Louisiana oil spill 'an ecological time bomb'
Updated on 06 May 2010
15 miles out from shore, the oil spill from BP's Deepwater well begins, writes Alex Thomson in Louisiana. And as the oil enters the animal food chain, an ecological disaster looms.
Engineers have now begun the unprecedented feat of trying to cap the second of three leaking oil pipes 5,000 feet down on the ocean floor.
A flotilla of ships is positioned next to the former drilling rig which exploded last month. From there, they will try to dangle, and then position, a specially made 98-tonne funnel over the pipe. The operation could take days to complete.
In the meantime, the spill is hitting the shoreline.
Professor Rick Steiner - a veteran of the Exxon Valdez disaster - told Alex Thomson what was concerning was what was not visible - the concentrations of the polynuclear aeromatic hydrocarbons. In layman's terms, more dangerous, more toxic oil.
In UK terms, this oil slick would stretch from London to Bristol, Edinburgh to Aberdeen.
Professor Steiner explained that the booms laid out in the water are, in fact, incapable of collecting much of the oil because it has emulsified down into the water column.
Greenpeace researcher Mark Floegel told Channel 4 News we were no longer in the days of "drill, baby, drill" and were instead in the days of "spill, baby, spill".
Mr Floegel continued: "About a month ago the president we can drill even more in the outer continental shelf. he said we could do it safely. Well, we now know it's not safe.
"He said he have the best technology. We now know we don't have the best technology.
"He said the chances of this happening were almost impossible. Well, now the impossible's happened - and it's going to be decades before we've recovered.
'Nothing can stop this happening now', by Alex Thomson
It takes about an hour and a half in skipper Troy Wetzel's fishing charter boat Kingfish Two.
With twin outboards opened up to 500hp, we belt down through the delta at what feels like at least 25mph.
You fly past the tugs, tankers, bulk-carriers and shrimpers that throng the brown waters of the Mississippi Delta.
Out into the Gulf itself. It's a bizarre seascape dotted all about with lonely oil wells and distant vast platforms shimmering ghostly on the horizon to port, starboard, fore and aft. Landmarks in a world where you are out of sight of land.
The brown silty Gulf waters, the cloudless hot blue sky and the architecture of Big Oil.
Fifteen miles out and the first streaks of crude oil appear at the surface. It isn't black - frankly it's the colour of excrement, emulsified by water, wind and sun.
Precisely the natural forces which, in time, will break down crude oil to harmless silt. In time.
Black poison, black gold? Faisal Islam on today's Falklands oil discovery
So we don't know how much oil there is, but we now know there is some. This holds out the prospect of a transformative find for the UK, and possibly divine intervention on our nation's long-term debts (there's no chance that anything could come on stream in time to pay down the current deficit problem).
I am certain that if there are big finds, the UK Treasury will adopt a hefty share of the proceeds. There will be tension and careful negotiation with Argentina. Only last week Buenos Aires reimposed restrictions on maritime traffic between Argentina and the Falklands.
Remember that historians could argue that North Sea oil was as momentous for Britain as many single elections. Depending on how much of the black stuff eventually makes it out of the ground, this press release from a company, named after a type of penguin, that you have never heard of, could become as momentous as the small political earthquake hitting Britain today.
Read more of Faisal Islam's blog, 'A fine day to strike Falklands oil'
But whilst that happens it is deeply toxic to the food chain, from plankton to pelicans, watersnakes to whales.
And to humans too. Which is why the rich Gulf fishing and spawning grounds will be shut till who knows when.
"I'm in shock. I just can't believe it," says the skipper of Kingfish Two.
Troy surveys at least 20 fishing boats, outriggers dragging orange booms to try and collect the slick.
"I give 'em A for effort, but Jeez - this is cartoon stuff. How much are they getting’? Maybe a gallon a boat tops. Try 200,000!"
A reference to the daily spillage rate said to be belching from BP's Deepwater well.
He describes his local, national and world fishing records from a lifetime in these once pristine waters.
We have Prof Rick Steiner aboard, a marine pollution expert from Alaska. He believes the booming is more or less useless.
The problem being, he says, that the oil is now suspended throughout the water column from seabed to surface. The more toxic stuff won't float but will certainly get ingested by shrimps and molluscs and thus pass right up the food chain.
Nothing - repeat - nothing, can stop this happening now. It is already too late.
Each day the slicks widen and deepen. They go from London to Bristol, Edinburgh to Aberdeen. Even if BP get their funnel over the leaks in the coming days, it is way too late for these coastal waters.
Not two miles distant lies the low sandspit of Breton Island, a US National Nature Reserve.
Ten thousand brown pelicans breed here, the state bird of Louisiana. There are thousands more gulls and terns currently breeding. You hear the screaming mass cacophony way before you see the island clearly. Even the roar of Kingfish's mighty outboards cannot muffle it out.
And all these birds rely, of course, on food from these now-devastated waters. Some will simply be externally oiled and poisoned as they preen fouled plumage.
Others will eat oil-poisoned fish and marine invertebrates and then pass on the fatal results to the fledglings on Breton.
The ecological time bomb is thus well and truly primed already, regardless of when - or even if - these slicks reach land.
