Deepwater Horizon MC252
Loop Current Location Relative to Oil Slick
July 27, 2010

Click on Graphic

SPILLING OVER — From The Washington Post:

Venice, La., is facing extinction. The small fishing community, located just 50 miles away from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, is in jeopardy, as the BP oil spill has put the livelihood of the residents in danger. The people of Venice are now left with a difficult choice. Do they stay and risk their health for the sake of their history and culture? Or do they give up their jobs, their community and their heritage in an effort to flee the lasting effects of the oil spill? (UNC/poweringanation.org)

From CNN:

Coast Guard not reporting oil? Local official says crude hitting marshes EVERYDAY

OilFlorida | July 27, 2010

Ray Taffaro, St. Bernard Parish President, CNN, July 27, 2010 at 10.05 p.m. EDT:

Whether the Coast Guard sees it, or whether BP sees it, or anyone else.

We go by what we experience every single day.

We’re having new oil impact on our marshes, on our islands…

Click here to see the video:

From Bloomberg via The Press-Register (al.com):

BP oil degrading quickly, lessening risk to Florida and eastern U.S.

Oil blobs and oil sheen are seen in the waters of Chandeleur Sound, La., Tuesday, May 4, 2010. With the cap on the BP well in place, oil is dissipitating, and posing less of a threat to Florida and the East Coast.

Oil from BP Plc’s record spill in the Gulf of Mexico is biodegrading quickly, probably eliminating the risk that crude will go around Florida and hit the U.S. East Coast, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

Oil has been dissipating through evaporation since BP stopped the flow from its Macondo well off the coast of Louisiana on July 15, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco told reporters today on a conference call. Crude that’s dispersed into the sea is being gobbled up by bacteria, she said.

The company’s success in capping Macondo while continuing to drill a relief well to permanently plug the well eased fears that oil would get into the Loop Current, a river of warm water that joins the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic. The Loop Current has shifted seasonally to a point hundreds of miles away from the BP oil slick, NOAA Oceanographer Debbie Payton said.

“If all is good for us, by the time the Loop Current comes back intruding into the Gulf, there will be no more oil,” Payton said today in a telephone interview. “It makes what was previously a very real threat to the Florida Straits null and void.”

From The Press-Register (al.com) — by: George Altman, Press-Register

Oil spill Day 100: Despite recent successes, enormous recovery project lies ahead

Oil blobs and patties washed ashore midday at the public beach Thursday, July 1, 2010, in Gulf Shores, Ala.

Exactly 100 days ago, the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, killing 11 people and spawning what has been called the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. Federal officials say they could permanently plug the broken oil well in a matter of weeks, but even if they are successful, an enormous recovery project still lies ahead.

Lawsuit targets BP’s use of Corexit dispersant; attorney alleges chemical used in off-limits areas

By Brendan Kirby, Press-Register

A dispersant plane passes over an oil skimmer as it cleans oil from a leaking pipeline that resulted from the explosion and collapse of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. A federal lawsuit filed in Mobile targets BP PLC for its use of Corexit in the Gulf.

MOBILE, Ala. — BP PLC has used the chemical dispersant Corexit near the shores of Alabama and other coastal areas that it has said are off-limits, a Montgomery lawyer said today.

“I think they are going more inland now than what they are publicly acknowledging,” said Rhon Jones, who represents a pair of south Alabama residents who filed a federal lawsuit in Mobile this week against BP.

BP spokesman Ray Melick said no dispersant has been used in state waters.

“If they’ve got evidence, they’ve got to bring it out, because we keep hearing this,” he said.

According to the Joint Information Center at the Unified Area Command in New Orleans, BP has sprayed 1,072,514 gallons of dispersant on the surface of the water and another 771,272 gallons underneath the water at the site of the damaged well.

Officials said dispersant cannot be used within 3 miles of the shore and has not been used anywhere at all since Tropical Storm Bonnie blew through last week.

Read the complete legal complaint

In the lawsuit, which also names Corexit manufacturer Nalco Co., Janille Turner and Glynis H. Wright seek to represent all Gulf Coast residents who live, travel or work in the area who “will suffer and have suffered the deleterious effects” of the dispersant.

Jones, head of environmental law at Beasley Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles in Montgomery, said this is the 12th lawsuit his firm has filed over the oil spill caused by the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed overall, but this is one of a small number that specifically targets the use of Corexit.

“This much dispersant has never been used before,” he said.

Attorneys for the firm said that Turner, a Coden resident who owns the Topless Oyster Raw Bar & Grill, and Wright, an Orange Beach resident who does interior design work, both started suffering severe respiratory and gastrointestinal problems  shortly after the spill.

“You almost feel like you have a really severe cold that doesn’t go away,” said Parker Miller, an attorney on the case.

Miller said the firm bases its allegation that BP is using the Corexit close to shore on accounts from Gulf residents who say they have heard and seen the planes at night and by the fact that his clients and their neighbors have reported sudden illnesses.

Miller said he does not think either of his clients came into contact with the water.

“We believe it’s in the air,” he said.

The Environmental Protection Agency has said that air quality testing along the Gulf Coast has not detected the presence of pollution that would cause long-term health problems. According the Alabama Department of Public Health, at least 114 people have gone to local emergency rooms, clinics and urgent care centers since May 14 complaining of ailments thought to be related to the oil spill.

Spewing Oil From Another Gulf Well Hampering Cleanup

URGENT: Pressurized natural gas and oil blasts into the air after boat strikes another oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

New Leak Found on Gulf Coast

July 27, 2010 – 12:48 PM | by: Jonathan Serrie

URGENT NEWS….

From FoxNews –

Boat Crashes Into Oil Well, Creating New Spill in Gulf of Mexico

July 27: Oil and natural gas are seen shooting into the Gulf of Mexico from a damaged well near Bayou St. Dennis, La.

From the news article:

URGENT: Fox News is being told by the Homeland Security director for Jefferson Parish, La., that a new oil leak has sprung up in the Gulf of Mexico after a boat struck an oil well in the early morning hours on Tuesday.

A tugboat or other workboat collided with the well near Bayou St. Dennis, La., shearing off its valve structure and releasing pressurized natural gas and light oil, DHS official Deano Bonano told Fox News.

Cleanup workers are currently booming off the area and the scene at sea has been taken over by federal agents. The U.S. Coast Guard, Jefferson Parish police and fire officials, as well as Vessels of Opportunity boats have all been dispatched to the scene.

Federal officials do not know who owns the well, but a contractor who handles wild wells is also on the way, Bonano said.

Oil is spewing about 20 feet in the air from the severed 4-inch pipe, a contractor who flew over the leak told Fox News. The area has been evacuated and civilian boats are being told not to enter the scene, where “a fair bit of oil” is leaking out, the contractor said.

Here’s the latest satellite of Bonnie in the Gulf of Mexico:

It looks more organized to me in this satellite graphic….

The computer models still have it on about the same track (which is right toward the BP Horizon site)….