Oil spill

[bmccasland]

Lost track of the attempt number to stop this thing, but the latest one has been pronounced a failure.
They say it'll be four more days before they're staged to try the next thing - cut a pipe and cap it, pumping oil to the surface. Which they've tried, and failed, before. But apparently this version will have hot water pumped down to keep things from freezing up, which was the cause of the failure the last time. So four more days of 5000+ gallons/day will pump into the Gulf.

There was an interesting article in today's Times-Picayune about cosy relationship between the State of Louisiana, oil companies, and the state regulatory agency - the same state agency collects royalities and permits wetland impacts. http://www.nola.com
"Oil projects often sail past state regulators" http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpa...630.xml&coll=1

I've dealt with this agancy, the wetland regulatory end of it, and often wonder why my agency is raked over the coals (OK, that's our biased opinion), while we see that the oil companies are allowed to rape and pillage with abandon. Glad to see the dichotomy is out, even if it was burried in the middle of the front section of the paper.

The only good news I can say is that I no longer smell oil or corexit (the chemical dispersant) at my house. Either that or I'm now used to it as a background smell. I guess if a strong south wind blows, we'll smell it again.

And Hurricane Season starts tomorrow.

My heart is sick. I'd love to go for a nice long bike ride to work off the stress, but my bumm knee isn't up to it yet.

[Tri Girl]

I saw photos and it made me cry. Little dragonflies with wings covered in oil, birds sinking because of being drenched in oil. I can't look anymore because it hurts too much. If you don't feel sorrow and anger when you consider the incomprehensible damage done to the creatures of the ocean and air- you have no soul.
The environmentalist in me is outraged, but hopeful that this will lead to the serious development of alternative engergies. I just don't know how they're going to clean this up. I mean- it's SO incredibly huge- and it's not over yet (the leakage anyway).

I'm sickened and saddened. I can't imagine how living in the area would affect me.
I went and bought 5 bottles of Dawn dishwashing soap today to do a teeny tiny part to help save some of the animals. I know it's insignificant, but it made me feel better (for a second).