How much oil is flowing / has flowed into the Gulf of Mexico?
The figure we keep hearing is 5,000 barrels or 210,000 gallons per day. After 23 days, that adds up to 4,830,000 gallons. A week into the spill, there was speculation that the rate of flow might actually be 25,000 barrels (or 1,050,000 gallons) per day. If that’s true, then 24,150,000 gallons of oil are now in the gulf, a spill more than twice as large as the Exxon Valdez. Recent news reports stress that no one knows how much oil is flowing, but everyone seems to accept the 5,000 barrels per day figure. We know from past experience that oil companies tend to minimize the amount of oil spilled and unlike a tanker spill, there is no finite amount of oil that can be spilled in the worst case scenario.

Why are we just now seeing images of the leak?
Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) have been working at the site of the spill since the first days after the rig sank. They transmit photos and video to their operators at the surface. Of course, the ROV operators have their hands full, but surely these images must have been passed along to the Coast Guard and other federal agencies that are – we’re told – in charge at the scene. Surely we understand why BP might be slow to release these images, but one would hope the federal government would have more respect for the public’s right to know what’s happening in a publicly owned resource.

Why is the federal government continuing to exempt offshore oil rigs from environmental standards?
Thanks to the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), we learned late last week that the Minerals Management Service has granted categorical exclusions to 27 offshore rigs since the Deepwater Horizon exploded. “Categorical exclusions” mean that the projects do not have to pass the environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act. Categorical exclusions were built into the law for project that clearly have limited environmental impact, like hiking trails, not oil rigs capable of wiping out entire ecosystems. And by the way, what would have happened had CBD not blown the whistle?

Speaking of other rigs, what’s up with the other 3,000-plus rigs in the gulf?
At Wednesday’s hearing in the House Energy Committee’s subcommittee on oversight, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) revealed the “fail-safe” blowout preventer had 1) a dead battery in its control pod 2) a leak in its hydraulic line 3) a “useless” test version of a key component and 4) a cutting shear that wasn’t strong enough. We have no reason to think other oil companies are more devoted to environmental protection than BP, so why should we not expect this to happen again and again and again? How do we know it won’t? Why should we think the federal government is providing adequate oversight?

Why did BP not have emergency plans ready in advance?
BP has already tried – and failed – to put a containment dome on the biggest leak. We all sat around for days while BP fabricated the dome on shore. If such domes – in effective as it proved to be – are the best response for such leaks, why are they not pre-made and standing by on every rig? Now we sit and wait as BP fabricates a “top hat” plug. (Memo to BP: why don’t you start work on Plans D and E now instead of waiting for your latest contraption to fail?) Perhaps Plan D is the famous “junk shot,” in which BP will attempt to inject shredded tires, golf balls and knotted rope into the well. That’s 21st century technology? The best you can do? Golf balls and shredded tires? This is why we cannot afford to drill in the ocean. This is why we especially cannot allow incompetents to drill in the ocean.

What’s going on with the environment?
We’ve seen press releases from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) about taking samples in the gulf, but we haven’t seen what the results are. True, science does not move at the pace of the 24-hour news cycle, but NOAA should have something to tell us. What concentrations of oil are they finding at various depths? How far from the wellhead are they finding oil? (It would help establish an estimate of how much oil has leaked so far.) What about EPA? The oil spilled is light crude, which contains low-molecular weight volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In acute exposure, VOCs lead to headaches, nausea, vomiting and upper respiratory inflammation. Like NOAA, EPA is testing for VOCs, but where are the results? After 9-11, EPA infamously told people the air in lower Manhattan was safe to breathe. It wasn’t. Now they’re not telling us anything. I suppose it’s an improvement, but not much.

When will gulf residents begin to see restitution?
This spill happened at the worst time of year. Everything that swims, flies or crawls in the Gulf of Mexico is laying eggs and raising their young right now, if they can. Many of the commercial and sport fishing seasons were about to kick into high gear when the fishing grounds were closed. People are out money right now. They need help paying their May bills. And don’t tell me fishermen can get work from BP towing booms back and forth across the gulf. That’s like being invited to attend the funeral of your livelihood, your father’s livelihood and what you had hoped would have been your children’s livelihood. In the Exxon Valdez spill, Exxon kept the damages case tied up in court for 20 years (and got the verdict reduced to ten cents on the dollar). Twenty percent of the Valdez plaintiffs died before they received compensation. Will BP’s executives be as heartless as ExxonMobil’s? Will the Department of Justice stand by and watch as gross injustice is done? Does the federal government respond to citizens or corporations that make campaign contributions?

Why is the Department of Justice not investigating all the legally specious forms BP and Transocean are pressuring people to sign?
The media has reported that Transocean, which owns the now-sunken Deepwater Horizon, tried to force the survivors to sign waivers promising not to sue Transocean for damages before they were allowed to leave the hotel they were brought to after their rescue. Alabama Attorney General Troy King had to step in and stop BP from distributing waivers to Alabama coastal residents, in which they would promise not to sue BP for damages in return for a small sum of cash. BP tried to get fishermen to sign gag orders, preventing them from speaking to the media, if they wanted work helping with the cleanup. I’m told most of these documents won’t stand up in court, but its not just about court, it’s the intimidation factor of predatory corporate attorneys going after victims in their hour of maximum anxiety.

© Mark Floegel. 2010

Meanwhile, here on the Earth’s crust, the Environmental Protection Agency – part of the same federal government as Aegis-class cruisers and Standard Missile 3 rockets, only not as glamorous – has a list of 100 industrial facilities that use chemicals hazardous to public health.

The satellite struck by the missile was called USA-193, also known as National Reconnaissance Office launch 21, also known as NROL-21, also known as L-21. It was a spy satellite. I suppose that accounts for all the aliases. It was launched on 14 December 2006 and the NRO won’t say exactly what L-21 was designed to do, but whatever it was, it didn’t do it. Ground control lost contact with L-21 hours after launch. Rumors that L-21 had gone over to the Russians are just that, rumors. (And John McCain’s dealings with that blonde lobbyist chick were strictly above-board.)

That list over at EPA, however, says if there was an accident or terrorist attack at any one of the 100 industrial facilities, the lives one million or more citizens – also known as taxpayers, also known as consumers, also known as the only people keeping our crappy economy afloat – would be in danger.

Satellite L-21 weighed 5,000 pounds, was the size of a bus and was traveling 17,000 miles an hour when it was struck by the Standard Missile 3 rocket. Of those 5,000 pounds, 1,000 were comprised of frozen hydrazine fuel. According to Marine Gen. James Cartwright, if L-21 had been allowed to enter Earth’s atmosphere and if its hydrazine fuel did not burn up on re-entry and if L-21 had landed in a populated area, then it’s possible the now-gaseous hydrazine could cover an area equal to two football fields. (The odds of this happening are several million to one.) If humans were exposed to the gaseous hydrazine for an extended period, Gen. Cartwright said, they might possibly experience some discomfort breathing.

If there was to be an accident or terrorist attack at an industrial facility using chlorine (many of the facilities on EPA’s list use chlorine), it’s estimated that an urban area of 14 square miles would be affected. The US Naval Research Laboratory estimates that if an accident or attack occurred to a 90-ton chlorine rail car in Washington, DC, (these rail cars pass within a few blocks of the Capitol every day) the death rate could be as high as 100 people per second for the first 30 minutes. An accident or attack at Kuehne Chemical Company in South Kearny, NJ endangers 12 million people in the Newark-New York City region.

The federal government spent $60 million to shoot down L-21 with a Standard Missile 3 rocket. The Navy responded quickly to the threat, before the satellite could fall from orbit. The US chemical industry has spent as much as $74 million lobbying Congress to prevent the drafting of legislation that would force industrial facilities to make their hazardous chemicals secure or convert manufacturing to less-hazardous chemicals. The federal government has reacted slowly. The Department of Homeland Security was founded on September 11, 2002 and has yet to take action to protect citizens from the threat posed by hazardous chemicals at industrial facilities. It has, however, blocked cities and states from taking action on their own to protect citizens.

Of the 17,000 objects we’ve launched into space, this is the first one we’ve shot down. Some say we did it because the Chinese shot down an old weather satellite in 2007 and the US didn’t want the Chinese to look uh…. Um…well, it gets a bit Freudian here. I think we all know what we’re talking about. Others say we shot L-21 down because we didn’t want our non-functioning spy equipment to fall into the hands of the Chinese or the Russians.

Of the 100 plants on the EPA’s list, none have yet had a catastrophic explosion, of the kind that hit the Texas refinery a few days ago, or the Georgia sugar plant a few weeks back. If it does happen and people die, I don’t know what the folks at the Department of Homeland Security will say. They can’t say they weren’t warned.

© Mark Floegel, 2008