Quote:
Originally Posted by mcgraw_wv
In the 50's when this country had some damn confidence in itself, we would have sent the Army Corp of Engineers down there, planted a few large explosives around a perimeter of the leak and caved in the entire well on itself.
But we sit here, waiting for BP to plug it in a way which will enable them to revisit the site at a later point and resume drilling once the PR does their trick. |
1) The Army Corp. of Engineers IS there - and has been all along.
2) Their presence there would lead me to believe that they've considered all their options and chosen not to pursue any of them because they're not workable.
I'm not sure how dynamiting the hole would make it cave it - wouldn't it carry the distinct possibility of simply opening it up, instead?
I think the problem is that no one really has much experience at doing much of anything at this particular depth. Who knows how dynamite would work under that much pressure that far under sea level? I'm sure brighter minds than ours have considered it and there's a valid reason it's not being done.
I'm as upset as anyone here about the whole disaster. Don't forget, us "bleeding hearts" not only get ticked at the government and at big businesses, we also empathize the pain of the brown pelicans and the dolphins.
Problem is - no one knows what to do. I don't think the lack of response is so much stupidity or laziness or even that someone is in someone else's pocket - I think it's a genuine case of "duh....now what?"
What good would it serve for Obama to say, "BP, you've screwed us over long enough - you're outa here?" Maybe they
don't know what to do - but no one else knows what to do, either....and the oil companies are the only ones with the proper equipment and training. Personally, I think BP is HOPING Obama tells them to step aside - once he does, they're out of it - and absolved from any further responsibility. From the minute he does that all they have to say is, "Hey, we didn't do that part. You did," and that's it......they've got pausible denial from that point forward.
I did read an interesting article last night.....apparently they had a large spill in Saudi in the 90's - and they used tankers to siphon the oil. I understand that the situations are not identical - one was a spill on top of the water and this is a spill far beneath the water - but oil does rise and there's no reason it couldn't be vacuumed up as it rises - and before any more of it hits the shore. They even managed to reuse something like 80% of what they siphoned up.
Read the story - it makes sense, it's worked before, and the developers of the technique have been trying like mad to get a response from BP - without success, apparently.
Gulf Oil Spill Supertanker Solution - BP Ignoring Secret Saudi Supertankers? - Esquire
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