2010 BP Oil Spill -- We Should Be Outraged -- Oil Eating Microbes Can Clean Spill

[vaberella]

Run time: 08:02 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emltxAPqhdE   Posted on YouTube: May 31, 2010 By YouTube Member: ourprizefight Views on YouTube: 420   Posted on DU: June 06, 2010 By DU Member: vaberella Views on DU: 1104

 
Good video to watch when cleaning our marsh lands in Louisiana, and of course hopefully the "plumes". I find that even during Rachel Maddow's Geek Week she never mentioned this on her show even though she did several segments addressing the oil spill. I figure maybe if we work here on DU to get some of this knowledge out there.

Actually, I'm sure that BP and Obama is aware of this remedy. IT would just mean an even bigger loss because BP wouldn't be able to take advantage of the oil that spilled by just collecting and filtering out the oil part to use in resale. However, maybe if we make enough noise about it, they'd forget the money and care about our Earth----maybe not, but it's worth a shot.

[Celebration]

1. Yes PLEASE

write the White House about this!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8491215&mesg_id=8491215

[vaberella]

2. Will do. Thanks for creating such a great thread. n/t

[izquierdista]

3. And if you do...

Tell Obama to start pumping air into the water. The limiting step here is not bacteria; no one needs to be out in a boat sprinkling bacterial culture on the oil. The bacteria is already there and with this amount of 'food' thrown into their home, they WILL multiply. But they can't do that in the absence of oxygen. If you read the Scientific American article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-microbes-clean-up-oil-spills you will see that oxygen is the limiting step.

There needs to be a flotilla of aerator boats outfitted with huge air compressors and hoses, pumping air down into the water where the oil is coming up. To remove an ounce of oil, it takes about 15 cubic feet of air, and if it has to come from exchange at the surface, it's going to take a long, long, long time.

[Celebration]

5. agreed n/t

[Overseas]

4. But there are problems with the microbes when dispersants are used

For decades scientists have pursued genetic modifications that might enhance these microbes' ability to chew up oil spills, whether on land or sea. Even geneticist Craig Venter forecast such an application last week during the unveiling of the world's first synthetic cell, and one of the first patents on a genetically engineered organism was a hydrocarbon-eating microbe, notes microbiologist Ronald Atlas of the University of Louisville. But there are no signs of such organisms put to work outside the lab.

"Microbes are available now but they are not effective for the most part," says marine microbiologist Jay Grimes of the University of Southern Mississippi. At this point, there are no man-made microbes that are more effective than naturally occurring ones at utilizing hydrocarbons.

The natural world is replete with a host of organisms that combine as a community to decompose oil—and no single microbe, no matter how genetically enhanced, has proved better than this natural defense. "Every ocean we look at, from the Antarctic to the Arctic, there are oil-degrading bacteria," says Atlas, who evaluated genetically engineered microbes and other cleanup ideas in the wake of the Exxon-Valdez oil spill in Alaska. "Petroleum has thousands of compounds. It's complex and the communities that feed on it are complex. A superbug fails because it competes with this community that is adapted to the environment."

==snip==

At the same time, the addition of 130,000 gallons of dispersants deep beneath the surface is having uncertain effects; it may even end up killing the microbes it is meant to help thanks to the fact that Corexit 9527A contains the solvent 2-butoxyethanol, which is a known human carcinogen and toxic to animals and other life. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and others are monitoring whether adding such dispersants ends up boosting microbe-growth and hence dangerously depletes oxygen levels, among other potential environmental ill effects.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-microbes-clean-up-oil-spills&print=true

[izquierdista]

6. Design of Corexit

This is so wrong, all I can do is laugh. The only reason I can think of to put 2-butoxy-ethanol into the formulation is as an antifreeze. If there was an oil spill on a frozen stretch of I-80 in the middle of winter, THEN it would be a good formulation as the carrier would keep it liquid and let it spread over the spill and disperse the oil through the snow and slush.

I think the only reason Corexit is being used now is to help boost Nalco's sales figures and share price.

[Overseas]

11. Nontoxic dispersants seem to help make the oil more edible

for the microbes.

But yes, it seems like BP was only interested in the one that they could financially benefit from.

[donco6]

7. Does it say what the byproducts are?

I'm on a dialup this weekend.

[vaberella]

8. Nope.

Basically when the microbes die they become harmless dead nothings that the fish eat, and it's harmless to them. Actually they did it on fresh water to and said we could drink the water without problems after wards.

[donco6]

9. How much can they make and how fast can we get it there?

At this point, I'm not sure we could make it any worse. No?

[vaberella]

10. Apparently we have tons of it on hand and waiting.

There are companies already in affecting and waiting to use it. Another video which I'll post here, states that the owners of these companies ---at the time the video was being made, didn't get a call yet from the US government or BP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PraHC0CAmiw

[donco6]

12. Ugh.

I suppose they have to wait for effectiveness testing or something.

Meanwhile, the sludge piles up more and more.

[vaberella]

14. I don't know why they would have to wait.

As the video states, the tests were done already in such conditions and worked.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

13. kicking and reccing. Please PLEASE powers of the universe, get this seen

by any and all who can make something happen with it.

PLEASE.







*sob*

[Crowman1979]

15. Well it could have worked if BP didn't dump all of that toxic dispersant!