State of emergency declared as oil spill nears Louisiana

[Elmore Furth]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- A 120-mile oil slick advanced to within a few miles of the mouth of the Mississippi River on Thursday as authorities scrambled to keep the spill from damaging sensitive coastal wetlands along the Gulf of Mexico.

As of late Thursday morning, southeasterly winds had driven the slick to about three miles off the Louisiana coast, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration spokesman Charlie Henry told reporters.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency Thursday as authorities scrambled to mitigate its environmental effects.

Oil company BP, whose ruptured well is at the heart of the spill, and state and federal agencies have strung floating booms around the leading edge of the shoreline in an effort to contain the spill, but authorities said it could begin affecting some areas of the coast by Thursday evening.



Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/04/29/louisiana.oil.rig/?hpt=T1&imw=Y

---

?1271971177

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. as eraly as thursday evening?!

:popcorn:

[brentspeak]

2. This is unbelievably maddening. It should never have happened.

:banghead:

[cactusfractal]

3. NOW Bobby Jindal wants fed money, you betcha N/T

[European Historian]

4. That was exactly my thought. n/t

[SkyDaddy7]

6. Jindal needs to ask BP is who he needs to cry to!

However, you know he will want the Fed to help because he knows BP could say NO!

Obama did say he was going to see to it BP paid for the entire cleanup!

[Tx4obama]

5. I think they need a new word

cause 'spill' doesn't really define what is happening.
If a tanker leaks then it's a spill, if you knock over your glass of milk it's a spill.
But when you have 200,000 gallons of oil per day gushing from the ground in my opinion is not a 'spill' - it's something much much more that needs it's own word.

[drm604]

8. How about "fucking disaster"?

But seriously, maybe something like "uncontrolled gusher".

[cyr330]

7. As Senator Mary Landrieu was known to say. . .

"Louisiana is the perfect example of how the environment and industy can co-exist without causing harm to the environment." Well, it looks like Senator Landrieu has been proven WRONG yet again! When is that whore for industry going to leave and let a real Dem take over???? Oh, I forgot. . . This is Louisiana. Real Dems don't win elections down there!

[jus_the_facts]

9. DINO's aren't just an enigma located in Louisiana....they're everywhere.

:eyes:

[seafan]

10. Oil slick coming ashore on Louisiana coast

Source: WTVA News

MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER (AP) - Faint fingers of oily sheen have reached the mouth of Mississippi River, the vanguard of a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The slick is making its way toward a delicate environment of birds, marine life and some of the nation's richest seafood grounds.

By sunset Thursday, the oil had creeped into South Pass of the river and was lapping at the shoreline in long, thin lines.

Booms in place to protect grasslands and sandy beaches are being overtopped by 5-foot waves of oily water in choppy seas.

.....

Read more: http://www.wtva.com/content/news/breaking/story/Oil-slick-coming-ashore-on-La-coast/vG4IEqYBUkW01bXYceSmCA.cspx

---

It's in God's hands now.

[Avalux]

11. We will destroy ourselves and all that surrounds us.

Why are human beings so damn stupid???? :cry:

[Webster Green]

13. Unfortunately, that is no exaggeration.

Unregulated greedy predator corporations really are destroying everything.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. What is the consistency of this oil?

Is it gloppy goopy stuff like we had up here with the EXXON VALDEZ or a lighter sheen. It's hard to tell from the photographs.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

14. It's both.

I'm not sure of the ratio of thick to thin. But there is both present.

[boppers]

16. Best as I've seen, it's fairly diluted.

Natural waste, millions of years old.

Nature has dealt with this long before we came along, and will do so long after we're gone.

[seafan]

19. LSU: 'Contains heavy compounds that don't burn easily or evaporate...'

Oil from the area is called sweet crude, but LSU's Overton said the name is deceptive. It contains heavy compounds, called asphaltenes, that do not burn easily or evaporate, even in the warm climate off Louisiana.
"When you've got a spill like this," said Overton, "there are three things you can do. You can burn it, scoop it up out of the water, or use chemical dispersants to break it up. This oil is not particularly good with any of those three."

(From ABC News clip at this link)

[aquart]

21. Then here's a thought:

NO FUCKING DRILLING UNTIL THERE IS A WAY TO MOP IT UP IMMEDIATELY.

Oh, I so wish I could be a juror in that lawsuit the shrimpers are bringing.

[Dan]

39. sad smile

By the time they collect what little they might collect, they would have made more finding a job at Burger King. I wish I had a link, but the victims in Alaska did not receive as much as you would like to think - if they have received anything at all, to-date. The Corporation dragged it out, then once found "guilty", appealed which had the penalty reduced, and appealed again, all the while continuing to make huge profits. Most of the victims were not only hurt by the spill, the loss of livelihood, the arrogance of the Corporation, but also by the Courts. It would seem that the little person doesn't stand a chance, and most assuredly - do not expect justice from the Roberts' Supreme Court.

They lie about their ability to deal with spills, so that Congress has a fig leaf to justify doing what their corporate masters desire. Then when these events occur - what is the penalty, and who are the victims, we are; who do you think is going to pay the price for this mess, and don't just think about the monetary damages...

BP, they will just drill again, say it was an event that was never anticipated nor prepared for - and drill again. Congress will make a lot of noise, but nothing changes - and tomorrow, they will drill again.

Then, in the next few years, the corporations will decide that they want to drill in some new unspoiled area, and lie about new technologies that will prevent what happened in the past from happening in the future, and Congress will grin and say 'yessuh', and the cycle starts again. The only thing that changes are the victims, different species, and different names, but same results.

[Blue_In_AK]

43. The award was reduced from $5 billion to $500 million,

and a portion of that $500 million went back to Exxon to reimburse them for clean-up costs. The case went on for 20 years. Twenty-eight percent of the original plaintiffs died before the case was resolved.

Wikipedia covers it pretty well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill

[enki23]

34. Overton is a right wing asshat, but i'm pretty sure knows his oil spills.

I took an environmental chemistry course under him (and oh boy was that one seriously dumbed down chemistry class, I suppose for the environmental management people) and he made us watch a fucking john stossel anti-environmentalist video the first day of class. Absolutely goddamned infuriating.

[Bluebear]

45. Gloppy goopy:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8238764

[niceypoo]

15. I notice that the right wing noise machine is silent on this one

Spill baby spill?

[aquart]

22. Why, I believe that needs to be on a poster.

And perhaps a bumper sticker.

[seafan]

17. Cannons are being used to scare off birds. God, I just can't bear it.

AP:

VENICE, La. — An oil spill that threatened to eclipse even the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control and started washing ashore along the Gulf Coast Thursday night as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes.
The spill was bigger than imagined — five times more than first estimated — and closer. Fingers of oily sheen were reaching the Mississippi River delta, lapping the Louisiana shoreline in long, thin lines.

"It is of grave concern," David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press. "I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling."

The oil slick could become the nation's worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life. Oil was thickening in waters south and east of the Mississippi delta about five miles offshore.

The leak from the ocean floor proved to be far bigger than initially reported, contributing to a growing sense among many in Louisiana that the government failed them again, just as it did during Hurricane Katrina. President Barack Obama dispatched Cabinet officials to deal with the crisis.

Cade Thomas, a fishing guide in Venice, worried that his livelihood will be destroyed. He said he did not know whether to blame the Coast Guard, the federal government or oil company BP PLC.
"They lied to us. They came out and said it was leaking 1,000 barrels when I think they knew it was more. And they weren't proactive," he said. "As soon as it blew up, they should have started wrapping it with booms."

.....

What this devastation will bring to the fisherman, the animals, the vegetation and the lives of the people along the Gulf Coast for decades into the future is absolutely too numbingly painful to bear.

.....

An emergency shrimping season was opened to allow shrimpers to scoop up their catch before it is fouled by oil. Cannons were to be used to scare off birds. And shrimpers were being lined up to use their boats as makeshift skimmers in the shallows.


This murky water and the oysters in it have provided a livelihood for three generations of Frank and Mitch Jurisich's family in Empire, La.
Now, on the open water just beyond the marshes, they can smell the oil that threatens everything they know and love.

"Just smelling it, it puts more of a sense of urgency, a sense of fear," Frank Jurisich said.
The brothers hope to get all the oysters they can sell before the oil washes ashore. They filled more than 100 burlap sacks Thursday and stopped to eat some oysters. "This might be our last day," Mitch Jurisich said.

Without the fishing industry, Frank Jurisich said the family "would be lost. This is who we are and what we do."

.....

A GD F'ing catastrophe.

[hollowdweller]

20. Glad it's coming ashore on a red state.

Tragic but a bit of karma

[brentspeak]

24. Wrong, wrong, and more wrong

Nothing to be "glad" about, in any capacity. :thumbsdown:

[seafan]

25. The tragedy is the lack of compassion for each other. The lifeblood of our country is dying.

And it's only going to escalate, because of the very worst of human instincts, that of greed, hubris and hatred.

[KamaAina]

30. FAIL.

NOLA, just upstream, is among the bluest cities in the land.

[MadLinguist]

32. you know, that is just so damn fucked up to say

there just isn't anything you can say to redeem such a remark.

[jus_the_facts]

40. All those pelicans and other wildlife AREN'T FUCKING RED......eom.

[Dappleganger]

41. Nature isn't red or blue...

Yep, you really should watch out for karma yourself.

[colorado_ufo]

47. We are all connected.

One person's karma is all of ours, as well.

This will affect peoples' jobs, the price of goods, transit up the Mississippi River (affecting all of the U.S., eventually), the economy of the entire Gulf area, and so much more.

And the wildlife! Those poor creatures have no red state or blue state but suffer the greatest.

[Behind the Aegis]

48. What a shitty thing to say!

Perhaps you should think before typing and also get some education on what Karma is and isn't!

[Odin2005]

51. That's a really FUCKED UP thing to say!

:puke:

[Cal Carpenter]

53. Pardon me

But fuck that. This is not a game. This is people's lives and livelihoods. This is mass environmental destruction.

It's amazing how partisan divide and conquer bullshit can make people act like hateful assholes.

This goes way beyond partisan politics - particularly since the Democratic president was just talking about building up this industry. Give me a fucking break.

:thumbsdown:

[AngryOldDem]

55. I get so sick of this bullshit!

Does EVERYTHING have to be defined/determined by political ideology?

[IndianaJoe]

18. Great. Just great. Thank you BP

And thank you all the pols that took oil money to allow this to happen.

[robinblue]

23. Gulf Coast oil spill could eclipse Exxon Valdez

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_louisiana_oil_rig_explosion;_ylt=AvTYAUe57.XOVel_eG1oJ4Cs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTN1Z2loM3JqBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNDMwL3VzX2xvdWlzaWFuYV9vaWxfcmlnX2V4cGxvc2lvbgRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzEEcG9zAzIEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA2d1bGZjb2FzdG9pbA--

Gulf Coast oil spill could eclipse Exxon Valdez
AP

This April 28, 2010 photo released by Greenpeace, shows an aerial view of the Gulf of Mexico south of Louisiana, where oil leaking from the Deepwater AP – This April 28, 2010 photo released by Greenpeace, shows an aerial view of the Gulf of Mexico south of …

* Oil rig explodes off Louisiana coast Slideshow:Oil rig explodes off Louisiana coast

By CAIN BURDEAU and HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press Writers Cain Burdeau And Holbrook Mohr, Associated Press Writers – 35 mins ago

VENICE, La. – An oil spill that threatened to eclipse even the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control with a faint sheen washing ashore along the Gulf Coast Thursday night as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes.

The spill was bigger than imagined — five times more than first estimated — and closer. Faint fingers of oily sheen were reaching the Mississippi River delta, lapping the Louisiana shoreline in long, thin lines.

"It is of grave concern," David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press. "I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling."

The oil slick could become the nation's worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life. Thicker oil was in waters south and east of the Mississippi delta about five miles offshore.:cry:

[FarLeftFist]

26. Govt must clean up the private sectors mess once again

[BlueJazz]

27. The only Good thing (and I hate to use that term "Good") is that maybe, just maybe..

...this disaster will either stop or at least, slow down the push for more of these Oil Platforms.

It breaks my heart to see wildlife struggling and suffering to stay alive because of pure nasty Greed. ...sigh...

I swear, if any Alien race ever came to earth, they would destroy us all for the good of the Planet..

[existentialist]

28. As devastating as this will be,

and I think it will be pretty bad, its effects should not be as long term as the Exxon Valdez oil spill because the water is so much warmer. Therefore the bacteria that will naturally break down the oil will work much faster.

There indubitably a few of these bacteria around naturally, but any decent recovery plan should make sure there are lots of them.

For the same reasons a spill on the North Coast of Alaska would be even worse.

[Blue_In_AK]

44. There should be NO drilling in the Beaufort of Chukchi Seas.

I can't believe it's even being considered.

[seafan]

29. Most at risk are sea birds and shore birds.

LINK

AP Photo/The Sun Herald, William Colgin
Two brown pelicans and a flock of seagulls rest on the shore of Ship Island as a boom line floats just offshore Thursday, April 29, 2010 in Gulfport, Miss. Several hundred yards of boom line has been set up on the north side of the island to try and contain the oncoming oil spill. Crews are placing the boom in different areas on Coast waterways to help protect against an approaching oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.

[KamaAina]

31. This is an area that really got whacked by Katrina

Plaquemines Parish (county), right at the mouth of the river, took a direct hit, while St. Bernard, apparently next in line, was hit by the same levee failure that ruined the adjacent Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans.
And now this. :cry:

[jus_the_facts]

42. The suffering never stops...

....wish there were words of encouragement....I'm at a loss to find any to give. :hug:

[IndianaGreen]

33. Drill, baby, drill!

Obama echoed Sarah Palin's words when he announced his own version of "drill, baby, drill."

There are eggs on the faces of many people that supported this nonsense of offshore drilling.

[seafan]

35. The faces of the fishermen

Ted Jackson / The Times-Picayune
Louisiana fishers gather at the St. Bernard Parish Council chambers in Chalmette on Thursday in an emergency meeting to see how they can pool their resources to fight the oil heading their way after the explosion of Deepwater Horizon rig April 20.


Louisiana fishers fear lasting damage to livelihoods from Gulf oil spill, April 29, 2010, 9:04 pm

[Odin2005]

36. This is really gonna suck!

:(

[feslen]

37. yay! and we need...

more off shore drilling platforms--? WHY?

I wonder when greed will finally be quashed by common sense....hmm, oh yeah, never. *sarcasm*

[craigmatic]

38. I wonder how long it'll be before the repigs blame this on Obama. n/t

[rschop]

46. RE; Oil spill

They say it will be months before they can shut off the oil. By that time it will have covered every beach and every island in the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Florida and everything in between. This will completely destroy the fishing, the oysters, the shrimp industry and the tourism for all of these states. But BP said is saved $500,000 by not putting in a remote shut off valve.

Maybe our politicians, the ones that took money to look the other way, can explain why they let BP get away with not putting in a remote shut off valve.

[Rhiannon12866]

49. BBC: Oil 'reaches' US Gulf Coast from spill

The US Coast Guard is investigating reports that oil has started washing ashore on the Gulf Coast from a leaking offshore well.

Up to 5,000 barrels of oil a day are thought to be spilling into the water after last week's explosion on a BP-operated rig, which then sank.

President Barack Obama has pledged "every single available resource" to help.

The US navy has been deployed to help avert a looming environmental disaster.

The US Coast Guard said it had sent investigators to confirm whether crude oil had begun to wash up on parts of the Louisiana shoreline.

'National significance'

"This is a very, very big thing," said David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

He told the Associated Press news agency: "And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8653162.stm

[Baclava]

50. Third Horizon Leak Discovered: Spill Rate Grows To 210,000 Gallons A Day

It just gets worse and worse...

Third Horizon Leak Discovered: Spill Rate Grows To 210,000 Gallons A Day



Tiber oilfield that Deepwater Horizon was drilling contains a bottomless several billion gallons of oil, only several millions of which have leaked. In other words, this leaking could potentially spew 1,000,000 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico until the leak is contained and stopped, which might be months from now.

Previous reports have shown that it will take weeks to even localize the spill for easier removal, and months to plug the leak with so-called "intervenion wells", as the attempt to activate the massive cut-off valve on the well via robotic sumbarine has failed, and attempts at experimenting with burning the slick in local regions are just beginning. At a rate of 200,000 gallons per day, the well leaks will expel 1,000,000 gallons oil.

Evidence has emerged that the new total leak rate is in excess of BP’s reported worse-case scenario response capacity.
About 210,000 gallons of oil per day has been leaking since the BP rig caught fire and sank …It was heading for Louisiana’s fragile coastal wetlands – and $3 billion seafood industry – just as the shrimping season is set to begin.

BP is drilling a "relief well" to divert the oil, but it would take three months to complete, Suttles said.

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/44083

[Magleetis]

52. Say goodbye to the gulf

It was great while it lasted. Now it will be totally destroyed by BP. Good job men! Drill baby drill!

[Baclava]

54. pics of spill (seen from space)

NASA: