Friday 20 August 2010

Allen: 'Our First Goal is to Do No Harm' in Gulf - CNN

There are a lot of things I could say about that, but I just won't.

So, we're still working out to bottom kill, yeah? Figuring out whether we'll remove the blowout preventer and replace it with a new one, or invent a whole new thing to make the current one okay. What a mess...

"Once crews get their marching orders, it will take them about four days to prepare, drill the final 50 feet of a relief well and intercept the main well. Then, the "bottom kill" process of plugging the well from below will begin. Allen said Wednesday cementing will require another several days."

When that's done maybe I'll stop finding gray hairs on my scalp. I'm only 24, sheesh!

Gulf fishing is reopening again, which I think is okay - for now. It's been tested and apparently it's safe to eat. I wouldn't chomp down on jumbo shrimp if you're pregnant or anything, but for the rest of us I think it's proven to be fine - for now. Emphasis on "for now." The thing is, oil still remains in the ecosystem. As we just learned, it's not "mostly cleaned up" as some government officials would have you believe. So, as the oil continues to enter the food chain, the Gulf fish will need to be continually tested for contamination. I have a suspicion we will find that some time from now, the Gulf fish will not be safe to eat. But for now, okay. I'm willing to trust the government assessments on this one - for now.

This is only in the re-opened waters, mind you. Twenty-two percent of federal waters still remain closed due to possible contamination.

In other news, Wednesday was the deadline for people and businesses to submit their damage claims to BP. BP will no longer accept claims (which I think is BS, because we still don't understand the spills impact), but will direct them to Kenneth Feinberg, who is in charge of the $20 billion escrow account (which is better than nothing).

"This facility is going to be much more generous, much more efficient, and much quicker than BP," says Feinberg.

Full article here (CNN)

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