AP IMPACT: BP spill response plans severely flawed

[seafan]

AP IMPACT: BP spill response plans severely flawed

By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, TAMARA LUSH and HOLBROOK MOHR
Associated Press Writers

Jun 9, 4:54 AM EDT

.....

BP PLC's 582-page regional spill plan for the Gulf, and its 52-page, site-specific plan for the Deepwater Horizon rig are riddled with omissions and glaring errors, according to an Associated Press analysis that details how BP officials have pretty much been making it up as they go along. The lengthy plans approved by the federal government last year before BP drilled its ill-fated well vastly understate the dangers posed by an uncontrolled leak and vastly overstate the company's preparedness to deal with one.

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In the spill scenarios detailed in the documents, fish, marine mammals and birds escape serious harm; beaches remain pristine; water quality is only a temporary problem. And those are the projections for a leak about 10 times worse than what has been calculated for the ongoing disaster.

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There are other wildly false assumptions. BP's proposed method to calculate spill volume based on the darkness of the oil sheen is way off. The internationally accepted formula would produce estimates 100 times higher.

The Gulf's loop current, which is projected to help eventually send oil hundreds of miles around Florida's southern tip and up the Atlantic coast, isn't mentioned in either plan.

The website listed for Marine Spill Response Corp. - one of two firms that BP relies on for equipment to clean a spill - links to a defunct Japanese-language page.

In early May, at least 80 Louisiana state prisoners were trained to clean birds by listening to a presentation and watching a video. It was a work force never envisioned in the plans, which contain no detailed references to how birds will be cleansed of oil.

.....

Among some of the more absurd claims made by BP in this document:



1. BP claimed that the beaches would be safe, because BP would be able to send adequate numbers of boats to skim up the oil before it hit shores.

2. BP claimed to be able to remove 20 million gallons of oil a day from the water.

3. BP claimed only a 21% chance of oil washing up in Louisiana a month after a spill occurred.

4. BP claimed "no adverse impacts" on wildlife/sea life in this document.

5. BP claimed there would be little to no effects on coastlines, because the drilling sites were far enough offshore.


These are just *some* of the claims made in this document by BP.



More:

Under the heading "sensitive biological resources," the plan lists marine mammals including walruses, sea otters, sea lions and seals. None lives anywhere near the Gulf.

The names and phone numbers of several Texas A&M University marine life specialists are wrong. So are the numbers for marine mammal stranding network offices in Louisiana and Florida, which are no longer in service.

But perhaps the most glaring error in BP's plans involves Lutz, the professor, one of several dozen experts recommended as resources to be contacted in the event of a spill.

Lutz is listed as a go-to wildlife specialist at the University of Miami. But Lutz, an eminent sea turtle expert, left Miami almost 20 years ago to chair the marine biology department at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. He died four years before the plan was published.

This week, after BP reported the seemingly good news that a containment cap installed on the wellhead was funneling some of the gushing crude to a tanker on the surface, BP introduced a whole new new set of plans mostly aimed at capturing more oil.

The latest incarnation calls for building a larger cap, using a special incinerator to burn off some of the recaptured oil and bringing in a floating platform to process the oil being sucked away from the gushing well.

In other words, the on-the-fly planning continues.

%@($&%%^#, Mr. President. Seize BP's assets NOW and imprison its executives! By doing this, the US Government and our scientists will be in control of the data gathering and analysis, which BP will never relinquish otherwise.


WTF WILL IT TAKE TO ACT???

[xchrom]

1. no kidding. we hadn't noticed. nt

[snagglepuss]

2. "WTF WILL IT TAKE TO ACT???" Good question. K & R nt