Coast Guard officials grasped the potential threat of a catastrophic spill within hours of the explosion on board the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, estimating that 8,000 barrels a day of crude oil could possibly gush out of the well in the event of a complete blowout, according to Coast Guard logs.
The logs, obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, provide the most detailed account of the early days of the BP disaster, and detail events that are missing from the White House's official timeline of the crisis.
The estimate of the potential leak on April 21, the day after the rig exploded, reveals that first responders almost immediately understood the environmental threat to the Gulf of Mexico when Coast Guard officials detected the first signs of oil appearing on the Gulf waters.
"Potential environmental threat is 700,000 gallons of diesel on board the Deepwater Horizon and estimated potential of 8,000 barrels per day of crude oil, if the well were to completely blowout," the Coast Guard reported on April 21, less than 24 hours after the accident was first reported.
Officials also learned within the first day of the disaster that the blowout preventer -- an oil rig safety device that is supposed to cut off a well in case of an accident -- was not functioning and could not be manually repaired by remote underwater robots.
For the rest of the story, visit the Center for Public Integrity.
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"Coast Guard officials grasped the potential threat of a catastrophic spill within hours of the explosion on board the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, estimating that 8,000 barrels a day of crude oil could possibly gush out of the well in the event of a complete blowout, according to Coast Guard logs."
When I was serving in the intel branch, I literally had the power to issue something called a CRITIC report (I am not making this up) that would reach the president's attention in less than ten minutes, with four being the standard.
Does ANY government agency have an environmental-disaster alarm bell like that? We have tornado sirens all over Alabama. Where is the oil-spill siren?
"SIRENS OF SPONGEBOB"
I have a new video to make...
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/bp-feds-withheld-videos-showing-massive-scope-oil/story?id=10819367
A Coast Guard spokesperson states that BP wouldn't let the Coast Guard release the videos/photographs? Understandable BP does own the actual medium but I would wonder about the content? In any event the Coast Guard should have called a press conference and ratted BP out!
Every once in a while the right thing to do is to snitch!
If so, that is strikingly stupid! Do some reading, a complete blowout is WAY more than that!
And they always get away with it, because they buy off the people who are supposed to hold them accountable, corruption and bribery pure and simple.
And FYI my fellow Americans: No real accountability; no real change.
As long as they can get rich by scr@wing the rest of us, they will.
No one at the top is EVER held accountable. That just guarantees that more wrongs will be committed, more lives lost, and more beauty ruined.
Who honestly thinks BP will ultimately have any consequences whatsoever than paying lip service and some weak fine?
Documents and testimony suggest that BP’s engineering of its Deepwater Horizon well — the one that has been spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico for a month now –was faulty from the start. Engineering plans created an unobstructed path for pressurized natural gas to surge to the wellhead if safety systems failed, experts say. This disaster is because of engineering arrogance.
http://qedrealestate.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/bp-deepwater-well-design-faulty-from-the-start/
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=116094405092992
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/video_shows_federal_officials.html