southeast including Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina are just a prelude of what we can expect under Barack Obama and Joe Biden energy policies of limited offshore exploration and no new refineries.
Invest in alternative energy, as Obama plans to.
Vote for Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin if you worried about having gas available to put in your gas tank. Atlanta voters know that Democratic hot air will not fill your gas tank.
Democrats should be happy, oil companies are not making record profits selling gas because there is now no gas to sell. Democrats have finally accomplished their goal in the Southeast.
Independent voters do not like running out of gas or waiting hours in gas lines.
Our refineries have been stretched to their limits for decades. Do you think, oil companies are going to invest in the future in new refineries in the United States given the tepid Democratic Party leadership support of the oil industry and their insistence on mandates for alternative energy sources.
Oil companies would have to be crazy to invest even a nickel in new refineries or even do basic repairs to existing refineries. It is also a shame that the gas lines and empty gas stations are mainly in the Southeast which will become Redstates for McCain/Palin next month.
It would be more poetic justice that the blue states of the northeast should suffer from the gas shortages caused by their Democratic leadership.
The Northeast has been lockstep in their opposition to offshore oil drilling, nuclear power, clean coal, and even wind energy in the Massachusetts Bay area.
A 100 mile by 100 mile array of solar thermal collectors over the desert Southwestern U.S. absorbs enough energy to power the ENTIRE U.S.: day and night. No other energy source required. A solar thermal collector is just a mirror, a pipe, and a molten salt solution running through the pipe. The hot salt is later used to drive a steam turbine. These are all 19th century technologies: a competent plumber could build a solar thermal collector in his/her backyard using ordinary materials, and it would last for decades depending on how well built/maintained.
This country, and the world, is going to pay a HUGE cost for its oil addiction. And the cost of avoiding that fate is available at your neighborhood hardware store, and has been for a century. Vote for McCain if you want to prevent developing that solution for ANOTHER 8 years!!!
Well, ya got that right. Build a refinery, and the price per gallon of the product you''re selling FALLS???? Why would ANYONE want to abett THAT outcome???
(http://168.100.10.114/ATL-06A/JavaPlot.html)
I added "Gee, with the storm surge throwing ocean water inland, won''t it carry spilled oil from those new rigs inland a long way, creating a horrendous ecological disaster?"
The oil boyz (they alternate between being Palin/McCain trolls and oil boyz) promptly said that hurricanes don''t cause spills from the oil platforms because they have enough advance warning to seal them up.
lolll...uh-huh....like Katrina didn''t cause any spills...and now, like Ike didn''t cause any spills...
Seems like quite a lot--enough to fill a swimming pool, or we can talk about the ecological and wildlife damage it can do.
Which is really the point since oil shills arguing for drilling in Alaska claimed no spills.
This should end the argument--no drilling in Alaska, not now, not ever.
Are you a police officer?
Say it ain''t so Joe!
WE NEED ELECTRIC CARS / SOLAR POWER / WIND POWER
ALL OF THIS WOULD CREAT JOBS /
McCain Received $166,000 In Campaign Contributions from Charles Keating and his Associates.
McCain Used Keatings Private Planes on Nine Occasions
McCain Had Direct Financial Ties To Keating
When the story broke, McCain did nothing to help himself. ''You''re a liar,'' McCain said
when asked about the investments. He challenged reporters saying, ''It''s up to you to find that out, kids......
OH YEAH DRILL DRILL DRILL SAID THE PIRATE!
Posted by krusor
for those of us who can spell
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by riddelup
October 7, 2008 4:55 PM PDT
- Coming to a shore near you.
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