Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

We suffered a large oil spill in this Mississippi River yesterday morning, after a tug/barge collided with a ship. Four hundred thousand gallons of industrial fuel oil spilled in the river right in New Orleans!

I'm not sure what this will do to gasoline prices, because several refineries in the area receive crude via pipeline. There is an offshore terminal in Louisiana (LOOP), which receives oil and pipes it into a salt dome storage area (Clovelly Salt Domes), prior to movement to refineries. Prices of other commodities probably will be affected though, because the river will be shut down, all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, for at least several days.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/oil_spill_shuts_down_80_miles.html

Re: Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

Who cares what this does to the price of oil. The thing that gets me is the impact it will have on the environment. I fail to see why these type of accidents continue to happen. There is no excuse good enough for two large ships to collide. All those involved should be jailed immediately. Not one person on the tug had a license to operate on the river. Stories like this make me very angry.

Re: Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

FLATHEAD said:

Not one person on the tug had a license to operate on the river.

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Yea, that should be automatic jail time there boys.
A good friend of mine is a tug captain and this stuff burns him up cause of all the testing and stuff he went through to get his.

Re: Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

so should the owners of the tug. they allow their boat to be operate by non licensed crew. their license should be pulled on all their boats.

Re: Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

tashasdaddy said:

so should the owners of the tug. they allow their boat to be operate by non licensed crew. their license should be pulled on all their boats.

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Bingo............and we have a winner.........................Accountability..................what a concept......

Re: Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

I agree, fellas. I didn't mean to minimize the importance of environmental protection, or accountability.

I spend a lot of time out in the bayous and marshes doing wildlife and scenic photography. Given what I see on a daily basis, the oil & gas industry has been very irresponsible as a whole. Even though we are all users of the product, I think that this is one of the reasons why there are such negative perceptions toward the oil producers, and related companies.

This morning, when I dropped my tike off at daycare, I noticed an influx of vacuum trucks and flatbeds carrying absorbant oil booms. They are currently trying to seal of places where the river spills into the marshes and they are trying to clear the ship channel of oil, by pushing it towards the banks. The effort is apparently pretty extensive.

Still, there will be impact to the environment, both in terms of contaminated marshes and soiled wildlife. We also have large areas without water because our local treatment plants take water from the Mississippi River. Some have been able to tap into intakes that are above the spill but many of the lower river towns, especially on the eastbank, can not.

It remains to be seen who was at fault, but I would be very surprised if the tug operator did not face severe penalties. I also wouldn't be surprised to see it go out of business simply because no one will want to insure it any longer.

Because I am local, I will probably hear news on this before it hits the national news syndicates. I'll ry to keep y'all posted.

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I think you guys are being a little hard here. It's all good and well to shout "accountability" and "jail time", but these guys had a hard life. They come from diverse backgrounds. We need to give them counseling and maybe some cash to turn their lives around. This really isn't their personal failure, it's societies failure.

Re: Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

Rubberfrog: I had difficuly unerstanding you as your tongue was so firmly embedded into your cheek.

Re: Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

RubberFrog said:

I think you guys are being a little hard here. It's all good and well to shout "accountability" and "jail time", but these guys had a hard life. They come from diverse backgrounds. We need to give them counseling and maybe some cash to turn their lives around. This really isn't their personal failure, it's societies failure.

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RF..................dude .................you're killing me here.............

Re: Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

RubberFrog said:

I think you guys are being a little hard here. It's all good and well to shout "accountability" and "jail time", but these guys had a hard life. They come from diverse backgrounds. We need to give them counseling and maybe some cash to turn their lives around. This really isn't their personal failure, it's societies failure.

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Exactly! I mean, why are we so prejudiced against undocumented tug operators, anyhow?

Re: Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

What kills me is that they will find some hot shot lawyer that will get them off with a slap on the wrist.

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So Jay, do you know what they do with the oil that is scoop off the surface of the water? I imagine that they would reuse it.

Re: Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

gonefishie said:

So Jay, do you know what they do with the oil that is scoop off the surface of the water? I imagine that they would reuse it.

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It will be recycled/reclaimed.......

Re: Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

Ok, so if John Doe's oil company's boat dumped it in the river... could Joe Smith's oil company come by and suck it off the water and sell it?

Re: Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

Bob_VT said:

It will be recycled/reclaimed.......

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And sold for more than new.....................

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I think the do reclaim it. I not sure of the process but its probably similar to what happens when crude is extracted from the oil shales. Most of the time it contains a good bit of saltwater, which is then boiled off in a "heater treater."

As of a little while ago, however, only 140 barrels out of the 9,000+ barrels lost, has been recovered. The La. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries is already starting to find oiled wildlife.

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This is one On-the-Water job I do not envy

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/divers_survey_barge_damage.html

I hope that safety line was inspected before they sent the diver down!

Re: Yikes! Big Oil Spill!

Well, the lawyers have gotten into it already - the first class action law suit was filed a little after 9:30 this morning.

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Don't know about you guys, but I'm heading down there with a bucket and some 55 gallon drums.

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Ironically, there was one report that the stuff is actually biodiesel. While it doesn't look like a light grade of fuel to me, there is a new biodiesel plant near the terminal where the barge loaded.