Concerns for Gulf Shores and surrounding beaches? (Mobile, Dauphin Island: insurance, colleges)

[jaxart]

Originally Posted by Maintenance tech

Even though BP excepts responsability for the situation and they intend to pay for cleanup etc...

It might be worth exploring the fact that 20 YEARS LATER there are still people in court attempting to get a settlement from Exxon for the Valdez tanker incident.

BP = British Petroleum! Since it's not even a USA owned company, expecting them to compensate is one thing - getting them to do so is another story. Compare their operating record (world wide) to that of Chevron, who pioneered the deepest ocean drilling in 2007 with their Cajun Express venture that drilled to 30,000 or so feet in ocean water over a mile deep.

[mimpdaddy]

BP has given Alabama a 25 million dollar grant to hire people for the oil spill.

[Txgal33]

Good news is that we found an owner willing to refund all our money if the spill does become an issue to the area and on top of that they took an additional amount off their rates to cover the loss of our deposit at the previous rental! WhooHoo! Now here is hoping the it continues to move west....sad to say...and that they contain it quickly so it does not cause anymore havoc! I know the area much so needs their summer income to continue to flow!

[southernnaturelover]

Well I just hope people don't get so hot headed here about drilling like they do in Florida, I still support drilling but the oil companies need to come up with a way to stop the flow quickly if something like this happens again. I understand many fisherman are losing money in addition to money lost from tourism, but there are also LOTS of people in southwest Alabama that work offshore on those rigs and make a good living, my father has worked out in the gulf for 30 years.

I'm not trying to take the side of BP here either, but really they are not the ones that caused the explosion, it was likely a mistake by one of the TransOcean workers. Many of those rigs have employees from 3 or 4 different companies working on them doing different things.

[jaxart]

Originally Posted by southernnaturelover

I still support drilling but the oil companies need to come up with a way to stop the flow quickly if something like this happens again.

There have long been devices that are called "blowout preventers" that do what the name implies in an emergency. The stories circulating in the media say that BP chose NOT to install the fail-safe devices on their well head. Such devices are required in the North Sea but apparently are discretionary in other parts of the world.

[Reactionary]

jaxart - BP has a blowout preventer on the well - it seems like the operators died before they could activate it (but I don't think anyone knows yet). You're on to something with the 'North Sea' comment - they use BOPs with an additional remote-activation capability. Don't know if that would've worked either, since the rig was burning and sinking...

IIRC BP tried to get a remote sub to activate the BOP - it failed. I think they're looking at installing a second BOP into the well which might stop the leak, but the risk is that it will make the leak worse.

For right now, I wish BP success with the cofferdam dome and with the eventual capping of the well and with the clean up.

[jaxart]

Originally Posted by Reactionary

jaxart - BP has a blowout preventer on the well

A story in today's news seems to confirm your statement, but now the question is why the device failed to fail-safe? The article goes on to say that authorities will be looking at the testing frequency for the BOPs, as well as their actual success record and designs.

[mimpdaddy]

BP didn't want to spend the 500K for the acoustic switch. It's all about maximizing profit

[Member1]

Updated: Tar balls from Gulf Coast oil spill reach Dauphin Island | al.com

[Tama]

The toxins from the oil and the dispersants could well affect the safety of the seafood for years, could it not? How can they clean the ocean bed? The food chain from the smallest plankton to the largest fish could have contaminents. I hate to be a prophet of doom--I own property along the Alabama coast and want the best outcome but I am so leary of our officials when it comes to food safety--the latest with the children's medicine and filthy manufacturing conditions is another add-on to the peanuts, the lettuce and so on. How can we trust them about the safety of the seafood. All those poor creatures and the fishermen. I am heartsick.