http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/05/18/18greenwire-noaa-oil-tendril-likely-headed-into-loop-curre-32417.html

E & E Daily

Paul Voosen, E&E reporter

A thin stem of oil stretching east from BP PLC’s spill is increasingly likely to enter the Loop Current, a powerful Gulf of Mexico flow that runs past the Florida Keys and up the Atlantic Seaboard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief said today.
Stark satellite imagery released yesterday revealed that, while the large majority of oil remains bobbing off the Louisiana coast, “a tendril of light oil has been transported down toward the Loop Current,” NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said.
In fact, oil may already be entrained in the current, Lubchenco said, and NOAA is sending imagery aircraft out today to determine the extent of the oil’s drift.
Once oil is in the current, it would likely reach the Florida Keys within 10 days. By month’s end, the oil could reach Miami, oceanographers have also warned.
“The oil, if it gets into the Loop Current, will become very, very dilute and will be highly weathered,” she said, arriving at the Keys most likely in the form of tar balls and emulsified streamers.
Any oil or dispersants pulled south to the Florida Straits could pose an environmental hazard, especially for coral reefs, said Nan Walker, the director of the Earth Scan Laboratory at Louisiana State University.
“The dispersants could kill corals,” Walker said earlier this month. “Obviously, oil is not going to be good for corals. That is probably one of the biggest concerns if [the oil] was entrained.”
Reflecting this spread, NOAA has expanded its fishing restrictions over a larger portion of the Gulf. The closed area is 24,241 square miles, covering some 10 percent of the Gulf’s exclusive economic zone. The restrictions apply to commercial and recreational fishing, the agency said, but not transit.
It is impossible to predict how much oil will travel southward. Currently, the tendril sits in a sinuous line between the northern boundaries of the Loop Current and the southern limits of a small, counterclockwise current, known as an eddy, that could draw the oil back north.
The oil can be thought of as a stream of cars traveling on an eastward-running highway that is about to turn north, with an exit peeling off south toward the Loop Current. Scientists have little certainty about the size of the exit or how much oil will take that turn. All that is certain is that exit leads, eventually, to Florida.
Federal agencies have been monitoring the current from the spill’s outset and are now preparing for potential impacts around the southern Florida coast, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Peter Neffenger said yesterday during congressional testimony. Tar balls, he said, would be a “more manageable piece” to clean up in Florida than the vast oil deposits now spreading in the Gulf.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano added that the government is treating the Loop Current “as if it’s its own coastline,” meaning the government will undertake prevention and response efforts as if the Loop Current were a piece of shoreline, she said.

Florida Keys in bull’s-eye

The Keys would likely be the first coastline to feel the oil’s effects in Florida. The current sits far off Florida’s western coastline and will likely spare areas like Tampa, according to Steve Murawski, NOAA’s chief science adviser for fisheries.
The Coast Guard said yesterday that 20 tar balls have already washed ashore at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park in Key West. The tar balls, which were found by park rangers, range from 3 to 8 inches in diameter. They will be sent to a laboratory for analysis to determine whether they are associated with the Deepwater Horizon spill.
The Coast Guard and NOAA will conduct shoreline surveys beginning today in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
Whether or not the tar is connected to the BP spill, Lubchenco said, it is “safe to say that the tar balls washing ashore in the Florida Keys are an example of what might happen should oil become entrained in the Loop Current.”
Independent oceanographers are now practically certain some of the oil will enter the current and have long warned that the unpredictable flow posed a threat (Greenwire, May 5). All four forecast models at the University of South Florida now predict that at least a portion of the oil slick’s branch will migrate from the eddy into the current.
How much oil takes that path will depend on how the eddy, which has been growing stronger over recent days, evolves, said Villy Kourafalou, a Gulf of Mexico modeler at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
“Any pathways along the Loop Current strongly depend on the evolution of the eddy field,” Kourafalou said. “It is clear that the north cyclone has started to entrain oil. It is not in the Loop Current main front yet. It is a high possibility that it will.”
There is a possible positive sign, in that imagery yesterday from NASA seemed to indicate that a portion of the slick’s eastward-facing “tail” seems to be turning northward, said Tony Sturges, an oceanographer at Florida State University.
“The only good part is that right at the end, the ‘tail’ appears to curve out and back away from the main flow,” he said. Still, he added, the current imagery is “not a good sign.”
It is less clear how oil deeper underwater and closer to the spill’s main body will behave, NOAA’s Murawski said. Past 1,500 meters underwater, he said, the currents drop dramatically and do not pull toward the Loop Current, at least currently.
Reporters Noelle Straub and Katie Howell contributed. Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hSsGsiZ18JYxHwuLGeC7Tu4T2nLwD9FOT3000

Associated Press

By EILEEN SULLIVAN and MATTHEW DALY (AP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON – The federal official overseeing offshore drilling announced his departure Monday in a fallout from the Gulf oil spill and criticism that federal regulators have been too cozy with industry.

President Barack Obama, meanwhile, has decided to have a presidential commission investigate the cause of the rig explosion that unleashed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, where engineers are struggling after three weeks to stop the flow.

The presidential panel will be similar to ones that examined the Challenger space shuttle disaster and Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident, said a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been formally announced. The commission also will examine the safety of offshore oil drilling and the effectiveness of its regulations.

In Congress, more attention was focused on the Gulf spill.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and seven other senators asked the Justice Department to determine whether BP PLC made false and misleading claims to the government about its ability to prevent a serious oil spill when it applied for permission last year to drill the Deepwater Horizon well that has unleashed environmental havoc along the Gulf coast.

But lawmakers are taking aim not only at BP at hearings this week, but also the Interior Department’s regulation of offshore drilling that allowed BP to operate without assurance a massive spill could be prevented.

On Monday, the fallout from the Gulf spill began having its impact on the agency charged with regulating offshore drilling.

Chris Oynes, the associate Minerals Management Service administrator for offshore drilling programs, informed colleagues he will retire at the end of the month, according to an e-mail sent to agency officials and obtained by The Associated Press.

Oynes, who was regional director in charge of Gulf offshore oil programs for 13 years before he was promoted in 2007 to head all offshore drilling programs, has come under criticism for being too close to the industry.

He told colleagues unexpectedly that he will retire on May 31. A person in Oynes’ office said he was in meetings and unavailable for comment. Oynes had earlier indicated his plans to retire, but decided to accelerate his departure, said an administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue involved a personnel matter. It was unclear what pressure, if any, was made.

The departure was welcomed on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said he hoped Oynes’ retirement signaled an understanding that wholesale changes “will be necessary to fundamentally reform MMS.”

“It represents an opportunity to begin anew with a clean slate,” said Rahall, whose committee is investigating MMS’ regulation of offshore drilling activities.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., a longtime MMS critic, said the agency has been corrupt for more than a decade, a period spanning three administrations, and that its shortcomings were not the fault of one person. The agency “is in need of an exhaustive overhaul and comprehensive reform,” he said.

At a Senate hearing Monday, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Peter Neffenger says the Gulf oil spill is beyond what anyone anticipated and demonstrates that response plans for future spills will have to be changed. Neffenger, the deputy national incident commander at the Coast Guard, testified before the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.

Boxer, whose Environment Committee will hold hearings Tuesday, said BP claimed to have the capability to prevent a serious oil spill in case of a well blowout.

“In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill … it does not in any way appear there was ‘proven equipment and technology’ to respond to the spill” as BP claimed, she and the other senators wrote Attorney General Eric Holder. They asked the Justice Department to determine whether any criminal or civil laws may have been violated as to misleading the government.

Anticipating tough questioning on Capitol Hill at hearings this week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Monday announced a tightening of requirements for onshore oil and gas drilling. The new measures would not apply to oil rigs at sea.
“The BP oil spill is a stark reminder of how we must continue to push ahead with the reforms we have been working on and which we know are needed,” Salazar said.

Associated Press writer Erica Werner contributed to this report.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

Times Online
May 17, 2010

 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7129225.ece

Tim Reid, Washington

The critical piece of safety equipment that failed to shut down the oil well after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded last month was damaged before the accident, it emerged yesterday.

According to a survivor’s account that could prove devastating to BP as it struggles to stop millions of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, the safety device  known as a blowout preventer  was punctured in the weeks before the blast but nothing was done to fix it.

Mike Williams, the rig’s chief electronics technician, also said that in the lead-up to the disaster BP officials, concerned that the project was behind schedule and costing the company $1 million (£680,000) a day, ordered a faster pace of drilling.

Since the rig exploded on April 20, BP has been asked repeatedly why the blowout preventer, designed to seal off a well in the event of an explosion, failed to activate. That failure has led to crude oil pouring into the Gulf for a month, a spillage set to eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident.

Mr Williams said that shortly before the explosion workers were conducting a test on the blowout preventer. While it was shut a crewman accidentally nudged a joystick, which sent 15ft of the oil pipe through the closed device, whose key component is a rubber gasket that can close tightly around the well head, sealing it off in the event of an explosion.

Mr Williams added that a crewman “discovered chunks of rubber in the drilling fluid”. He thought that it was important enough to bring them into the driller shack. “I recall asking the supervisor if this was out of the ordinary. And he says, ‘Oh, it’s no big deal’. I thought, how can it not be a big deal? Chunks of our seal is now missing,” Mr Williams told 60 Minutes on CBS.

He added that one of the two control pods that operate the blowout preventer had lost some of its function weeks before the explosion, and the batteries on the device were weak. With the schedule slipping, Mr Williams said that a BP manager ordered a quicker pace. The faster drilling had caused the bottom of the well to split open, swallowing tools. “There’s always pressure [on the crew], but yes, the pressure was increased,” he said.

BP said that it was now capturing about a fifth of the oil gushing from the ruptured well after a suction tube had been inserted into the well riser pipe on the ocean floor. The Obama Administration said that it was unimpressed. In a letter to BP, Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary, and Ken Salazar, the Interior Secretary, said that the insert pipe “is not a solution to the problem and it is not yet clear how successful it will be”.

Edward Markey, Democrat chairman of the House Sub-Committee on Energy and the Environment, said BP had failed to respond to repeated requests for information about the scale of the spill. Officials said that the White House would set up a presidential commission to investigate the disaster.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.eenews.net/eed/

Noelle Straub, E&E reporter

Federal officials yesterday acknowledged that the government did not have adequate regulations in place for an oil spill the magnitude of the ongoing Gulf of Mexico leak.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that before the disaster there was an assumption that a blowout preventer — the fail-safe device on the Deepwater Horizon rig — would never fail. Drilling plans were submitted to the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling, based on that assumption, she added. But she said there were “extensive plans” prepared to respond once the spill happened.

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Peter Neffenger told the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee the spill “raises a lot of questions” about preparations for a well blowout and that there will have to be a “good hard look” at federal contingency plans and related issues. “We certainly never anticipated an ongoing release of this magnitude over this period of time,” he said.

Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said that while he wished BP PLC had done more to prepare for the possibility of a blowout, MMS ultimately was responsible for ensuring adequate planning. Drilling in deep water, which is more technologically challenging than in shallow water, has increased significantly, but MMS did not put in place any new regulations, he said. And MMS only required a regional response plan rather than one specific to each well.

“I hold the federal government responsible for continuing to issue permits for deepwater drilling without demanding the companies … be prepared to deal with the effects of an accident, an explosion,” Lieberman said.

Lieberman also said there were two “enormous problems” that neither industry nor the government was prepared to deal with: what to do if a well blows and what to do about oil accumulating under water.

Ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine) said neither federal nor industry officials seem to know how to handle such a large spill and told a BP official that “it feels like you’re making it up as you go along.”

Lamar McKay, chairman and president of BP America Inc., said there are no major regulations requiring a “subsea intervention plan.” He agreed that regulations, planning and the types of capabilities and resources available for a blowout will need to be examined in the wake of the spill.

“What I would say is we’re learning a lot from this,” McKay said. “Anything that would make this a safer and lower probability event should be looked at.”

Lieberman and Collins blasted MMS for choosing not to testify before the committee. Acknowledging that BP officials have fully cooperated with the panel’s inquiry, Collins said, “Sadly, that stands in sharp contrast with the government agency, the MMS, which refused to come testify today.”

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is scheduled to testify this morning before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Collins also slammed the lack of requirement for MMS to share oil spill response plans with the Coast Guard. “How can that be?” she asked, saying the government should change that immediately. She also criticized an administration-proposed $75 million cut to the Coast Guard budget.

Napolitano staunchly defended the federal government’s response efforts, saying it prepared for the worst-case scenario since day one and has been bringing all resources to bear against the spill.

The Obama administration has been criticized because Napolitano declared the spill an event of national significance, which allows a greater federal response, nine days after the explosion. But Napolitano said no leaks were apparent for the first few days, that the government sprang into action anyway and that the declaration only built on operations already under way.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) pressed Napolitano on the worst-case scenario and her level of optimism as to when the leak might be stopped.

“Worst-case scenario is that we’ll be at this quite a while,” she responded. “I’m just taking it day by day, and I think that’s what we need to do.”

Lieberman told reporters that he and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who co-authored a climate and energy bill, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) are talking to their colleagues about offshore drilling provisions in the measure. The bill includes a moratorium on new drilling pending a federal 30-day review of the cause of the spill, and Lieberman said he and Kerry are open to adding other provisions such as proposals to raise the $75 million cap oil companies must pay for economic damages.

White House to launch independent panel

The White House will create an independent commission to investigate the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill and make recommendations to avoid such disasters in the future, an administration official confirmed yesterday.

The commission will be similar to those established after the Three Mile Island nuclear incident and the Challenger space shuttle explosion and examine a wide range of issues. President Obama is expected to sign an executive order to create the panel soon.

Interior and the Coast Guard are conducting a joint investigation into the spill, but the White House commission would have no current government officials.

Reps. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who earlier this month introduced legislation to create such a commission, welcomed the news. Their measure would establish a 15-member commission that would hold public hearings and have subpoena power.

“To ensure that our scrutiny matches the depth and breadth of this human, economic and environmental disaster, we need an independent commission that can determine exactly what went wrong and make recommendations to prevent future tragedies,” Capps said in a statement.

Markey added, “Whether it’s a nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island or an oil blowout one mile deep, appointing an independent review panel is critical to reduce the risks of future accidents.”

Thanks to Richard Charter, as ever!

For Immediate Release: May 17, 2010
Map available

Environmental review and safeguards required, says conservation groups’ filing

ATLANTA-Defenders of Wildlife and the Southern Environmental Law Center today filed suit challenging the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) complicity in the Gulf oil disaster and continued lax oversight of oil drilling operations, including its failure to require a thorough examination of spill risks from exploratory drilling operations like the Deepwater Horizon. The legal filing seeks to prohibit the MMS from continuing to exempt from environmental review new exploratory drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

“It’s unconscionable that after the Deepwater Horizon blew and began spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, MMS continues to approve new drilling at even deeper depths without environmental review,” said Catherine Wannamaker, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Through our lawsuit today, we’re seeking an immediate halt to new exploratory drilling in the Gulf of Mexico proceeding without environmental review.”

According to documents filed by the two groups in court, the MMS’ continued exemption of over 20 new structures and exploratory wells-including four at almost twice the depth (over 9,000 feet) of the one currently hemorrhaging in the Gulf of Mexico (almost 5,000 feet)-from environmental review of the risks after the current oil spill is a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.  The agency’s continued issuance of these waivers – known as categorical exclusions – must be halted in light of the environmental harm caused by the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon spill.

“As demonstrated by the continuing disaster in the Gulf, the magnitude of potential damage posed by risky offshore drilling operations is just too great to require anything less than close scrutiny by a competent and discerning agency,” said Sierra Weaver, staff attorney for Defenders of Wildlife. “MMS should appreciate that as it oversees drilling projects off of U.S. shores, it holds the very health and safety of our oceans and coastal waters in its hands.”
The MMS 2004 guidance creating a categorical exclusion for exploratory drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico made clear that the exclusion should not apply to proposed operations in certain areas, including in “relatively untested deep water.” Yet, MMS granted Deepwater Horizon a categorical exclusion from environmental review despite the fact that the exploratory drilling was to take place in almost 5,000 feet of water.  Since the Deepwater explosion and spill and with no explanation, MMS authorized over 20 new categorical exclusions for exploratory oil drilling operations in the Gulf, at least eight of which would be at depths deeper than the Deepwater Horizon.

The National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies to prepare an in-depth environmental impact statement to fully analyze the environmental impacts of a proposed federal action significantly affecting the environment, as well as reasonable alternatives to that action that might have lesser environmental impacts.  That analysis forms the basis for the agency’s decision making, as well as whether to require further safeguards that will minimize environmental risks.

This is only the latest, though unfortunately the most environmentally devastating, example of MMS being institutionally incapable of ensuring any meaningful oversight of the oil industry. For years the agency has been too close with the oil industry for which it was issuing permits. During the Bush administration, Inspector General Earl Devaney detailed the agency’s “managerial irresponsibility and lack of accountability.”

Agencies are allowed to grant “categorical exclusions” from NEPA-required environmental analysis and documentation for certain activities, if it is determined that the actions “do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the environment.”
According to recent news reports, the current oil spill may be ten times greater than official estimates. Oil spills can devastate coastal and marine environments for years, damaging communities, beaches, critical wetlands and fisheries, and wildlife.
The groups also notified MMS that they would file suit against violations of the Endangered Species Act related to insufficient analysis of the impacts of exploratory drilling on threatened and endangered species.

The challenge was filed today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama by Defenders of Wildlife and the Southern Environmental Law Center.

###
Note to editors:
A map of the new structures and exploratory wells approved by MMS since the Deepwater Horizon blowout is available to accompany press stories based on this release with appropriate credit by contacting ksullivan@selcnc.org<mailto:ksullivan@selcnc.org>

About Defenders of Wildlife
Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities. With more than one million members and activists, Defenders of Wildlife is a leading advocate for innovative solutions to safeguard our wildlife heritage for generations to come. For more information, visit www.defenders.org<http://www.defenders.org/>.

Contacts:
SELC: Catherine Wannamaker, attorney, 404-521-9900, cwannamaker@selcga.org<mailto:cwannamaker@selcga.org>; Kathleen Sullivan, communications, 919-945-7106, ksullivan@selcnc.org<mailto:ksullivan@selcnc.org>, 301-832-0080 (cell), Derb Carter, Carolinas director, 919-967-1450
Defenders of Wildlife: Sierra Weaver, attorney, 202-772-3274, sweaver@defenders.org<mailto:sweaver@defenders.org>: Caitlin Leutwiler, communications, 202-772-3226, cleutwiler@defenders.org<mailto:cleutwiler@defenders.org>; or Richard Charter, senior policy advisor, 707-875-2345, rcharter@defenders.org<mailto:rcharter@defenders.org>