ChrisBunny! Perdue University’s Steve Wereley, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, told Anderson Cooper the ruptured pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico could be as high as 70,000 barrels a day. He also spoke to the LA Times adding,
“BP has said you can’t measure this. I agree you can’t measure [the flow] to a very high degree of precision, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a good estimate. This estimate, I think, is much better than the 5,000 barrels a day they have previously been floating.”
Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said he would launch a formal inquiry into the matter. “I am concerned that an underestimation of the oil spill’s flow may be impeding the ability to solve the leak and handle the management of the disaster.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr9NR4Y--qw]
Deepwater Horizon Response continues to say there is no way to measure the leak. Currently the standard measurement by the USCG and NOAA is 5,000 barrels a day, but this measurement hasn’t been revised or corrected since its release on April 28. On May 12th the AP said 4 million barrels have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. They have yet to correct their statement, and it was repeated this morning by Harry Smith on CBS.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/jYa364KYpbU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]
The New York Times is reporting on efforts to get a handle on the actual spill rate. There is growing frustration within the scientific community about refusals from BP to let independent groups measure the flow and update the estimate. An oceanographer from Florida State University, Ian R. MacDonald, said the leak could “easily be four or five times” the current estimate, adding “The government has a responsibility to get good numbers, if it’s beyond their technical capability, the whole world is ready to help them.”
ChrisBunny! 
Those long orange snakes of plastic and rubber now so ubiquitous on the evening news; where is it all coming from? Some has been flown in on Air-force transport planes from state stockpiles in Alaska, some from Washington State, but maybe not for long. Sure, there are manufactures making the stuff too, and because the need grows more urgent by the hour many factories have ramped up production to levels unmatched in their histories. Some companies are even asking how long they can keep up with this kind of demand. On NOLA.com yesterday, Nick Naayers, vice president of American Boom & Barrier in Cape Canaveral, Fla., said he can make a little less than a mile per day but is worried about finding raw resources in the quantities necessary to keep up with demand.
There’s not enough out there for the magnitude of this spill. You’re not going to be able to make enough. Look at that coastline. We’re making everything we can, as fast as we can. It’s all going up there. But nobody’s going to maintain this amount of boom in stock.
In a May 12th press release, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal stressed the state’s need for more booms.
On our visit to Terrebonne Parish yesterday, I stressed the need for more boom in Terrebonne, Lafourche, and St. Mary parishes and the other areas of our coast west of the River. These areas need more boom quickly to protect their coast. I want to be very clear that we need more boom in Louisiana. Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, Jefferson, and St. Bernard parishes all have outstanding requests for boom with the Coast Guard. We are again today urging the Coast Guard and BP to put this boom where it is most immediately needed.
Rep. Charlie Melancon has told WDSU.com, “Our Louisiana fishermen…, were facing a severe shortage in boom material, hindering their ability to protect our coast.”
U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, national incident commander for the spill, told the Wall Street Journal on Friday the government might have to pull supplies of boom from other parts of the country. And in a separate WSJ piece from the same day Adm. Allen went on to say,
I’m talking about looking at boom the same way as we would look at manufacturing across the industrial base, maybe on a wartime footing—because boom is going to become that important, because everybody wants it, needs it and is trying to get it,
Peter Lane, president of boom and oil spill equipment manufacturer Applied Fabric Technologies in New York, told NOLA.com on May 7th,
he doubted that all the boom manufacturers in the western world would be able to produce half a million feet of hard boom in a year’s time. Good luck., he said, They aren’t going to find millions of feet,
Now, DHR and the Department of Environmental Protection are discouraging private residents from laying hairbooms themselves while holding the line on accepting hairbooms for delivery and distribution through authorized channels. Yesterday a release from Tallahassee DHR listed rules for homeowners which on the surface even sound threatening,
- If a boom is placed by a private citizen, that individual assumes responsibility for the boom, including the chance it could dislodge into the water or be harmful to wildlife.
- Booms placed by private citizens that become impacted by oil are the responsibility of that individual and require special authorization for removal and proper disposal.
- Alternative absorption methods, such as placing hay bales, homemade hair booms, sandbags or other technology along the shoreline, are not advisable as the overall debris from disposal of such methods would increase and could cause serious long-term damage.
If Deepwater Horizon Response and the DEP are afraid to use hairbooms and other low-tech, proven grass-roots sources because they may seem desperate then so be it, the situation calls for desperate measures. And besides, they should know, people need to feel like they can take part in this. We need something to do other than wait for a black tide to roll ashore. What’s wrong with families and children cutting their hair and saving it? If it only soaks up some of the oil great, that’s some-more that won’t kill a bird or a turtle’s egg.
Take part and help out!
Matteroftrust.org
Alabama Gulf Shores Zoo
Audubon Society
Sierra Club
Save Our Shores Foundation
Help Save the Gulf Shores
Oiled Wildlife Rescue Volunteers
There’s a lot more out there, just ask me!
ChrisBunny! Blog
ChrisBunny! 
It’s been 22 days since BP’s leased and operated Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico causing a massive oil leak to spew, by conservative estimates, 5000 barrels a day (over 4 million gallons so far) into the Gulf. Plans to siphon the oil with containment domes have so far been unsuccessful. Drilling a relief pipe could take up to 3 months. But, the mad scramble in Houston, TX at BP’s Crisis Management office is to contain the media damage from this disaster.
BP’s public relations machine is exceptional, they’ve gone to Congress and blamed Haliburton and TransOcean. Essentially saying they lease this rig from TransOcean, Haliburton poured the concrete, it’s not BP’s fault at all. BP has done well to refocus public attention and control expectations. But most egregiously, they have refused to release video of the pipeline rupture, Ed Lavandera from CNN reports,
CNN has asked BP repeatedly since the explosion for video of the leak but company officials will only tell us ‘they’ll look into it.’
While the media keeps reporting that the oil is about to make impact, or winds are holding oil a few miles off the coast of…, independent videos like this are trickling out on social networking sites, blogs, and through email chains.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXcjhN_wycA]
Residents and community groups are trying to get the word out, but how does one compete with a media relations campaign from one the worlds largest companies?
Heaping on the insults, BP run deepwaterhorizonresponse.org is publishing messages like this to citizen groups trying to lend a hand.
We are not using hair booms at this time but are using commercially available sorbent boom when possible. In a February 2010 NOAA field test, commercial sorbent boom absorbed more oil and much less water than hair boom. Widespread deployment of hair boom could exacerbate the debris problem. There is adequate supply of sorbent boom for now, but we do encourage ideas of alternative solutions by calling (281) 366-5511.
So far all alternative solutions have been rejected, but that won’t stop groups like Oiled Wildlife Rescue Volunteers, a facebook group started by Amanda Richardson Bacon of Alabama, who are collecting hairbooms and bails of hay to save their local marshes, beaches, and fishing grounds from contamination. BP’s refusal to work with community groups such as these shows they are open only to commercially available resources.
As BP sprays chemicals in the deep ocean to disperse and hide millions of gallons of crude on the sea floor, chooses only petroleum-based commercial booms for skimming and containment of surface oil, someone is making a killing on this disaster, but it’s not coastal residents. They’re being told their help’s not needed.
To help, please contact one of these groups.
Matteroftrust.org
Alabama Gulf Shores Zoo
Audubon Society
Sierra Club
Save Our Shores Foundation
Help Save the Gulf Shores
Oiled Wildlife Rescue Volunteers
There’s a lot more out there, just ask me!
ChrisBunny! Blog
ChrisBunny! “This is, if you like, the oil and gas industry now focused on an oil and gas industry global problem. ” BP Plc CEO Tony Hayward spoke to Greta Van Susteren’s On the Record. Rush transcript: BP CEO Reveals Plan B and Beyond for Gulf Oil Spill Disaster.
A further indication BP had never researched worse case scenarios for deepwater disaster containment came when Van Susteren asked whether scientists in Houston were hopeful that the Top-hat would work. In response Mr. Hayward compared the pipeline repair to the Apollo 13 Moon shot whose mid-mission oxygen tank rupture led to a heroic technological scramble.
I think we need to recognize that none of this has been done in 5,000 feet of water. That is the reality. We are working on the absolute frontier of the industry. It is — a number of people have made this analogy, I think it is not unreasonable — this is a lot like the Apollo 13 moon shot. We have the piece as assembled on the table and we are trying to figure out what is the right intervention.
The next plan is a box, much like the big funnel from Plan A only a much smaller 2 tons. It’s called the Top-hat because it looks like a top hat. BP COO Doug Suttles explains, “The top-hat will be much smaller, with less water inside and therefore less chance of hydrates forming.” The first containment unit, the 98-ton 4 story “Cofferdam” is now just sitting on the sea floor.
ChrisBunny! There’s something very telling about the way a seasoned spokesperson uses numbers when holding a Public Affairs briefing. Today Mr. Suttles lived up to his name.
According to BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles on May, 10, video available here.
“We’ve completed 13 burns and burned approximately 13,000 barrels of crude so this new technique we’ve discussed previously seems to be very effective, and in addition we’ve skimmed almost 100,000 barrels of oily water mix.“
The oil that’s been burned is approximately 546,000 gallons of the 4 million. But the significant number Mr. Suttles mentions is what he calls an “oily water mix” if that number, 100,000 barrels, was just oil then the slick would be gone. There was no follow-up about how much oil is actually in an “oily water mix” so there’s no way to quantify that statement. Though it may sound sizable “100,000 barrels” is a useless number and no measure of the impact of skimming on the spill. These highly massaged numbers are no help to the public. They represent a placebo to keep people from getting involved in the greater issues of clean-up, ecosystem protection, and clean fuel legislation.
ChrisBunny! 
Her name is Bama, and she’s on her way to her summer home in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. Her small family makes the journey from central Florida every year eating sea grass and hanging out in shallows close to shore. She’s currently enjoying a rest and good food in Apalachicola, but will be back on the road soon.
Bama is the first Manatee ever tagged in Alabama and she loves the Mobile delta, but she doesn’t know about the danger this spring! Ruth Carmichael, a senior marine scientist with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, commented on Saturday about her and the other species of marine and, avian wildlife on the Gulf Coast.
“Really, the concern is not just for Bama, but for what she represents,” Carmichael said. “We’re on the leading edge of animals making the seasonal migration from Florida to the northern coast.”
There are close to 600 known species of wildlife that make the Gulf waters and coast their spring home, and now the ensuing spill threatens them all. According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries 445 species of fish, 45 species of mammals, 32 species of amphibians and reptiles, and 134 species of birds spend a portion of their life on the coast and in the warm waters from Texas to Florida.
Pods of Dolphin have already been spotted returning to their spawning grounds near Louisiana. This video supplied by the NDRC shows one such pod swimming though the oil slick.
Dolphin in Oil Slick Video: NDRC
People are mobilizing from all over to collect supplies and donations to rescue oiled animals and save coastal ecosystems, but all this can become overwhelming as the oil continues to surge from the ruptured pipe line and plans for a solution sound more hopeless everyday.
Please send your prayers, donations, and encouragement to all the groups and individuals along the coast. They need all the help they can get.
Matteroftrust.org
Alabama Gulf Shores Zoo
Audubon Society
Sierra Club
Save Our Shores Foundation
Help Save the Gulf Shores
Oiled Wildlife Rescue Volunteers
There’s a lot more out there, just ask me!
ChrisBunny! Blog
ChrisBunny! 
Dr. Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Miss., spoke with SunHerald TV admitting to a gag order enforced on all participants in the necropsy of 25 turtles found on Mississippi beaches between Biloxi and Bay St. Louis.
“Because it’s an ongoing investigation that any information that’s being conducted as part of the necropsy cannot be disclosed, discussed or photographed.”
On May 4th he was allowed to say that no oil was found on the turtles, which seemed like good news, but now rings hollow.
The investigation now underway seeks to determine whether commercial shrimpers are guilty of circumventing precautions which protect the endangered turtles from their nets. Sheryan Epperly, from the National Marine Fisheries Service told reporters on Wednesday, May 5th,
“Investigators will look at whether some shrimp boats taking part in an emergency shrimping season ahead of the Gulf oil spill removed devices from their nets that are intended to allow turtles to escape.”
Get Involved! Contact one of these organizations today and ask how you can help.
Oiled Wildlife Rescue Volunteers
There’s a lot more out there, just ask me!
ChrisBunny! Sabrina Bradford is an Anthropology major and a Spanish, Biology, International Studies triple minor in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College at the University of Mississippi. Sabrina posted a photo of a massive fish kill she witnessed yesterday in Waveland, MS on Oiled Wildlife Rescue Volunteers. There aren’t many photos of the devastation being published as yet except by local witnesses like Sabrina. Here’s her story…
I was in Waveland, MS during Hurricane Katrina where over 10 feet of water flooded my house in less than ten minutes. My house was one of the few standing for miles and there were debris piles in excess of twenty feet everywhere. After the storm, I remember the delayed federal response and the lack of attention to the Gulf Coast. I remember everything being flattened and left without the most basic of supplies. However, I also remember the national and international support from volunteers. They were the ones that got us through Katrina. When I learned the extent of the oil spill, I knew that a mass volunteer effort would be mandatory. I knew that the people of the Gulf Coast would come out and that many would want to help, they just needed to know how; so I set to work at reestablishing old contacts from Katrina Recovery and establishing even more new contacts
One of the strengths of the Gulf Coast is the lines of communication. I grew up knowing Dr Mark LaSalle, the director of the Pascagoula River Audubon Center and spoke with him about what was needed. I was able to speak to city officials and help organize sites for donation delivery and Lisa Gautier, the president of Matter of Trust has kept me updated with hair and nylon donation information, while I have given her details about the composition of marshes and ideas such as the “Boom BQs”. We have all been working together non-stop. I have been contacted by organizations in Italy and people in the Ukraine wanting to donate- the national and international response has really been phenomenal.
I set up an organization called “Colleges for the Coast” to start support for the Gulf Coast-already there are drives occuring nationwide including colleges such as Yale, Princeton, Harvard, UVA, and Columbia. The response has been both stressful and comical. Yesterday, Guy Wood from Princeton University told me “Something unprecedented and completely unexpected just happened, one of our players for the rugby team just asked me where he could donate pantyhose.”
Elie Wiesel, the author of the book “Night,” spoke to the students in the Honors College earlier this semester about the importance of college campuses, how they were where major changes could take place, how it was our responsibility to alert our elders. His message has traveled well beyond Oxford, Mississippi- it has become contagious and the actions of the students I have been working with have shown that they will not be passive, they won’t let indifference and apathy determine the outcome of this disaster.
Also, due to my experience with Katrina recovery I was more prepared with some of the troubleshooting that was to be expected in volunteer response. The people organizing these drives are the real heroes of this response- I’m just making sure their efforts aren’t in vain. Currently I am in the middle of finals week so I have been balancing studying with response work. Katrina made my freshman year of high school one hundred days and destroyed everything I had ever known. It is now my freshman year of college and I know that disasters have no schedule and take no time outs, not even for finals week. – Sabrina Bradford
Get Involved! Contact one of these organizations today and ask how you can help.
Oiled Wildlife Rescue Volunteers
There’s a lot more out there, just ask me!
ChrisBunny! BP’s plan to lower a 4 story 98 ton funnel over the largest of the pipeline leaks failed yesterday afternoon as flammable ice crystals clogged the top of the dome. Bp’s plan B? A “Junk Shot.” U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen explained on CBS’s Face the Nation,
“They are actually going to take a bunch of debris — some shredded up tires, golf balls and things like that — and under very high pressure shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up to stop the leak.”
Like the containment dome this technique has been effective before, but never tried at these depths. It ’s becoming clear that BP engineers never gave a thought to how to stop a deepwater oil leak.
Sabrina Bradford took this photo yesterday in Waveland, MS. These fish are the foundation of the diet of many large gulf marine animals. Sabrina told Oiled Wildlife Rescue Volunteers’ Amanda Richardson Bacon, “The entire beach is lined with them. A friend of mine said they are seeing the same thing in ocean springs.” – Ocean Springs is also in Mississippi.
It’s Never to Late to Help!
For more info visit: Oiled Wildlife Rescue volunteers
Download and hand out the flier! Oiled Animal Rescue
If you want to send money to the panhandle seashore rescue for any of the following items please contact the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo at: (251) 968-5731 or give online: Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo
The following supplies are desperately needed!
Pet Carriers, towels, hand sanitizer, Dawn dishwashing liquid, gloves, dog kennels, scotch brand scrubbies, soft toothbrushes, bleach, bleach, bleach!!!!!!!!!!! heavy-duty latex gloves rubber chemical proof gloves, wire cutters, pliers, tarp (green or camouflage), shop vacs, heavy-duty storage boxes, metal garbage cans to store grain, WD40, 5 gallon buckets, flashlights, rags/towels, 10 gallon+ice chests, garbage bags…reg and heavy-duty, zip ties, heavy-duty, rakes, Baby blankets, Heating pads (w/o auto shut off if possible), Large Rubbermaid containers with lids, Heating lamps, Rubbermaid troughs, Large backyard inflatable pools, Thin tights and Panty hose!
ChrisBunny! There’s not a lot of reporting on the toll the oil slick and chemical dispersals are having on Gulf Coast wildlife. Things die in the Gulf and wash up on shore all the time, but residents are being extra vigilant and reports of dead and dying wildlife are coming in.
A Pteropod, also known as the sea butterfly, a constituent in Gulf plankton, is washing up in unusual amounts on panhandle beaches and scaring local residents. Beach Safety Division Chief, Tracey Vause, charged with investigating the many reports of this substance, commented on rumors that the plankton was fiberglass from oil dispersant methods being deployed,
“I’ve been trying to put that cat back in the bag all day,” Vause said. “We can say for sure that they’re not fiberglass from booms that are out of the Gulf of Mexico, they’re little plankton animals.” from NWF Daily News
- AL, Photo courtesy of: Mobilize Support for Gulf Coast Beaches
While it’s still not clear whether deaths of larger marine animals like this shark found by Tonya Torres on a beach in Bay Minette, AL are caused by oil and oil cleaning methods those found in Louisiana and Mississippi floating in pools of toxic sludge are undeniable.
On social networking sites related to the Gulf Coast Oil Disaster there are many reports of 
dead otters, pelicans, man-o-war, sharks and fish all along the eastern edge of the slick. The news coverage has been scant on the deaths of these animals and official reports on numbers of either rescued or dead animals have not been release to verify these claims.
If you see an animal that looks like it is in trouble, contact a wildlife rescuer. If you touch the animal, you can get hurt or even hurt the animal. If you live in the Gulf of Mexico, and you see wildlife in trouble, the main Gulf oil spill rescue hotline is 1-866-557-1401.
Oiled Wildlife Rescue Volunteers
There’s a lot more out there, just ask me!
jameschrisfields@yahoo.com
