The Transocean Deepwater Horizon tragedy, the risks for nature’s future of U.S.

Twelve persons died. The investigation will focus on human error and mechanical malfunction but now the priority is to save birds, dolphins and the economies of some States

by Aliona Avduhova

The Deepwater Horizon was one of the most innovative oil platforms. Able to operate in up to 8,000 feet of water, it recently broke a world record in drill depth, punching 32,000 feet into the earth's crust. Complete with a bowling alley and movie theater, the Deepwater Horizon is also one of the largest and most advanced engineering projects on the planet – a fifth-generation exploration rig that had most recently been working British Petroleum’s crude oil deposit in the Gulf of Mexico.

Some days ago on the Deepwater Horizon happened a dramatic oil rig explosion and fire aboard. Regarding this incident this began with a catastrophic explosion on the drilling rig, followed by what was an extraordinary search and rescue case, where over 90 people were evacuated and three were critically injured and evacuated by Coast Guard helicopters. And unfortunately, we had a lot of losses of life. That was followed by three intensive days of searches of nearly 30 aircraft and vessel sorties, over 5,000 square miles searched.
The U.S. autorities are establishing the operational priorities, but a clot of questions must be solved.
“In the past, most of these events have related to surface incidents or collisions of very large ships carrying crude oil – told Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard - and we've been able to actually quantify how much oil was at risk. When a vessel has a collision or runs aground, we know the volume of the vessel, we know what's still onboard, and we can assess to a very precise degree how much product is actually in the water. What makes this anomalous is until we cap the well we have an indeterminate of oil potentially that could come to the surface and have to be dealt with. And in terms of planning assumptions, we're planning for a very, very broad case scenario where there would be a lot of oil left there. But there is really no way to predict with absolute certainty until the well is capped how much oil we're going to be dealing with. And that is probably the main feature that makes this unprecedented and asymmetric and difficult to deal with.”
The first thing is sure to stop the source of the oil. Continuing to fight this thing at the surface and on the shore is not the right way to do that. The extensive pressure on British Petroleum Industry together to come up with technical solutions to first stop the leakage that is apparent around the wellhead and the pipe riser, and then to facilitate the drilling of a relief well which will relieve the pressure on the current well and allow it to be capped -- that will only remove the threat, when the well is capped. There are technologies to crimp a pipe. One of the real problems is the tyranny of distance and the tyranny of depth. Trying to use some of these technologies at that depth with remotely operated vehicles is proving to be somewhat of a challenge. The scenarios of crimping and cutting the pipe and replacing it with a new blowout preventer are both being looked at by British Petroleum right now. They are a high degree of difficulty and there are more risks associated with that than the current mitigating efforts to replace, which are to build a cofferdam to place over the leak and to collect the oil and pipe it to the surface and the test that we talked about earlier regarding the use of dispersants.

Second, to attack the oil that is there at sea with all means available -- mechanical skimming, dispersant delivery, in-situ burning -- and we are continuing to do that. That is very much dependent on weather and sea condition.
Protect the resources, and that's prestage -- to deploy boom around the resources from Southwest Pass around to the northeast and wherever the spill trajectory takes us.
Recover and mitigate the impacted areas. There are town hall meetings that have been held in southern Louisiana.

As the weather moves around from the south to the southwest, it potentially starts to put Mississippi and Alabama at risk.

One oiled northern gannet, a seabird, has been captured Friday by contactors in the spill area in the gulf, and is being treated by Tristate Bird Rescue and Research, which has been contracted by BP to rehabilitate wildlife. The bird was recovered in the oil slick area by contractors and delivered to the treatment facility in Venice, La.
It is in stable condition and may be eligible for release in about 10 days.
BP is working with multiple oiled wildlife response organizations and local agencies to insure that all oiled wildlife receive quality care.
A northern gannet is a native, fish-eating, diving bird, which winters here and migrates to Newfoundland in the summer.
When oiled birds arrive at the treatment facility, that has been set up just for this purpose, it receives a full physical including blood values, weight, and a thorough examination of the extent of oiling. Many oiled birds are dehydrated, so are generally given an IV and oral hydration. The birds rest for 12-24 hours. When it meets medical criteria it is washed with Dawn detergent. It takes up to four people and up to 45 minutes to wash a large bird. Up to 300 gallons per bird are needed for the cleaning process. All wastewater is controlled and disposed of in accordance with regulations. Cleaned birds are allowed to recover and preen until waterproof, and meeting release criteria. Before release, federal and state wildlife agencies help determine the best locations to release the birds. Federal bird bands are applied to each released bird.