Thursday, April 29, 2010

Frightening spill . . .

I don't know if the rest of the country is aware of just how bad that rig explosion down here has turned out to be.  Read this latest news blurb.  At first I was most worried about those missing men.  But now it's looking like the entire Louisiana coast may be destroyed.  The winds are picking up big time (currently 12 to 26 mph), making it next to impossible to contain the spill with those booms they're using, and making burn-off with controlled fires completely impractical.  And it certainly hasn't helped that they've waited so long to get serious about the process!  

Mark is back at work on a rig out there in the Gulf, and they're seeing oil around them out there now.  He said he didn't understand why they haven't had helicopters out there dropping detergent on the oil -- I guess from what he said, that makes it sink instead of moving along the surface.  The law firm I work for represents LSU, and they have filed a number of patents having to do with spill containment -- none of which seem to be in use out there, either, so far as I have been able to discover.  I HOPE they're doing more than they're reporting, but I'm very much afraid they're not.  It was bad in Alaska, but the fish and wildlife here are SO much more numerous - and vulnerable in those coastal marshes.  This is terrifying.

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