Some good news for the Gulf

Just one question, what took BP so long to approve this?


For 15 years, Kevin Costner has been overseeing the construction of oil separation machines to prepare for the possibility of another disaster of the magnitude of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.
Does this evoke his tagline from “Field of Dreams?” It seems that Mr. Costner, the 55-year-old actor, environmental activist and fisherman, was ready for the current spill in the gulf.
Disturbed by the effects of the Valdez spill in Alaska, Mr. Costner bought the nascent technology from the government in 1995 and put $24 million of his own money into developing it for the private sector.
“Kevin saw the Exxon Valdez spill, and as a fisherman and an environmentalist, it just stuck in his craw, the fact that we didn’t have separation technology,” said John Houghtaling, Mr. Costner’s lawyer and business partner as chief executive with Ocean Therapy Solutions, which developed the technology.
Mr. Costner’s brother, Dan, is a scientist who worked on the project and was also in New Orleans this week.
On Wednesday, BP’s chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, said that the company had approved six of Ocean Therapy’s 32 machines for testing. All boast centrifuge processing technology — giant vacuum-like machines that suck oil from water, separate the oil, store it in a tanker and send the water, 99.9 percent purified, back into the gulf.
“I’m very happy the light of day has come to this,” Mr. Costner said at a news conference in New Orleans. He said he was “very sad” about the spill, “but this is why it’s developed.”
“It’s prepared to go out and solve problems, not talk about them,” the actor said of the technology.
Mr. Houghtaling of Ocean Therapy Solutions said that the company had trained independent contractors and were bringing in scientists from U.C.L.A. to deploy the machines, which were waiting on a barge in Venice, La., on Wednesday afternoon.
The technology was available for use 10 years ago, Mr. Houghtaling said. “These machines have been very robust, but nobody’s been interested in them until now,” he added.
BP officials and Ocean Therapy are working to determine where best in the gulf to test the machines, and if all goes well, the technology will be running within the week, he said. “We just need the green light from BP.”
He said that the largest four machines have the capability of separating 210,000 gallons of oil from water a day, 200 gallons a minute.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/...-build-it/?dbk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cam76034

Just one question, what took BP so long to approve this?

---

I would imagine that it took BP some time to review the technology and machinery in order to determine if this was the right place to use it and if it would work. If they had immediatley approved it and it failed, then you would be posting a story with the question, "Why is BP wasting time on failures like this?"

That is god news. Hope it does work.

A month to stop a leak though. ??? Let's worry about that first.

I hope this works. I think this going to impact the gulf more than anybody is letting on.

I think BP lawyers slowed this down. They "hire" the contracted clean-up machines (at sky high prices I'm sure) then they're on the hook to pay them even if it turns out to be some other company's mistake and liability for the explosion in the first place. Lot's of leases and contracts involved.

I think the biggest question is why BP didn't just kill the well right off the bat, or for that matter why the US Govt. didn't order them to do so. I suspect it's because they wanted to find a way to "make it work" and capture the oil (and be able to sell it) rather than just stop it period. I'm not an underwater petroleum engineer, but how hard could it be to 1) blow up the faulty "blow-out preventer to get it out of the way and 2) pile a small mountain of heavy stuff (sand, concrete, etc.) on the remnants of the well head to plug it? Just kill it fast and re-drill later. I sure hope this episode drives a drastic change in future procedures. For this thing to be blowing untold tens of thousand of barrels of oil into the Gulf *every day* for a month is crazy.

I'm sure that it's quite easy to fix a major oil blowout a mile under the water. You just gotta wanna, huh?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jrj512

I would imagine that it took BP some time to review the technology and machinery in order to determine if this was the right place to use it and if it would work. If they had immediatley approved it and it failed, then you would be posting a story with the question, "Why is BP wasting time on failures like this?"

---

What's to review? This isn't new technology and has already been used successfully in previous spills.

The suck-and-salvage technique was developed in desperation across the Arabian Gulf following a spill of mammoth proportions — 700 million gallons — that has until now gone unreported, as Saudi Arabia is a closed society, and its oil company, Saudi Aramco, remains owned by the House of Saud. But in 1993 and into '94, with four leaking tankers and two gushing wells, the royal family had an environmental disaster nearly sixty-five times the size of Exxon Valdez on its hands, and it desperately needed a solution.

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politic...#ixzz0oaw2qN3R

It seems that this could be used simultaneously while working on a permanent solution. Sharpie is right in the sense that most folks don't realize this is a national disaster, not yet anyway. I think something like 25% of our seafood harvest comes from the gulf. This could cripple that industry, as well as tourism all along the gulf.

They say fish oil is good for the diet; high in Omega 3 and light sweet crude.

Kevin Costner is going to need a bigger boat..... :(

I'm not hearing any thing mainstream about Kevin Costner's company or machines. Are they using them yet? Trying? The brief coverage I've seen just shows coastland getting an oil bath.

It's just sickening to watch the news coverage of this....BP (and everyone else involved) seems to be clueless.

How could they not be prepared for something like this? Have the oil companies just been lucky up until now?

I agree Sammm, it's unbelievable that there isn't a contingency plan in place considering the volume of oil being lost. Makes me sick.

I read an article which claimed that there was an argument on the rig between BP and the tool representative for the blowout valve in which BP was insistent on cutting corners on a critical step in the final process. This was shortly before the explosion.

The blowout preventer that didn't work was the only contingency. When that failed there was no plan B. They were doing what the gov. allowed them to do which was "drill baby drill".

I've read that in Canada (actually off the shore of Canada), they aren't allowed to drill unless they drill the relief well at the same time. That way, if the main well has a problem, Plan B is already in place, not three months away.

The mud didn't work so now they are trying to plug it with, golf balls. No, really.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/us/29spill.html?hp

A group of friends recently were talking about how to plug the leak and came up with an idea. Why not use that insulation foam in a can, the stuff that expands, and expands, and expands? That stuff where a little dab grows into all the cracks and crevices as it takes over your house?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cam76034

A group of friends recently were talking about how to plug the leak and came up with an idea. Why not use that insulation foam in a can, the stuff that expands, and expands, and expands? That stuff where a little dab grows into all the cracks and crevices as it takes over your house?

---

Not sure how well it would work that deep in the ocean and with water all around. Do some Mythbusters small scale testing and try some at the bottom of your pool and let us know how it works out.

Pressure would blow it out before it ever set. And even when it set it would probably blow out... Not to mention the whole underwater, with dirty water etc.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by slowchildmiata

Pressure would blow it out before it ever set. And even when it set it would probably blow out... Not to mention the whole underwater, with dirty water etc.

---

Shhh! I wanted to get Andy to try this. It'd be funny.

Well maybe it would work if it were rapid enough... Try making the can explode underwater in your experiment.

::Banana:: ;)

I don't think that is a spoof.

I love how it got on the map sitting on the table. Funny stuff.