Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

The persistence of a giant plume of oil in the Gulf of Mexico suggests that the long-term impact of the BP Deepwater Horizon spill may be worse than earlier assumed, a new scientific study has revealed.

In the latest issue of Science magazine, researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) discussed their investigations of a plume of hydrocarbons at least 22 miles long and more than 3,000 feet below the surface. According to Christopher Reddy, a WHOI marine geochemist and oil spill expert, “The plume was not a river of Hershey’s Syrup... But that’s not to say it isn’t harmful to the environment.”

Doubts on earlier claims

Their discovery has cast doubt upon earlier claims by government agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which said that 74 per cent of the oil that gushed into the Gulf between April and August was either captured directly at the Macondo well site, had naturally evaporated or had been dispersed by operations at the surface and dissolved into microscopic droplets.

According to the most recent study, the 1.2-mile-wide, 650-foot-high plume of trapped hydrocarbons provided at least a partial answer to recent questions asking where all the oil had gone as surface slicks shrank and disappeared. Mr. Reddy said, “These results indicate that efforts to book-keep where the oil went must now include this plume.”

The WHOI study also disputed official estimates of the speed at which deep-sea microbes were degrading the plume. The plume has shown that the oil already “is persisting for longer periods than we would have expected”, according to Richard Camilli, Chief Scientist at WHOI and lead author of the paper. He added, “Many people speculated that subsurface oil droplets were being easily biodegraded. Well, we didn’t find that. We found it was still there.”

The WHOI study was based on approximately 57,000 discrete chemical analyses undertaken during a June 19-28 scientific cruise. The expedition entailed the use of two highly advanced technologies: the autonomous underwater vehicle and an underwater mass spectrometer.

While the WHOI scientists noted that they had found no “dead zones”, or regions of significant oxygen depletion within the plume where marine life could not survive, WHOI geochemist Benjamin Van Mooy, said this finding could have significant implications.

“If the oxygen data from the plume layer are telling us it isn’t being rapidly consumed by microbes near the well,” he said, “the hydrocarbons could persist for some time. So it is possible that oil could be transported considerable distances from the well before being degraded.”

Labels: BP oil spill, Deepwater, Deepwater Horizon, NOAA, oil plume

From The Hindu

A long “tendril” of the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig that exploded last month has entered the Gulf loop current and this could carry the oil to the Florida Keys and even up the Atlantic Coast, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said today.

Meanwhile even as the spill reached the fragile marshes and wetlands on the Louisiana coast the state’s governor, Bobby Jindal, said, “It is past time to act,” and reportedly rebuked the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard and rig owner British Petroleum for delays in finalising proposals to construct over 80 miles of sand berms along the coastline.

Speaking to reporters Mr. Jindal was quoted to have held up a plastic bag full of sticky brownish liquid, and said, “What we are seeing yesterday and today is literally this heavy oil coming into our wetlands… These are not tar balls, this is not sheen, this is heavy oil.”

NOAA meanwhile said that it had extended the boundaries of the closed fishing area in the Gulf of Mexico into the northern portion of the loop current as a “precautionary measure” to ensure that seafood from the Gulf would remain safe.

In a statement, Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA administrator, said, “The BP oil spill is unprecedented and quickly changing. The administration’s response since the beginning has been aggressive, strategic, and science-based.”

She noted that as NOAA expanded the fishing-closed area, they were doing what science demanded and were acting with caution. NOAA stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Gulf coast fishermen and their families during these challenging times, she added.

Her comments came even as media reports of tensions between the White House and the scientific community over the gulf oil spill heightened, with key oceanography experts faulting the Obama administration for conducting an inadequate scientific analysis of the impact of the spill.

According to a report in the New York Times, scientists were especially concerned about “getting a better handle on problems that may be occurring from large plumes of oil droplets that appear to be spreading beneath the ocean surface”. The report further stated that in the one month since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, the government has “failed to make public a single test result on water from the deep ocean”.

Further, it noted that scientists say the administration has been too reluctant to demand an accurate analysis of how many gallons of oil are flowing into the sea from the gushing oil well. The report quoted Sylvia Earle, a reputed oceanographer as saying on Wednesday from Capitol Hill, “It seems baffling that we don’t know how much oil is being spilled… [and] where the oil is in the water column.”

Labels: British Petroleum, Deepwater Horizon, NOAA, oil spill