BP: Mile-long tube sucking oil away from Gulf well
ROBERT, LA
BP spokesman Mark Proegler said the contraption was hooked up
successfully and sucking most of the oil from the leak. Engineers
remotely guiding robot submersibles had worked since Friday to
place the tube into a 21-inch pipe nearly a mile below the sea.
Previous attempts to use emergency valves and a 100-ton
container had failed to stop the leak that has spilled millions of
gallons of oil into the Gulf, threatening sea life, commercial
fishing and the coastal tourist industry from Louisiana to Florida.
BP PLC has also been burning small amounts of floating oil and
spraying chemical dispersants above and below the surface.
Researchers, meanwhile, warned Sunday that miles-long underwater
plumes of oil from the spill could poison and suffocate sea life
across the food chain, with damage that could endure for a decade
or more.
Researchers have found more underwater plumes of oil than they
can count from the blown-out well, said Samantha Joye, a professor
of marine sciences at the University of Georgia. She said careful
measurements taken of one plume showed it stretching for 10 miles,
with a 3-mile width.
The hazardous effects of the plume are twofold. Joye said the
oil itself can prove toxic to fish swimming in the sea, while vast
amount of oxygen are also being sucked from the water by microbes
that eat oil. Dispersants used to fight the oil are also food for
the microbes, speeding up the oxygen depletion.
"So, first you have oily water that may be toxic to certain
organisms and also the oxygen issue, so there are two problems
here," said Joye, who's working with a group of scientists who
discovered the underwater plumes in a recent boat expedition to the
Gulf. "This can interrupt the food chain at the lowest level, and
will trickle up and certainly impact organisms higher. Whales,
dolphins and tuna all depend on lower depths to survive."
She said it could take years or even decades for the ecosystem
to recover.
Oil has been spewing since the rig Deepwater Horizon exploded
April 20, killing 11 people and sinking two days later.
BP has been casting about for ways to contain the leak since it
was discovered several days after the blast. First robot submarines
were unable to get valves to work on machinery at the well head
called the blowout preventer. Then the company failed to capture
the oil with a 100-ton box after icelike crystals formed in it.
A relief well, considered the permanent solution the leak, is
still being drilled and is months away from completion.