A little good news - Dutch oil skimmers now working in the gulf

[Baclava]

Better late than never...


Dutch Skimmers now working in Gulf

Tankers with skimmer arms supplied by the Dutch are now working in the Gulf. Each of these skimmers has the capacity to collect up to 5,000 tons of oil per day. That is 36,500 barrels of oil per day for each skimmer. That’s about equals the newly revised high estimate of how much oil is leaking from the well.

On June 14th 2010, BP reported that “Operations to skim oil from the surface of the water now have recovered, in total, almost 475,000 barrels (19.9 million gallons) of oily liquid”. That is only a small fraction of the oil being leaked. These new skimmers should dramatically increase that amount.



Skimming vessels, 70 miles off the coast of Alabama. Gulf of Mexico 14 June 2010

http://www.examiner.com/x-325-Global-Warming-Examiner~y2010m6d15-Dutch-Skimmers-now-working-in-Gulf

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. How do you skim dispersed oil?

[Baclava]

30. It's not all dispersed on the surface - it's miles and miles of thick floating crud

[GreenPartyVoter]

41. True, at least that part can be removed.

[Catshrink]

2. But Sarah Palin said we wouldn't ask the Dutch for help.

:shrug:

Lady Blah Blah strikes again.

I am pleased to learn that they have arrived and hope for the best.

[MineralMan]

6. Yeah, when Sarah said that, they were already on their way.

Shows how much she knows, I guess. :rofl:

[Barack_America]

20. Funny, she should have been able to see them from her house. nt

[spinbaby]

27. I thought she wanted to solve it with Dutch dikes

Or Norwegian dykes. Or something. She was so incoherent I couldn't tell.

[Catshrink]

28. Gaily she rambles on...

[MineralMan]

3. Good! So, while people were saying, "Where are the Dutch

Skimmers," they were on their way, I guess. Funny, that. I guess the Star Trek transporters were down, then. I hope they fix them soon.

I hope they'll be able to skim up a lot of the oil to keep it off the coastline. That's a very important job.

[Catshrink]

7. Sarah sent them a command via ESP and they arrived.

Damn that woman is a miracle worker.

[Lorien]

10. Yeah, it took them five whole weeks to get here.

If they had been accepted when they were initially offered a lot less damage would have been done.

[northernlights]

22. +1....better late than never, but

how much damage could have been avoided.

[Abq_Sarah]

43. The Dutch

Offered assistance immediately. They were turned down when they requested government approval. Public pressure and outrage are the only reasons they're on site now.

This has been a colossal screw up since day one.

[Poll_Blind]

4. Good! ANYTHING helps. I'd take Chinese junks with Brawny paper towels stapled...

...to their hulls at this point.

Anything.

Every ounce of this shit we get out in the ocean is an ounce we don't have to worry about having in/extracting from our marshes, beaches, etc.

PB

[polichick]

5. Better late than never - as a Gulf lover, I'm THRILLED they're there!!! nt

[Lorien]

8. FINALLY! They offered them during the first two weeks

I wonder both why they were refused for over five weeks, and what change the mind of whomever refused them.

[MineralMan]

9. Way to celebrate their arrival, there...

:sarcasm:

[Skidmore]

15. Looks like you were afraid noone was paying attention to

your petulance.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. You know this means they were authoirized by week two

of this mess... like in the first two weeks. IT TAKES TIME for them to cross the Atlantic you know.

[Ganja Ninja]

19. And time to fit out for the trip before you even cast off. n/t

[amborin]

34. Nope

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8303895

[amborin]

33. NOPE; they were there A Month AGO in the Gulf, and the EPA said NO

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8303895

[Lochloosa]

14. One explanation I heard this morning was the low estimate of the gusher.

The initial estimate was 5000 barrels. At that rate they would not have really been needed. There were enough skimmers to handle that amount of flow. Of course, now we know the 5000 was BS.

[Phx_Dem]

16. If they're here now, they were authorized week ago.

They didn't fly their skimmer ship over last night.

[amborin]

35. they were there a month ago:

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8303895

[amborin]

36. they were there a month ago:

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8303895

[Coyote_Bandit]

17. +1,000,000

We should have accepted that offer long ago.

There are other things we could have been doing to mitigate the environmental damage over the past 7 weeks or so. For example, we could have used sandbags to build barriers to protect sensitive environmental areas - and to direct the crude to various shore areas for collection and removal.

[Baclava]

18. EPA refused them

It's why WE don’t have big spill response vessels with skimmers because EPA regulations do not allow ANY contaminated water going back overboard.

With the Dutch method, seawater is sucked up with the oil by the skimmer. The oil is stored in the tanker and the superfluous water is pumped overboard. But the water does contain some oil residue, and that is too much according to EPA regulations.

[emilyg]

24. That offer should have been

accepted on day1 .

[FLPanhandle]

29. I don't know the lead time or when they were authorized, just glad to see help

If they were accepted immediately, great.

If they were only accepted recently, then whoever delayed the acceptance needs to be fired.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

31. They were offered back in the beginning of May and not authorized until the beginning of June

Foolishly it was due to them not meeting US standards. However, that was a mistake, one which the administration will be kicked over time and time again.

Here's a pretty decent interview on the subject for you to read if you like.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/06/02/pm-bp-government-finally-accept-international-help

[chill_wind]

47. They were offered April 23. Authorized request from USCG May 18. Air-shipped early June.

I've tried to gather it together in a post with links below.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Which tells me they were authorized about two weeks ago

there is this thing called transit time.

Oh never mind...

[Phx_Dem]

13. +1

[amborin]

37. NO, they were in the Gulf a Month ago

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8303895

[jesus_of_suburbia]

21. Great news!

[spanone]

23. tell andrea mitchell...she just asked the 'where are the skimmers' meme

[Scurrilous]

25. Skim Baby, Skim!

:thumbsup:

[FLPanhandle]

26. YES!!!!

Go Dutch! Are they in the world cup? I'll cheer for them if so.

[suffragette]

45. Yes, they are and fielding a good team

Here you go: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/teams/team=43960/index.html

[Baclava]

32. How big is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, you ask?

Compare it to your own city (Google Earth maps)

http://paulrademacher.com/oilspill/#

[tranche]

38. Awesome! Now if we can get Kevin Costner down there we can really get to work.

Good for the Dutch and good for us getting them down there.

[mmonk]

39. That is good. Every little bit helps.

My concerns are deep ocean and its currents but the more help, the merrier.

[Starry Messenger]

40. God, they look so tiny in all that.

Go skimmers!

[Baclava]

48. I said it was a little help - there's only 2 ships working right now

We need a fleet of them...get the ball rolling!




A month after the spill, U.S. to receive foreign aid


Four weeks after the nation's worst environmental disaster, the Obama administration saw no need to accept offers of state-of-the-art skimmers, miles of boom or technical assistance from nations around the globe with experience fighting oil spills.

"We'll let BP decide on what expertise they do need," State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid told reporters on May 19. "We are keeping an eye on what supplies we do need. And as we see that our supplies are running low, it may be at that point in time to accept offers from particular governments." That time has come.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the United States has received 21 aid offers from 17 countries and four international groups. But some lawmakers and outside experts are questioning whether the administration has been too slow to capitalize on these offers, lulled by BP's estimates on the oil-flow rate and on its capacity to cope with the aftermath of the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

In some cases, the administration rejected offers because they failed to meet U.S. specifications: the private Norwegian consortium that serves as that nation's spill-response team uses a chemical dispersant that the Environmental Protection Agency has not approved. In other cases, domestic politics are at play. Dutch authorities have worked in Louisiana since Katrina hit and were among the first to offer to help. After some hesitation, BP has obtained the state-of-the-art Dutch skimmers, two of which are in operation.



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012118082_oilforeign15.html

[chill_wind]

42. It's possible to celebrate and also examine what happened.

The Dutch offered help 3 days in. The Dutch got a nice "Thanks but no thanks" letter from us off the bat. BP stranglehold on information and calculation was still very much part of that decision making that early on. If BP wanted them, they would have told the EPA to just go piss up a rope, just as they did with the corexit. And plenty of people would have joined them.

Dutch companies that manufacture the sweeping arm system first contacted BP officials April 23, three days after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, according to Mr. Huisman, who spoke by phone from his office in The Hague Tuesday. After receiving little reply, the companies turned to his department for help in reaching out to the US State Department, Huisman says.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0601/BP-oil-spill-Will-the-sweeping-arm-system-from-the-Dutch-help

Three days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch government offered to help.

It was willing to provide ships outfitted with oil-skimming booms, and it proposed a plan for building sand barriers to protect sensitive marshlands.

The response from the Obama administration and BP, which are coordinating the cleanup: “The embassy got a nice letter from the administration that said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,'” said Geert Visser, consul general for the Netherlands in Houston.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/7043272.html

The Dutch said they finally went through the State Department, and only then did USCG put in the request. On May 18. They were shipped out the end of May *air freight.* Then there was additional time and training required to get them operational.

* Press Release from the Dutch: Six Sweeping Arms enroute to Gulf * (DU June 3)

Dutch to Provide Assistance in Clean Up of Gulf Oil Spill
Dutch Press release | 28 May 2010

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8474818



What the Dutch have told us about their experience with us throughout this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8558610&mesg_id=8559677

main thread: Dutch continue to offer assistance re: Gulf catastrophe: "the process seems to be rather slow."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8558610&mesg_id=8558610


One thing that struck me when I first started reading about this is what the Dutch engineers had to say about the system: **Calm weather conditions are crucial to the success of the operation.**

Which might explain another reason why they were pushing to get them to us weeks sooner.

*The fantastic part*: they can suck up 29,000 gallons of oil an hour (in good conditions).

Pray for a late and mild storm season, although predictions so far haven't been favoring that.

http://www.neworleans.com/news/local-news/404199.html

[suffragette]

46. Agree it's possible to do both

Thanks for pulling together the info so we can look at it all.

I hope this decision indicates a change in direction to utilize all the resources offered and available.

That would be good news, indeed.

[chill_wind]

49. Good news indeed. n/t

[onestepforward]

44. K&R Very glad to hear this. n/t

[polichick]

50. As I said above, I'm thrilled - but someone from the Gulf area on Tweety's show...

...said there are few skimmers out there compared to the number available in the world. He said 95% of them should be in the Gulf - I agree. Why aren't they?

[me b zola]

51. Yes!

:thumbsup: