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Old 05-03-2010, 07:41 AM
 
Location: West Coast of Florida
1,439 posts, read 2,909,231 times
Reputation: 2178

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Just an update, for those forumers that are in the medical field...Save Our Shorebirds is looking for donations of supplies; droppers, syringes, and those kinds of things.
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Old 05-03-2010, 07:46 AM
 
8,862 posts, read 17,407,004 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coachgns View Post
WHat I find very upsetting here from a FInancial standpoint (Lots upsets me from a standpoint of both Nature, and people's livelihoods) is that in 1986 COngress set up an Oil Field Liability Trust Fund that capped the damages an oil company will have to pay from a spill at $75 million! Yes - that is all. That is the CAP. They DO however, have to pay all the costs of cleanup & containment.
The money for that fund comes from a tax of 8 cents per barrel, which adds one tenth of one percent to the price of oil.
That fund now has $1.6 billion. That 1.6 billion can go to companies that lost money due to the spill, such as fishermen & even hotels if they can show they've lost money due to lost travel, and governments for lost tax revenues. Is that 1.6 billion going to be enough?

What I do not know is whether there is a way around that 75mil cap so that BP & it's Subs will have to pay damages?
Capped at $75 million? The potential for litigation seems infinite and I wondered about the final tab.
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Old 05-03-2010, 10:38 AM
 
Location: West Coast of Florida
1,439 posts, read 2,909,231 times
Reputation: 2178
In a previous post I called SOS Save our Shorebirds. The correct name is Save our Seabirds. Sorry, posted before having coffee.

Latest animation showing the current size and location of the oil spill:
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-sp...ill_anima.html

Last edited by Col.W.Deering; 05-03-2010 at 11:16 AM..
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Old 05-03-2010, 11:25 AM
 
2,156 posts, read 11,123,518 times
Reputation: 800
Apparently a lot of people have been altering their summer vacation plans for the beach. I thought hurricanes were bad in terms of the damage they can cause but now I am beginning to hold my breath over what a blown oil rig can do. This is all too reminiscent of the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska where oil still is on shorelines.

One doesn't hear about this sort of thing happening in Norway where there is a lot of off shore drilling. Are Norwegian engineers that much better than ours?
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Old 05-03-2010, 01:53 PM
 
338 posts, read 1,007,754 times
Reputation: 171
Quote:
Originally Posted by Big House View Post
I find it hard to believe, and appauling that no one had a solid plan on what to do if something like this ever happened. It has to happen eventually! No major oil field has gone on without some kind of major leak, terrorist attack or otherwise.

The administration wants to point the finger at BP, but who is really responsible for protecting our country?!? Remember, it is this administration that has actually engaged in pushing and approving legislation for more off-shore drilling. Without any solid plan for how to solve a problem like this when it actually happens! Does anyone think this is stupid - or what?! And, really it doesn't matter who the party in-charge actually is. I find it a criminal act that those people involved have had no plan, or back-up plan, or back-up to the back-up plan in place to ensure something like this cannot ruin the gulf, endanger hundreds of species, put untold numbers of businesses out, and add to the number of unemployed. Not to mention the health consequences a spill like this can have on the health of the population. It is estimated that 30% of the seafood we eat has some origin or is co-dependent upon the gulf environment!

All the bank accounts and assets of BP should be siezed to ensure that as much of the clean-up cost can be covered by thier assest, including those put out of work, and pay for those necessarily employed to perform this clean-up. This should be done before one dime of tax payer money is expended. They caused THIS mess, and should be penalized to the fullest extent so that ALL costs are covered by thier assests first! THEN, maybe the other oil companies will make sure they have all precautions covered so that things like this never happen again. Certainly, if they had spent adequate funds making sure they could stop and totally mitigate such a disaster would not have put a tiny dent in the company profits if they had made the slightest effort to be prepared for such a dumb, but sure to happen catastrophy!!

This is WAY WAY WAY worse than wiping some oil off a few birds! This is criminal!
While I agree there should have been disaster plans in place by Bp and other oil companies,I also think it is our governments responsibility to its people to have laws and regulations in place to protect us. Companies will always do the least required and apparently we didn't require enough. As to this administration wanting to increase drilling, the phrase"drill baby drill" was a Republican catch phrase during the last election. So I think both parties would have been putting our coastlines at risk. Not to mention these oil rigs have been out there long before this administraion took over.I like your idea to sieze Bp accounts to cover the cost of clean up and compensate those who make a living off the water and coastal areas. Unfortunatly that won't undo the damage done to wildlife,sealife and coastal communites. Those things may never fully recover.
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Old 05-03-2010, 05:33 PM
 
8,862 posts, read 17,407,004 times
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[quote=debvic;14015958]While I agree there should have been disaster plans in place by Bp and other oil companies,I also think it is our governments responsibility to its people to have laws and regulations in place to protect us. Companies will always do the least required and apparently we didn't require enough. As to this administration wanting to increase drilling, the phrase"drill baby drill" was a Republican catch phrase during the last election. So I think both parties would have been putting our coastlines at risk. Not to mention these oil rigs have been out there long before this administraion took over.I like your idea to sieze Bp accounts to cover the cost of clean up and compensate those who make a living off the water and coastal areas. Unfortunatly that won't undo the damage done to wildlife,sealife and coastal communites. Those things may never fully recover.[/QUOTE]

I don't know that 'The Government' needs to become more involved in this.

As I understand the scenario--there was a valve/timing device that should have activated when the volcanic eruption of oil occurred. One announcer/commentator theorized that there was a lever that those on the first floor of the rig should have pulled but they lost their lives.

Someone else mentioned computer error and I've heard several other speculative theories. It sounds like a horrible accident.

I completely agree with the comment in bold. I don't know how the potential risks associated with offshore drilling and environmental/quality of life issues can be resolved. I suppose further discussion is needed among elected officials---however I am not optimistic that this would bring us any closer to a resolution.

I vividly remember the severe drought that plagued the state of GA 2/3 yrs ago--really knocked many of us for a loop. There was no choice but to closely regulate the use of water. Lake Lanier, the primary source of water for Atlanta, was lower than it has ever been and it took over 2 years to build the supply up again. Agriculture was affected and that set off negative economic consequences.

The gulf area can't sustain such a critical loss--over and over again.
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Old 05-03-2010, 06:03 PM
 
Location: Punta Gorda and Maryland
6,103 posts, read 15,024,131 times
Reputation: 1256
Quote:
Originally Posted by debvic View Post
While I agree there should have been disaster plans in place by Bp and other oil companies,I also think it is our governments responsibility to its people to have laws and regulations in place to protect us. Companies will always do the least required and apparently we didn't require enough. As to this administration wanting to increase drilling, the phrase"drill baby drill" was a Republican catch phrase during the last election. So I think both parties would have been putting our coastlines at risk. Not to mention these oil rigs have been out there long before this administraion took over.I like your idea to sieze Bp accounts to cover the cost of clean up and compensate those who make a living off the water and coastal areas. Unfortunatly that won't undo the damage done to wildlife,sealife and coastal communites. Those things may never fully recover.
Thus my statement that it doesnt matter what party is actually in-charge. They would both probably be doing the exact same thing. But, this party is in-charge, thus it is thier responsibility. This is thier disaster, and thier responsibility. They wouldn't let Bush take a walk on the Hurricanes would they? I also said the the government, since they are planning to drill along the entire East coast, above the Entire Northern part of Alaska, and more in the gulf, should have had our national interest and numerous back-up plans ready to deploy immediately when such a sure thing is eventually going to happen, and the damage in life, cost, employment, and food supply, and wildlife is sooooo high!
Everyone should have "STUPID" tatoo'd on thier forehead in 2" high letters!

I'm not a tatoo artist so, I'm not looking to profit from this. And, trust me I've done stupid things. But this is criminal.
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Old 05-03-2010, 06:43 PM
 
6,681 posts, read 4,379,439 times
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Apparently there was a system called a BOP (Blowout Preventer) that was supposed to seal the well in case of a leak -- (and the BOP is designed to have multiple redundancies to prevent a failure -- but somehow they all failed). The following is from part of an article in HeraldTribune: -----> The root of the problem appears to be a towering stack of heavy equipment 5,000 feet below the surface of the gulf known as a blowout preventer, or BOP. It is a steel-framed stack of valves, rams, housings, tanks and hydraulic tubing that is designed to seal the well quickly in the event of a burst of pressure. It did not work when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded.
Fryar and Charlie Holt, BP\'s drilling operations manager for the gulf, described an audacious plan to confront the BOP problem. In this approach, they would seal the well by cutting the riser at the wellhead, sliding a huge piece of equipment called the riser package out of the way and bolting a second blowout preventer atop the first one.
The risk in attempting such a maneuver — which would be performed, as all the undersea work has been, by robotic submersibles tethered to support ships 5,000 feet above — is that the pressure of the oil rising from the well could be overwhelming, and the well could gush oil at an even higher rate. Fryar said a pressure gauge would be installed soon to determine whether it was safe to attempt the operation.
The blowout preventer \"has lots of redundancies, there are lots of opportunities to shut these off,\" Fryar said. \"None of these worked.\"
Whether the equipment was faulty or was damaged in accident was unclear. Here is a link to the full article: Oil nightmare is complicated by unknowns | HeraldTribune.com
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Old 05-03-2010, 08:27 PM
 
77,755 posts, read 59,900,878 times
Reputation: 49153
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sue in Ohio View Post
Boy, don't know if you intended to sound condescending, but you did. I happen to think that "wiping off a certain number of birds" is well worth the effort.

Obviously safer drilling practices are needed--duh. But we need to tend to the immediate impact of this incident. There is going to be a tragic impact on the millions of migrating birds in this area, some of which are endangered or, as in the case of the brown pelican, just recently taken off the endangered species list. Certainly the sea mammals, wildlife in the contaminated areas, fisheries, etc. are all going to be hit hard. Not to mention the loss of livelihood for thousands of people. Many groups will be lending a hand to help in any way they can. I mentioned Save Our Seabirds since it is located in Sarasota and is a very well respected organization willing to spend time and resources in helping with this disaster.
Wasn't meant to be, but an oil spill is going to impact thousands of species.

People that let thier cats roam kill millions of birds annually. Just pointing out how much energy is put into certain events (like oil spills) while we ignore the larger issues causing much more damage.
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Old 05-03-2010, 08:40 PM
 
Location: Minneapolis
146 posts, read 222,825 times
Reputation: 117
Just fyi here

Current Could Push Oil Spill Up East Coast : Discovery News
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