An overflight inspection of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster site 40 miles south of Grand Isle this weekend found a new, mile-long oil sheen, which has prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to again require BP to inspect the wellhead and debris area on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico with a remotely operated vehicle for the source of the oil.The rest is here.
The flight was piloted by Bonny Schumaker, founder of the California-based non-profit On Wings of Care, which has conducted surveillance flights in the Gulf in the two years since the spill.
Schumaker reported that during her several flights over the wellhead during the past few days, she was able to direct the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Research Vessel Falkor to the sheen site, where it conducted an inspection of the wellhead with an ROV and found no indication that the oil was coming from the wellhead or the debris field.
"A plan was submitted for an additional remotely operated vehicle to inspect the underwater site of the Deepwater Horizon incident, to determine the source of a surface sheen," said Coast Guard spokesman Ensign Glenn Sanchez. The new inspection will again focus on the wellhead, cofferdam and the riser pipe that once connected the wellhead to the surface.
A BP spokesman said the company continues to work closely with the Coast Guard to investigate possible sources of the sheen.
"After recently confirming for a third time with ROV video inspection that the Macondo well and its associated relief wells are secure, we've capped and plugged an abandoned piece of subsea equipment known as a cofferdam that was identified as a potential source of sheen," said spokesman Craig Savage. "A further investigation is planned to inspect the Deepwater Horizon rig. If it's identified as a potential source of sheen, we'll work with the Coast Guard and rig-owner Transocean to address the matter."
In a Sunday post on her weblog, Schumaker quoted Florida State University marine biologist Ian MacDonald, who is the ship’s chief scientist, as saying the most likely source for the new sheen is one or more natural seeps of oil to the east of the well that are associated with a salt dome beneath the gulf bottom. Oil deposits often are found along the edges of the underground salt formations.
“The bottom near the wellhead is totally transformed by drill cuttings and debris,” MacDonald told Schumaker. “It was unlike any deepsea benthos I have ever seen.”
Benthos is the scientific term for the sediment layer on an ocean’s floor, and for the organisms that live in the sediment.
And so it goes.
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BP is running commercials of pristine white beaches and impossibly clear blue waters on the a Gulf Coast extolling all to come to those beaches like they were the best thing to happen to the Gulf Coast. Makes one think they're almost telling the truth...almost but not quite.
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