"There are days if not weeks worth of video of each of those 3 leaks. Yet you show us 10 seconds of the smallest one, the one you plugged, your only success. Now you're going to try a Junk Shot and/or a Top Kill. You say you know either of these could make the leaks worse, possibly much worse. Well, show us the goddam leaks before and after. We have a right to know if you made it worse and we're tired of taking your word for anything. Just try to maintain that it's YOUR footage and you don't have to show us. Just try that. In front of Congress. It's OUR seafloor! Not Yours! Our footage! Not Yours!"

Fishgrease: DKos Booming School

by Fishgrease

   

Mon May 10, 2010 at 10:15:58 PM PDT

Hello, Boomer. I'm Fishgrease. I'm known, mostly, for my comments on any number of diaries about the recent Gulf of Mexico Oil Leak/Volcano/Apocalypse. Before that, I was known here at DKos for writing bland, confusing, useless, sometimes insulting diaries. Look at my UID number. I've been here a long fucking time and I've never had a diary on the rec list. Which is fine with me because I hate writing diaries. If this one makes the rec list, I might write another. But I doubt it. I'm a much better commenter than a diarist and I'm not that great a commenter.

"Where's Fishgrease when you need him?"

-- Janeane Garofalo

She really said that. And she meant me. Ask her.

Anyway, follow me after the bump and I'll conduct Daily Kos's first-ever Oil Spill Booming School.

Well, we've made it as far as Meridian. This morning, we thought the car/transmission* was dying, which would have been a perfect (and perfectly reasonable) excuse to scrap this trip, or put it off and try to think of some other way to help in the meanwhile, but even I was surprised at my determination and willingness to try, even in the face of something that scary. We talked about back-up plans, car rescue, etc. and then hit the road anyway. There's a quote from Color Purple that basically sums up my feelings about trying to make this trip - "Nothing but death could keep me from  it."
Chris is back home, calling the volunteer orgs and setting up meetings, getting contact info, writing up lists of questions for interviews, finding us campsites and generally smoothing the way for us. We'd be lost without him. We have plans and ideas, and he is helping us make those happen. Neither Q nor I are the most socially adept people sometimes, and it is such a blessing to have someone like Chris doing the initial interfacing for us. He's a pro, and it shows. Now we just have to carry the ball.
We're scared to death, of what we might find, of facing the physical reality of this, of not achieving our goals (or anything else), of being hurt or any of the other million things that can happen on a journey like this, but it doesn't matter. This is what we can do at this point to help, and dadgummit, we're going to do it. Short term goals like this trip AND long term goals, like building a strong platform for hair boom contributions and building in our area. Quincy is seriously considering taking a full-time long term job here, so I might even have to go it alone after the first leg of the trip. It's amazing how something like this can galvanize someone who has otherwise been so un-ambitious, as far as finding a life purpose, a single effort worth giving your all to. I have NEVER been one to consider my future very far in advance - it has only been in the last few years that I could consider a future longer than a few weeks away. But here I am, trying to find out exactly how I can best be of use to this cause, and as far as I can tell, this is not something that will be 'fixed' in my lifetime, so as far as I am concerned, this is a lifetime commitment. Today really is the first day of the rest of my life. And as scary and depressing as that seems, it sure as hell beats sticking my head in the sand and trying my best to pretend that this isn't happening until reality smacks me in the face and "surprises" me with the truth of it all. I choose to meet my destiny head on, I will not just turn my head and wait for the axe to fall.
Tomorrow we head to New Orleans, and to eventual meetings with some of the other people who are passionate about trying to make a difference in the face of this disaster. I believe that, at the very least, we can help bring awareness to these organisations and their needs. That would not be a failure. But if we can do more, any more, and keep doing it, and encourage others to do so as well, then that will = success.
The only way I can truly fail in this is just to give up, and frankly, I would not survive that, so there is simply no room for failure.
I pray with all my heart that there are others out there who feel this way too, and that I can meet some of them, introduce them to each other, and help make this web of action and support as strong and wide-spread as it can be. It is the only way we are going to be able to handle the inevitable results of this tragedy. I refuse to give up hope that I will see our home beaches white once again before I die. And even if that doesn't happen, I will work until I can't anymore, and hope that the children of the next generation will see that, even if I don't. I refuse to pretend that it's someone else's problem, that someone else will take care of it all. I know I'm not alone in this, and I promise you, you aren't either.
-s


"Be the change you want to see in the world." - M. Gandhi




*we drive ANCIENT primitive beamers, and one of the charming flukes of my Molly (Black Molly Wainright)
is a tendency to act as if the transmission is dying, possibly even dead if we let the transmission fluid get too low. scary, but hey, we've gotten this far! (knock wood)


this is post #411. 4/11 was Luna's birthday. 

"I was just sitting here thinking our way of life is over. It's the end, the apocalypse," said fisherman Tom Young of Plaquemines Parish on the coast. "And no one outside of these few parishes really cares. They say they do, but they don't do nothing but talk. Where's the action? Where's the person who says these are real people, real people with families and they are hurting?"

Although I finally have a shape and a definite, clear, purpose for this trip, I don't really have any kind of mission statement or anything. I have been compelled since the minute I found out about this to work, write, read, post, share, call, cut, collect, create, CONSTANTLY, in order to try to make ANY impact on the sickening volume of this disaster. We're headed down to the coast tomorrow to try to check out some of the major volunteer opportunities in each currently affected state, see what their needs and struggles are, see if we can be of help, help others get connected, volunteer to need, and help get the word out. My long term plan is to come home and keep helping with the informational/organisational parts of all of these vital causes and facilities, as well as building and promoting orgs for collecting, donating and building hair booms. I have had PLENTY to keep me busy, but it has been very difficult not to just panic and fall apart with the real weight of all of this, every second. I have been driven, but I have also been grieving, terrified, confused, disheartened, depressed, angry, and frankly, panicked since day one, just like all of us. I've just had to move forward, try to evolve quickly in some aspects, and keep working. The thing that had been driving me onward up til now was just the need to do it, to do SOMETHING. But you can only run on that for so long. Humans' souls (or egos or psyches or personalities or whatever you want to call it) need food. We need a REASON to go on.

There are ENDLESS reasons to keep fighting this particular battle, but I guess I had no one banner to march under, until today when I read this quote by Tom Young.
I want him to know that someone outside the parish DOES care, that there is someone who is willing to make, find or force action, and most importantly that there is someone, LOTS of someones who say these are real people, real people with families and they are hurting." 
I'm not sure yet exactly what I can do, but gdmt, I am going to find out. And in the meanwhile, I've raised a little money, some awareness, helped people get info, collected hair, spread the word, done what I can. And all the while, until it's better or until I drop, I will remember what Tom said. I hope I can find him in my travels and see what his plan is, what BP and the government and other folks are doing to help him, and maybe I can give him a hug and let him know that we're not just talk. We can't just sit by and watch people like him and his family hurt. We will help be his voice outside the parish, and strong arms inside the parish too. Whatever we can do.
-s

"BP's new plan risks worsening oil leak"

'I was just sitting here thinking our way of life is over. It's the end'"

BP, government warn oil may leak until August

'I was just sitting here thinking our way of life is over. It's the end'

Video

Admiral: BP must fix its well May 31: The military and the federal government will continue to play a supporting role to BP, which has to find a “technical” solution to its broken oil well, and that will not change unless the president decides to do that, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday. Today show

Video

Browner: 'Biggest environmental disaster' for U.S.  May 30: White House Adviser Carol Browner tells NBC's David Gregory that the oil spill is the biggest environmental disaster the United States has faced in its history. Meet the Press

Video

BP director May 30: BP's Managing Director Robert Dudley explains why BP thinks the new containment method will work when previous containment attempts did not. Meet the Press

Environment news

Oil and hurricanes don't mix There is serious concern about what will happen if a hurricane churns up the oil that's spilled into the gulf. The Weather Channel's Mike Seidel has more on the possible impact a hurricane might have on the spread of oil there.

Health risks spread with oil spill Oil spill could be 'permanent problem' for Obama No end in sight for oil disaster ‘Top kill’ fails, so now what?

Gulf oil spill graphics

Spill trajectory Watch the Gulf oil spill grow

Interactive: Rig blast aftermath Timeline: Oil rig explosions in the Gulf of Mexico

Field Notes: Gulf oil spill

Hair booms get the ax Red blobs of oil floating four miles offshore First celebrity sighting in Gulf oil disaster Shrimpers just want to keep shrimping Oysterman: 'Oil monster will gulp us up' BP CEO: We could have done more to prepare Still waiting for oil to hit land Long-suffering tribe fears oil may strike final blow On the coast, a rising tide of suits and briefcases In Mississippi, a berm of last resort

updated 2 hours, 50 minutes ago

BOOTHVILLE, La. - This summer on the oil-stained Gulf Coast promises to be like no other.

Just off Louisiana on Grand Isle, which was hit with oil from the spill, the beach reopened for Memorial Day weekend but with several caveats: No swimming or fishing, and stay away from oil cleanup crews. Elsewhere, fishermen were idled during what's normally a busy season, and floating hotels were being set up to house workers who will try to mop up the crude seeping into marshes.

With BP making yet another attempt to stem the flow from a blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico — this time only to contain the leak, not stop it — signs point to August before any real end is in sight. The new plan carries the risk of making the torrent worse, top government officials have warned. On top of that, hurricane season begins Tuesday.

---

"I was just sitting here thinking our way of life is over. It's the end, the apocalypse," said fisherman Tom Young of Plaquemines Parish on the coast. "And no one outside of these few parishes really cares. They say they do, but they don't do nothing but talk. Where's the action? Where's the person who says these are real people, real people with families and they are hurting?"

Oil industry is better equipped
Responding to suggestions that the military should take the lead in responding to the spill, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said Monday the oil industry is better-equipped to deal with the disaster.

Military officials have looked at what they have available but "the best technology in the world, with respect to that, exists in the oil industry," Mullen said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Mullen also said a decision on the military leading the response would come from the president.

Meanwhile, churches echoed with prayers for a solution.

"There are people who are getting desperate, and there are more getting anxious as we get further into the shrimping season and there is less chance they will recover," said the Rev. Theodore Turner, 57, at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Boothville, near where oil first washed ashore. Fishermen make up about a third of his congregation.

As the oil washes ashore, crude-coated birds have become a frequent sight. At the sea's bottom, no one knows what the oil will do to species like the newly discovered bottom-dwelling pancake batfish — and others that remain unknown but just as threatened.

Scientists from several universities have reported large underwater plumes of oil stretching for miles and reaching hundreds of feet beneath the Gulf's surface, though BP PLC CEO Tony Hayward on Sunday disputed their findings, saying the company's tests found no such evidence of oily clouds underwater.

"The oil is on the surface," Hayward said. "Oil has a specific gravity that's about half that of water. It wants to get to the surface because of the difference in specific gravity."

Hurricane season is at hand
One researcher said their findings were bolstered by the fact that scientists from different institutions reached similar conclusions with separate tests.

"There's been enough evidence from enough different sources," said marine scientist James Cowan of Louisiana State University, who reported finding a plume last week about 50 miles from the spill site. Cowan said oil reached to depths of at least 400 feet.

Video   Holiday protests May 30: Gulf Coast residents were less festive than normal. NBC's Mara Schiavocampo reports. Nightly News

Perhaps most alarming of all, 40 days after the Deepwater Horizon blew up and began the underwater deluge, hurricane season is at hand. It brings the horrifying possibility of wind-whipped, oil-soaked waves and water spinning ashore and coating areas much farther inland.

The spill is already the worst in American history — worse, even, than the 1989Exxon Valdez disaster. It has already released between 20 million and 43 million gallons of oil into the Gulf, according to government estimates.

"This is probably the biggest environmental disaster we've ever faced in this country," White House Energy and Climate Change Advisor Carol Browner said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

BP's next containment effort involves an assortment of undersea robot maneuvers that would redirect the oil up and out of the water it is poisoning.

The first step in BP's latest effort is the intricate removal of a damaged riser that brought oil to the surface of the Deepwater Horizon rig. The riser will be cut at the top of the crippled blowout preventer, creating a flat surface that a new containment valve can seal against.

Relief well will take two months
The valve would force the oil into a new pipe that would bring it up to a ship. The seal, however, would not prevent all oil from escaping. Browner said Sunday the effort could result in a temporary 20 percent increase in the flow. BP has said it didn't expect a significant increase in flow from the cutting and capping plan.

If the containment valve fails, BP may try installing a new blowout preventer on top of the existing one.

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In the end, however, a relief well would ease the pressure on the runaway gusher in favor of a controlled pumping — essentially what the Deepwater Horizon was trying to do. But that will take at least two months.

Using government figures, if the leak continues at its current pace and is stopped on Aug. 1, 51 million to 106 million gallons will have spilled.

Coastal tent cities are about to rise to house the workers and contractors minimizing the damage, while barge-like floating hotels for a total of about 800 workers are being readied at three locations off Louisiana. Sand banks and barriers are being built. But the consensus around the Gulf Coast is turning more apoplectic and apocalyptic. This is, people are starting to say, a generational event — tragic to this generation, potentially crippling to the next.

"The oil spill is part of prophecy," said Turner, the Louisiana minister. "The Bible prophesized hardships. If we believe the word of God is true — and we do — we also know that in addition to prophecying hardships he promised to take care of us."