Initial Deep Horizon blowout caused by BP using well to dispose of excess toxic waste.

[mhatrw]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/20/AR2010072002038.html

In the hours before the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, BP pumped into the well an extraordinarily large quantity of an unusual chemical mixture, a contractor on the rig testified Monday.

The injection of the dense, gray fluid was meant to flush drilling mud from the hole, according to the testimony before a government panel investigating the April 20 accident. But the more than 400 barrels used were roughly double the usual quantity, said Leo Lindner, a drilling fluid specialist for contractor MI-Swaco.

BP had hundreds of barrels of the two chemicals on hand and needed to dispose of the material, Lindner testified. By first flushing it into the well, the company could take advantage of an exemption in an environmental law that otherwise would have prohibited it from discharging the hazardous waste into the Gulf of Mexico, Lindner said.

The procedure mixed two substances. "It's not something we've ever done before," Lindner said.

[woodsprite]

1. Sounds like BP is guilty of a lot more than the govt or the public are aware of. n/t

[Gold Metal Flake]

2. What the mother fuck?

What the hell is this shit?

[DCBob]

3. Wow, this is getting ugly..

Those bastards. I wonder if this shit is routine at other drill rigs.

[FirstLight]

4. gah!

I hope that prosecutions will follow for those who came up with some of these hair-brained ideas. Both execs, mid managers, foreman, all of them.

take down this company and make an example of them all.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Romulox]

6. Guys--it's time to look forward!

No sense in getting into who environmentally raped what...what's important is that BP is too big to fail and that the bonus contracts of BP executives are protected by "the sanctity of contract", and therefore will be payed by the taxpayer if (when!) necessary.

[Soylent Brice]

7. holy shit.

K&R

[LisaL]

8. It is such a comfort to me that our government let BP to be in charge

of plugging this well.
:sarcasm:

[nashville_brook]

9. so, one possible takeaway is that the 4,000+ other Gulf wells are also pumping this sort

of shit into the water. it's time to end this madness.

[loudsue]

10. Anybody that thinks this kind of thing is an "isolated incident" is crazy.

Corporations have been dumping dangerous chemicals for YEARS because there has been NO FUNDING of the EPA investigators. In fact, I believe at one time during the bush years I read that there were fewer than 100 investigators for the entire country, because bush wouldn't put the funding for them in the budget.

Just look at Texas and all the oil co. dumping that has been going on there for years. The rest of the country quickly caught on that, even though it might technically be against the "law", the law only applies if you get caught.

[KansDem]

11. So let me see if I understand this...

BP had more than 400 barrels of this "unusual chemical mixture" that they wanted to dispose of, so they essentially used this well as a "toxic dump?"

They pumped this "hazardous waste" down almost a mile, through Gulf water?

Do I have that right?

"It's not something we've ever done before," ...is the understatement of the century!

[blindpig]

12. How fucking clever...

Some shithead got at least a warm fuzzy for thinking that up. Legal too, how's that regulation working out?

Who knows what the fuck they're doing out there?

Nationalize the energy sector, they certainly cannot be trusted with our planet, they're capitalists.

[mhatrw]

13. I always have to wonder who the hell goes around unreccing threads like this. n/t

[jgraz]

14. This will continue as long as our natural resources are in private hands.

NATIONALIZE THE MOTHERFUCKERS.

[FiveGoodMen]

15. Agreed.

[Lorien]

16. Yep, but instead they push us toward privatizing EVERYTHING. nt

[BlancheSplanchnik]

19. yes.

the OP article made me sick to my stomach.

[peacetalksforall]

17. kill 'em all, baby, kill 'em and all hail the wisdon of corporate deciders

[phasma ex machina]

18. Senior EPA Analyst: "Government [Agencies] Have Been Sock Puppets for BP In This Cover Up"

I have previously noted <2> that dispersants are being used to cover up the amount of oil spilled, and that they are making the effects of the oil spill worse. I have also pointed out that dispersant Corexit is extremely toxic to people. See this <3> and this <4>.

The senior policy analyst at the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response - and former the EPA ombudsman's chief investigator - agrees <5>, telling Democracy Now today:

Corexit is one of a number of dispersants, that are toxic, that are used to atomize the oil and force it down the water column so that it’s invisible to the eye. In this case, these dispersants were used in massive quantities, almost two million gallons so far, to hide the magnitude of the spill and save BP money. And the government—both EPA, NOAA, etc.—have been sock puppets for BP in this cover-up. Now, by hiding the amount of spill, BP is saving hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in fines, and so, from day one, there was tremendous economic incentive to use these dispersants to hide the magnitude of the gusher that’s been going on for almost three months.

(link)