Are There More Oil Spills In Gulf?

Mother Jones:

The BP oil spill is still dominating headlines, 50 days after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. But how much oil leaks into the Gulf on any other day of the year? Satillite images and photographs from the region indicate that there may be two other offshore drilling units leaking oil into the ocean.

Read the whole story: Mother Jones

Comments

[Scott McVarish]

02:30 AM on 06/09/2010

don't let another crisis pass without taking some action: http://www.causes.com/causes/494210/about?m=cfc9554f = President Obama, Kick BP's Ass!

[nickfromla]

10:33 PM on 06/08/2010

NEW VIDEO: BP finally releases HIGH-RES video of oil just casually flowing into the Gulf. As a Louisiana native. I'm truly saddened. Take a look for yourself: http://www.frequency.com/video/new-video-high/99304

[ThinkCreeps]

02:38 PM on 06/08/2010

It is indeed an excellent time to spill oil you've been wanted to get rid of into the gulf of mexico, or to fix any leak issues that you've been quietly ignoring.

[ilovecandy]

01:51 PM on 06/08/2010

It's good that this plight has shown what happens in oil spills. There were also tar balls earlier found in Florida that they said didn't come from BP. Apparently these people are constantly spilling oil and no one is covering it. This is one of the reasons why drilling in the water must stop, and eventually drilling all over.

[xlntcat]

03:24 PM on 06/08/2010

For decades environmentalist and scientists have been telling anyone who would listen that oil was leaking from the wells into the gulf.

[wutzurbeef]

03:36 PM on 06/08/2010

This reminds me of the chemical plant smokestacks on land that only belch out their ilk under the cover of darkness to avoid detection that they are 'polluting'. It should be no surprise that the cover of darkness of the Ocean would provide the ultimate 'pollution' dumping ground.
Its been happening for a long time. I remember taking a ship pleasure cruise. I woke up at night and looked out the portal. Thats when I saw the soap and trash being dumped offboard and floating by the ship, in the cover of darkness. I will never take a cruise again!

[Starling5]

04:39 PM on 06/08/2010

Hence the floating plastic 'landfill', twice the size of Texas (I think), that's jammed between two opposing currents. Nat Geo Mag did an article showing the extent of this trash heap, with its inventory of human discards. It also displayed the stomach contents of an unfortunate sea bird that had died as the result of ingesting the plastic items that it mistook for food.
I'll never forget that image. Man has no conscience.

[karentexasdem]

01:28 PM on 06/08/2010

I'm as sick about this whole thing as anyone but if you live near the Gulf you know the water is not pristine and there are tar balls all of the time. Drilling is a discusting business.

http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/95872214.html
here is a story about an oil spill by a Mexican company 30 years ago in the gulf that took 10 months to cap.

[whitebeach]

03:06 PM on 06/08/2010

I've visited the Gulf Coast many times and at many places over more years than I care to think about, and you're right about the tarballs. It's not just drilling, though. Ships and boats spill or leak oil all the time, as do storage tanks that drain into rivers that flow into the Gulf. God knows how much oil comes down the Mississippi River alone. Some farmer changing the oil in his tractor in Indiana and dumping the old stuff on the banks of his local stream may be to blame for the little ball of tar that sticks to my foot one day at the beach in Florida or Alabama. But oil is only the beginning of the chemicals we've flushed into the Gulf for decades and decades. I can wish that the current catastrophe will open America's eyes on this score, but history doesn't encourage optimism.

[LeFlaneur]

01:09 PM on 06/08/2010

Ever flown over the gulf? You can count the spills.

[john frodo]

02:44 PM on 06/08/2010

no thats naturally occurring oil that started naturally occurring when oil drilling started.

[gnudarwin]

12:52 PM on 06/08/2010

What a delight to see this kind of coverage! Hats off to you guys.

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

[mrJJ]

11:39 AM on 06/08/2010

Rate of offshore oil spills more than QUADRUPLED in the past 10 years: USAToday

The number of spills from offshore oil rigs and pipelines in U.S. waters more than quadrupled this decade, a trend that could have served as a warning for the massive leak in the Gulf of Mexico, according to government data and safety experts. The spills — and the amount of oil that leaked — grew markedly worse even when taking increases in production into account, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data shows. The leaks came as the oil industry repeatedly claimed that offshore drilling was never safer.

The company with the most spills from 2000 through 2009 is BP, which leased the well spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf since April 20, according to the data. The oil giant and its affiliated companies reported 23 spills of 50 barrels or more, not including the latest blowout. Oil firm Shell was next with 21, according to MMS spill reports.

Environmental activists and safety experts said the increasing numbers of spills should have been a red flag that the industry needed to tighten safety practices and that federal regulators needed to improve oversight

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-06-07-oil-spill-mess_N.htm

[UnaBohemia]

01:14 PM on 06/08/2010

"FEDERAL" regulators..... used to be that "FEDS" meant that once they got involved, things would be RIGHT. But not anymore. Who can we trust if not them to get the job done right? How do we re-create this broken mess?

[xlntcat]

03:27 PM on 06/08/2010

Every state that has bowed down to worship at the thone of big oil has to share in the blame. Florida has justification for their outrage as they are paying the consequences for the risks taken by Louisiana.