Those "but the oil they found was not from THAT spill" lines are priceless.

[howard112211]

Read that line a few times lately as a response to tar balls that were found in various places.

In other words, what they are saying is: "Oh come on, the Gulf of Mexico is so fuckin filthy from shit people have been dumping in it, prove to me that particular piece of goo you picked up was MY fault."

:eyes:

[dipsydoodle]

1. Oil has a signature

so shouldn't be that hard to identify.

[revolution breeze]

3. Do the chemical dispersant change that signature?

Plus the temperatures have been in the high 80-low 90 ranges for about two weeks. Could this and other environmental conditions (water, chemical and petroleum in the water, agitation, decomposition of sea life, etc) also affect that signature? De we have enough information to determine this? I am not a petroleum engineer and don't understand exactly what the signature is but basic chemistry says the oil would undergo changes.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Oil is oil

the dispersants just break into droplets and prevent its ability to recombine - the oil itself doesn't become another product. That's the heavy stuff - lighter oil products evaporate on contact wih air.

I only knew about oil's unique signatures from a wholly unrelated post some time ago on the subject of Iraq's missing oil and as to whether it was being re-routed to Saudi.

[CanonRay]

9. Yes, but BP's lab is doing the testing!

[dipsydoodle]

16. I don't think that was the case

when the first balls rolled ashore last week and is not necessarily the case now.

[donco6]

2. And they'll continue saying that. Forever. n/t

[Skink]

4. Remember that fish made disaster earlier this year.

[Javaman]

5. Since I live in Texas

and know well of the various spills that happen in the gulf on virtually a weekly basis, there have been tar balls washing up on the beaches of South Padre' Island since the massive spill in '79.

With that said, anyone in their right mind trying to claim that the tar balls washing up on the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida are from other spills are fucking morons willfully trying to push blame onto someone else.

It's one thing to get a few tar balls, but it's another thing entirely to have whole wetlands submerged in oil.

Anyone that makes the claim that the pollution now going on in those states is from some other spill are being fucking jerks.

[Subdivisions]

7. Jerks in that they are attempting to avoid liability. n/t

[Javaman]

10. So what else is new? nt

[WeDidIt]

11. I'll buy the tarballs washing up on the Southwestern coast of Florida

showing they are not from Deepwater Horizon.

for about another week, any way.

The rest is just bullshit.

BP should cease to exist after this is done.

[Javaman]

14. I predicted that BP will go bankrupt because this about 3 weeks ago...

several here on DU shouted me down.

I still hold to my prediction.

[lunatica]

8. Or maybe tar balls are such a natural phenomenon that they're everywhere!

Didn't Rush say something like that?

[jberryhill]

13. They are largely not a natural phenomenon, but they are everywhere

In a few more days, arguing about "tarballs" is going to be pretty much irrelevant, because if anyone thinks tarballs are the worst of it, then they don't have a grip on what we are in for here.

Tarballs are in every ocean, on every beach, in the world.

http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-07-05/environment/tarballs-a-common-sight-on-la-jolla-shores

"Washed up Tarballs a common sight on La Jolla Shores

Sunday, July 5, 2009

It’s common for me to walk the beach at La Jolla Shores and see flattish scraps of tar lying on the sand."

[EFerrari]

12. Greg Palast has two Exxon lawyers on tape doing exactly that in Ecuador.

They say,"Kids are getting cancer? You mean, kids in other parts of the world don't get cancer? First you have to prove oil did that and then you have to prove OUR oil did that and that's impossible".

[unblock]

15. hey, that kind of logic served the tobacco companies well for decades.