TheJack

Insured enough - forget it. It will take many years and many $$$ of legal battles before an inssurance company will pay. It will take even longer to determine the exact event which caused the issue. BP and their contractors, the piping contractor, the piping manufacturer, the rig contractor and their contractors, forced majure just to name a few? How about a half-moon cuppling over the spill with a pipe to the surface fed through a hydrocarbon-water separator? Even if you can't separate in the field, dump the emulsion into oil carriers and separate on-shore. It may not capture all of the crude but surely it will significantly reduce the estimated 1.5M to 2.5M gallons per day pumped into the sea? Oh yeah, that's right - cost and blame. Who is to blame for the leak and who's cost is it to bare. IE, insurance companies and lawyers must first decide before the ecology, the environment and hence life, is saved. Arn't you just proud to be a human being in this day and age? Merged post follows: Consecutive posts mergedCrude is made up of mostly long-stringed hydrocarbon based molecules. Jackson33, I assume that you don't believe that a hydrocarbon based molecules can be broken down into other 'elements' ? That is, the ocean can't perform some fusion/fission miracle to convert carbon atoms into sodium, or hydrogen atoms into magnesium? You put into perspective that 26,000 barrels per year are seeping from into the Santa Barbara coast. Rememer, this current spill is estimated at 35,000 to 60,000 barrels per DAY ... not per year! Thats up to 842 times the magnitude of the Santa Barbara leak, alone. How can crude seapage be considered food? If anything, I would consider a nitrate based substance to be potential plant (or algae) food further providing potential food for other organisms but not CxHy (plus benzines, 'ols' and the like) based molecues. Are you suggesting that I no longer need to purchase expensive food for my aquarium but instead, feed my plants and fish with a few mL's of engine oil per day?

Hi all - A quick hello from an Aussie week-end chemistry warrior