Oil from the Macondo Well site is fouling the Gulf anew – and BP is scrambling to contain both the crude and the PR nightmare that waits in the wings. Reliable sources tell us that BP has hired 40 boats from Venice to Grand Isle to lay boom around the Deepwater Horizon site – located just 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The fleet rushed to the scene late last week and worked through the weekend to contain what was becoming a massive slick at the site of the Macondo wellhead, which was officially “killed” back in September 2010.
The truly frightening part of this development, as reported in a previous post (see below), is the oil may be coming from cracks and fissures in the seafloor caused by the work BP did during its failed attempts to cap the runaway Macondo Well – and that type of leakage can’t be stopped, ever.
Catch up on how this could possibly be happening – again – by reading or re-reading my July 25 post below. Stay tuned as we will be all over this story as it continues to develop.
Is BP’s Macondo Well Site Still Leaking? Fresh Oil on the Gulf Raises Concerns and Haunting Memories
Fresh oil is surfacing all over the northern quadrant of the Gulf of Mexico. Reports of slicks that meander for miles and huge expanses of oil sheen that look like phantom islands are becoming common, again. Fresh oil, only slightly weathered, is washing ashore in areas hit hardest by last year’s massive spill, like Breton Island, Ship Island, the Chandeleurs and northern Barataria Bay. BP has reactivated its Vessels of Opportunity (VoO) program to handle cleanup. It’s a sickeningly familiar scene that has fishermen, researchers and public officials searching for answers, as haunting memories of last year’s calamity come roaring back.
The fifty-thousand-dollar question, of course, is where is all the new oil coming from?
One theory: The Macondo Well site, located just 40 miles off the Louisiana coast, is still leaking untold amounts of oil into the Gulf. Some argue that the casing on the capped well itself is leaking. Others believe oil is seeping through cracks and fissures in the seafloor caused by months of high-impact work on the site, including a range of recovery activities (some disclosed, some not) as well as the abortive “top kill” effort.
In January 2011, a prominent “geohazards specialist” wrote an urgent letter to two members of Congress – U.S. Reps. Fred Upton, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and John Shimkus, chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and Economy – suggesting that the Macondo site is leaking oil like a sieve. Here’s an excerpt from that letter (see it in its entirety at link below):
There is no question that the oil seepages, gas columns, fissures and blowout craters in the seafloor around the Macondo wellhead… have been the direct result of indiscriminate drilling, grouting, injection of dispersant and other undisclosed recover activities. As the rogue well had not been successfully cemented and plugged at the base of the well by the relief wells, unknown quantities of hydrocarbons are still leaking out from the reservoir at high pressure and are seeping through multiple fault lines to the seabed. It is not possible to cap this oil leakage.
BK Lim, the letter’s author, has more than 30 years of experience working inside the oil and gas industry for companies like Shell, Petronas and Pearl Oil.
More from Mr. Lim’s letter:
The continuing hydrocarbon seepage would have long term, irreversible and potentially dire consequences in the GOM (Gulf of Mexico)…
The letter is dated Jan. 14, 2011 – and we’ve been seeing more and more evidence that the scenario Mr. Lim describes is indeed taking place deep below the Gulf’s surface.
For example, on March 28, 2011, Paul Orr and his team from the Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper – an organization I’ve worked with frequently over the course of the last year – conducted a 50-mile boat patrol and sampling tour of Breton Sound, which lies just off the southeast coast of Louisiana. The excursion was prompted by multiple, increasingly frantic, reports of oil in the area by fishermen and others, including On Wings of Care pilot Bonny Schumaker, who has dozens of Gulf flyovers under her belt.
Mr. Orr took a sample from the southern end of Breton Island National Park – and sure enough, lab-certified tests results established a fingerprint match to BP’s Macondo Well (see link to my previous post and test results below).
The most alarming part of the finding was not simply that the Breton Island sample had BP’s fingerprint on it, but that the test results were nearly identical to those from the fresh oil seen in the early days of the BP spill – instead of the heavily weathered and degraded oil we’ve come to expect in recent weeks and months.
Those test results seem to disprove the other theory surrounding this spate of recent “fresh oil” reports. That is: All the oil BP strategically sunk to the seafloor with nearly 2 million gallons of toxic dispersant is beginning to break free and rise to the surface en masse, and in turn, blacken the coastline with fresh oil. According to civil engineer and petroleum expert, Marco Kaltofen, oil that has been lying on the seafloor for several months would be much significantly more weathered than the fresh oil we’re seeing more and more of.
As you’ll notice from the histograms, the Breton Island sample mirrors the submerged oil sampled from Pensacola Bay on Nov. 5, 2010 (see link to original post with histograms below) and a sample taken from Panama City Beach on July 14, 2010. You don’t have to be a marine biologist to see that this is the same oil with nearly identical weathering.
So we had fresh oil with BP’s signature on it coming ashore in March – more than eight months after the Macondo Well was capped. And since then, members of my team and other researchers have reported fresh oil, of the “only slightly weathered” variety from Grand Isle to Pensacola. One charter boat fishing captain, who frequents the waters around Louisiana’s barrier islands, is describing the current, hauntingly familiar situation on the Gulf as the “second wave” of the BP disaster.
Read my entire July 25 post (with referenced documents) here: https://www.stuarthsmith.com/is-bps-macondo-well-site-still-leaking-fresh-oil-on-the-gulf-raises-concerns-and-haunting-memories
© Smith Stag, LLC 2011 – All Rights Reserved
We might as well call it the Vessels of Missed Opportunity. Trisha James and I just put out a Seafood Safety film and we are being dogged by EP and The Florida Dept of Agriculture Adam Putnam and his crew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byZG4ctNLFw
They have Blinded us with Science. Trisha James has dissected the EPA website and the EPA website and their numbers were skewed and wrong. Thanks for keepin us in the loop.
Trisha Springstead RN MS
Thank you for reporting this tragic “covered up” News. It devistates me, even from Maui. I saw a graph last week that showed if we subsidized Green Energy as much as oil the costs would be equal. NOTHING could equal the cost Nature & the Future LIFE of the Sea will pay for this BLIND Pursuit of Primitive Fossil Fuels.
When will the Drilling Monsters be subdued & stopped? When we’re gasping for our last breaths, having destroyed the SOURCE of our LIFE on Home Planet?
the unfettered industries that have not considered the permanent and far reaching consequences and future implications are and have been recklessly damaging a fragile environment for capitol gains and nothing else … it’s not surprising that we have more issues with this incident and will continue to without either better controls and accountability or just halting future expeditions … fracking is turning into a water resources issue as well …
Who is the “reliable source” so that I can start verifying?
[…] Stuart Smith sure does: […]
this is not a surprise
I NEVER BELIEVED THIS WELL WAS SUCCESSFULLY REPAIRED. IT WAS JUST A QUESTION OF TIME FOR IT TO LEAK AGAIN SUFFICIENTLY TO ATTRACT ATTENTION AGAIN
JUST HOPE NOT TOO MANY ANIMALS WILL DIE, AND ALSO THAT THEY WON’T USE TOO MUCH COREXIT TO HURT PEOPLE AGAIN!!! NOT THAT IT EVER STOPPED PROBABLY
THANKS FOR KEEPING FOLLOWING THE STORY, I KNOW HOW DISCOURAGING IT MAY GET TO BE THE ONLY ONE TO CARE….
WHEN NO ONE ELSE WANTS TO LISTEN!!!!
GOOD WORK YOU HAVE BEEN DOING FOR SO MAY MONTHS!!!!
We on the Gulf have all been screwed by BP and our government by all the cover ups, the forcible situation where people had to settle, knowing this thing was not going to go away, but only had a choice between keeping our homes for now, and losing later, or just losing and be done with it. That’s what they want. Our Gulf is dying….
President Obama is absolutely correct in standing by his decision to prevent this kind of drilling in the Gulf. Will this disaster never end and will Greed reach some boundary before the waters of the world are toxic and lifeless?
and i do beleave that bp will try to cover it and so will the us goverment it is all about big money
Two important questions:
1) Is BP using Corexit either on the surface or underwater to hide the spill?
2) Are the boats that BP allegedly has at the site corralling the oil?
In speaking to several men who piloted “Burn Boats,” for the entire duration of the spill, the oil they corralled was then burned, sending tons of contaminants into the air. With certain wind patterns, those contaminants wind up in our environment, poisoning our water and food, as well as us humans and our pets.
[…] Macondo Resurfaces Posted on August 19, 2011 by icliks Oil Rising Again from Macondo Well: BP Hires Fleet of 40 Shrimp Boats to Lay Boom Around Old Deepwat… […]
[…] On his blog, Stuart Smith, a N.O. trial lawyer, reported this week BP has hired 40 boats from Venice to Grand Isle to lay […]
This is indeed some of the worst news I wanted to see.
Have been monitoring the horror in Japan and now the GOM debacle is back?
I never beleived they could completely cap that thing
If it is from the the shelf, then the GOM as we know it is dead completely.
BP can not compensate the whole GOM or the loss of life, sealife, and the beauty that once was. This is very saddening indeed.
Thank you for the information.
[…] Rising Again from Old Deepwater Horizon Site? Posted on August 22, 2011 by Editor Oil from the Macondo Well site is fouling the Gulf – and BP is scrambling to contain both the crud… Reliable sources tell us that BP has hired 40 boats from Venice to Grand Isle to lay boom around […]
[…] and analysis posted at Mr. Smtith’s site show there’s still a problem. Mr. Smith has has updates. All along people worried that leaks through the sea floor would never […]
Gee, what a surprise.
[…] Read my story-breaking post from Aug. 17: https://www.stuarthsmith.com/oil-rising-again-from-macondo-well-bp-hires-fleet-of-40-shrimp-boats-to-… […]
I had to leave Largo Florida with burning eyes & throat, nausea, constant headache, & more. My plans to stay in Florida were ruined. I am still suffering with an eye “muscle” problem, & possible tumor in my neck.
I didn’t work at clean-up & lived miles from the the shore;
so I feel it must have been the burning of oil & dispursants
causing my health issues. There must be others suffering also.
I appreciate current news…..Thank you
Just in time for 2011 hurricane season to carry it onto the heads of millions along the eastern coast. Combined with Fukushima DNA-ripping isotopes, thats slow motion death and rewilding ala NWO. Is this the 10th Anniversary gift?
[…] https://www.stuarthsmith.com/oil-rising-again-from-macondo-well-bp-hires-fleet-of-40-shrimp-boats-to-… This entry was posted on Thursday, September 1st, 2011 at 12:30 am and is filed under Gulf Oil Spill. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. […]
[…] ever get the idea that the human race is in trouble? Stuart Smith, an attorney from New Orleans has more bad news. “Oil from the Macondo Well site is fouling […]
[…] Measures Coin Shop – 25 Signs That The Financial World Is About To Hit The Big Red Panic Button Oil Rising Again from Macondo Well: BP Hires Fleet of 40 Shrimp Boats to Lay Boom Around Old Deepwat… Shift focus to precious metals, says JP Morgan chief strategist – Citywire Dave Daubenmire […]
[…] pare per caso che la razza umana sia nei guai? Stuart Smith, un procuratore di New Orleans ha altre cattive notizie: “Il petrolio dal pozzo petrolifero […]
[…] (Aug 17) Oil from the Macondo Well site is fouling the Gulf anew – the truly frightening part of this development is the oil may be coming from cracks and fissures in the seafloor caused by the work BP did during its failed attempts to cap the runaway Macondo Well – and that type of leakage can’t be stopped, ever. Read more HERE. […]
What’s happening now? Alan.