Happy Memorial day, 2010. I spent 6 years in the military, 4 of them stationed aboard a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, 2 while it was home-ported out of Pearl Harbor Hawaii (where I was attached to the Reactor Laboratory division).
The other 2 while it was home-ported in Puget Sound (Washington state). There was also a year I spent in Florida (Orlando), and another split between Idaho & Maine (the shipyard at Bath Ironworks). I'll be thinking of those who didn't make it out alive when I fire up the bar-b.
Here's hoping they're able to stop that oil-leak and clean up the mess before it trashes the entire Gulf coast. (I know what I'd like to plug that hole with.)
Today, by the way, marks the 1-year anniversary of the last time I drove a car. The Bug & I ride our bikes everywhere. Hard to get greener than that, living in the states.
Even harder however, to believe BP had no contingency plan. It's not like they didn't have plenty of re$ources to devise one. And it's not like something-like-this never happened before.
Coming out of the nuclear industry, I'm very familiar with the term 'fail-safe'. If a device doesn't fail to a safe configuration, it's not a 'fail-safe'. If BP had no contingency plan and they had no reliable fail-safe, maybe they shouldn't have been drilling off the coast in such deep water. The fallout provides a window into our national priorities.
I wonder if they can't get some kind of giant vice-like hydraulic device and simply CRUSH the broken pipe upstream of the leak, pinching or clamping it shut, or at least throttling flow.
What is the plan? Anybody know? Is there one? Biloxi-Joe, you out there? Hows things look in Mississippi? Those poor people in Louisiana .. still trying to rebuild after Katrina. And now this. It's sad. Tragic. The worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. (And doesn't hurricane season start tomorrow?)
And then they're dumping all those toxic chemicals into the water (.. giant airplane-loads full). Who's gonna wanna eat seafood caught in the Gulf - ever? No matter what Bubba Gump or the FDA says. (It's not like they have such a stellar track record to boast about.)