After all the endless doom, gloom and oiled pelicans, it’s nice to have a new entry in our (very) occasional series ‘good news from the Gulf of Mexico’.
First up: BP’s ‘static kill’ of the leaking well appears to have worked. This means the pressure of the heavy mud pumped into the well is successfully holding in the oil.
However the National Incident Commander, Admiral Thad Allen, said yesterday that the relief wells currently being drilled remain the ultimate solution.
“The static kill will increase the probability that the relief well will work. But the whole thing will not be done until the relief well is completed. The static kill is not the end all be all,” he said.
“… And there should be no ambiguity about that. I’m the National Incident Commander, and that’s the way this will end … with the relief wells being drilled, and the annulus and the casing being filled with mud, and cement being poured.”
In other news, the New York Times has apparently been given a new report due out later today from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This report, says the paper, makes the staggering claim that “three-quarters of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon leak has already evaporated, dispersed, been captured or otherwise eliminated – and that much of the rest is so diluted that it does not seem to pose much additional risk of harm”.
The next sentence clarifies that most oil is either “light sheen” at the surface or dispersed below the surface. Whether huge amounts of dispersed oil in the ecosystem can really be said to not pose “much additional risk” is a controversial point. It’s probably better dispersed than as a huge slick of crude, but it is hardly business as usual for the sea.
In related news, the Guardian notes today that “the Obama administration is facing internal dissent from its scientists for approving the use of huge quantities of chemical dispersants to tackle the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico”.
Image: a crewman from Coast Guard cutter Decisive observes the drilling rig undertaking the static kill / photograph by US Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Adam Eggers.