Some oil spill events from Saturday, July 10, 2010

Some oil spill events from Saturday, July 10, 2010

A summary of events Saturday, July 10, Day 81 of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began with the April 20 explosion and fire on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean Ltd. and leased by BP PLC, which is in charge of cleanup and containment. The blast killed 11 workers. Since then, oil has been pouring into the Gulf from a blown-out undersea well.

NEW CAP

Undersea robots manipulated by engineers a mile above removed the containment cap over the gushing well head in the Gulf of Mexico to replace it with a tighter-fitting cap that could funnel all the oil to tankers at the surface. If all goes according to plan, the tandem of the tighter cap and the tankers could keep all the oil from polluting the fragile Gulf as soon as Monday. But it’s only a temporary solution to the catastrophe unleashed by a drilling rig explosion nearly 12 weeks ago. It won’t plug the busted well, the leak will get worse before it gets better — and it remains uncertain that it will succeed. As much as 5 million gallons could gush out between the old cap’s removal and the new cap’s installation and connection to a ship.

CONTAINING VS. STOPPING

The hope for a permanent solution remains with two relief wells intended to plug it completely far beneath the seafloor. “I use the word ‘contained,’” said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen. “‘Stop’ is when we put the plug in down below.”

NEW CONTAINMENT SHIP

Meanwhile, BP worked to hook up another containment ship called the Helix Producer to a different part of the leaking well. The ship, which will be capable of sucking up more than 1 million gallons a day when it is fully operating, should be working by Sunday, Allen said. The plan had originally been to hook up the Helix Producer and install the new cap separately, but the favorable weather convinced officials the time was right for both operations.

CLEANUP GUESSWORK

The value of one highly touted facet of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill cleanup — the small navy of vessels skimming oil from the surface — has proven all but impossible to measure. That could make it difficult to figure out how much damage BP is liable for when the gusher is finally stopped. BP and the federal government admit they have no idea how much oil has been collected by hundreds of boats that range from retrofitted fishing vessels to state-of-the art craft designed specifically for the task. The harshest critics say the amount of oil skimmed is as low as 2.9 million gallons of the 87 million to 171 million gallons of crude that have gushed into the Gulf since April 20, but BP and independent scientists alike say there’s no real way of knowing.

SEAFOOD SAFETY

Shrimp, grouper, tuna and other seafood snatched from the fringes of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico are safe to eat, according to a federal agency inspecting the catch. To date, roughly 400 samples of commonly consumed species caught mostly in open waters — and some from closed areas — have been chemically tested by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Officials say none so far has shown worrisome levels of contaminants. Each sample represents multiple fish of the same species.

DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS BEACHES

Changes are being made to avoid the confusion that erupted this week when officials said tar balls recently found along the Texas coast were from the massive BP oil spill but backed off the claims a few days later. Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said officials will no longer release results of quicker tests done at a Louisiana lab until more thorough tests are completed at a forensic lab in Connecticut. The Coast Guard sends samples to both labs, he said.