5000 Barrels a Day
By now everyone knows about the environmental catastrophe unfolding in the gulf coast. Initial estimates of 1000 barrels a day were horrendous enough and soon upgraded to an estimate of 5000 barrels. However a few weeks ago, new footage emerged showing the actual leak:
This lead to researchers to conclude the leak could actually be as high as 80,000+ barrels a day. That means that every 3-4 days as much oil as the entire Exxon Valdez spilled is leaking into our oceans. Just yesterday, experts testified before congress that the actually amount is most likely close to 95K barrels per day.
What really chaps me is that BP is refusing to acknowledge the extent of the flow (and thus the extent of the damage). They are sticking by their early figures of 5K despite the fact they are woefully inaccurate and they are refusing to put forth the effort to actually figure out the flow rate.
After many unsuccessful attempts to address the problem, BP finally was able to insert a tube into the broken pipe to siphon off the oil. They claim they are now capturing up to 5,000 barrels of leaking oil. That just happens to be the magic number — the amount BP still claims is all that is leaking.
The problem is, the leak is still flowing. Check out this footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h4yHPt7ejs
This has been going on for a month. Even when we aren’t thinking about it, or the news media isn’t covering it, thousands and thousands of gallons of toxic crude oil are blasting into our oceans. It literally makes me sick to think about the towns in Alabama that survived Hurricane Katrina, only to be (irreparably?) damaged by this man-made disaster.
Now who thinks “Drill Baby Drill” is a good idea?
UPDATE: Right when I posted this, I found this article where BP finally admits the leak is bigger than 5,000 barrels, but still refuses to acknowledge the extent of the damage.