The History Of The Pennsylvania Oil Boom And Petroleum Industry

I keep seeing that ‘x amount of boom material has been spread to contain the oil’. What is that?

Its like an elongated menstrual pad, it is dropped off the stern of a ship and payed out to collect the surface oil, it has a buoy at one end, the end you have dropped off, and the ship steams round in a circle, picks the buoy up and hauls the oil soaked boom inboard.

I know that auto shutoff thing should have been there, but didn’t the rig sink on top of that whole mess? I doubt even Obama and Napolitano (hate them both) in this case could have gotten anything more done.

I think that the biggest issue we faced was recognising the scope of the emergency in the first place. IMO, BP, the Coast Guard and everybody else who responded were too focused on the initial response that they failed to plan for the ‘what ifs.’ They deployed to fight a fire but did not start mobilizing for a possible oil spill at the same time.

I suspect that the ‘lesson learned’ from this is that during the initial stages of an emergency you beging mobilizing on the assumption of a ‘worst case’ scenario then standing down assets once you have a better idea of the scope of the problem and what is and is not needed.

I have a 60′ boat and am willing to take it with my crew to assist in placing booms for the oil clean up. I have called the hot-line number for fisherman to sign up but no one answers! Anyone know how to get a hold of them??

here are some organizations to contact

The Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board is connecting BP with fisherman looking to aid in the cleanup effort. If interested, call 281-366-5511 or e-mail, HorizonSupport@OEGLLC.com

The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana is looking for volunteers to “fill a variety of needs.” Pre-veterinary students, veterinary technicians, and anyone with HAZWOPER training (Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard) are “strongly encouraged” to register.

The National Audubon Society is recruiting volunteers in the fight to save “ecologically sensitive areas.” Visit their website to fill out a volunteer registration form.

OilSpillVolunteers.com also provides the opportunity sign up and assist with the cleanup.

While their website says volunteers are not yet needed, Mobile Baykeeper is urging anyone who is interested to call their office at 251-433-4229 or e-mail info@mobilebaykeeper.org.

http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/05/01/2291388.aspx

more volunteer links

http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/gulf_oil_spill/wala-oil-spill-volunteer-opps-lr

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/army-of-volunteers-needed-for-gulf-oil-spill-cleanup

hope this helps

They look similar to those nets they use to keep jelly fish out of the beach areas; are they similar? How would anything be able to keep the oil out? Thanks you smart people out there!

They are the same as the jelly fish ones. –

Many images of the oil cleanup off the shores of Louisiana show long orange tubes being pulled by boats. These are booms, inflatable floating barriers that are typically filled with air or Styrofoam and used to contain oil on top of the water.

“You collect oil in the back of the boom to get it thick enough, and then you use the skimmer to remove the oil from the surface,” said Mullin.

Skimmers come in many shapes and sizes, but their job is to scrape, suck or brush oil from the surface without taking up much seawater in the process. In the image above, a small fishing boat contains oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez in 1989 with a boom, while a skimming barge sucks up the mess.

The researchers coated the drum with a material that absorbs oil and also added a grooved pattern to improve the drums pick up efficiency. Coating the drum improved it’s efficiency by 20 percent, however adding a grooved pattern improved the efficiency of the skimmer by 200 percent. said Mullin.

It helps control the spread of oil when oil spills into a body of water.
There are a couple of types.
One is basically an inflated tube that is intended to float on
the water and simply form a little wall that prevents the oil
from spreading past it. By surrounding a floating oil spill with
this boom, one is able to prevent the oil from dispersing further.
The oil can even be dragged along and corralled in a small space
by closing up the loop made by the boom. At that point, the concentrated floating oil/water mixture can be pumped into a
container or ship and transported somewhere where it will be
processed.
A second type of boom is filled with a material that absorbs oil but
does not absorb water. This boom, which also floats on the surface,
can help pick up thin layers of oil just by dragging it along across
the contaminated area. It is not designed to pick up heavy oil spills,
but can still help corral the oil. Sometimes, you will see these types
of boom simply laid across a stream or pond to pick up the kind of
oil that makes a rainbow sheen in otherwise clean water.
The weakness of floating oil booms is that they really only work well
in calm water. Waves pretty much defeat the ability of the boom to
contain the floating contamination. When used in the open ocean,
as with the gulf oil spill, they best they can do is to trap about 30%
of the floating oil.

The Gulf of Mexico has recently had a major oil spill. So to contain oil people surround the spill with booms(a tube full of air or foam with a skirt underneath). Booms work because crude oil(oil before the refinery) floats on top of the water. So do we the USA have enough supplies(booms) to surround the entire spill or not? What do you think?

it has already reached shore – this is not being reported.

if the spill does not stop or if the cement structure does not fit or if the pressure once contained blows the other leaks in the pipe all hell is going to break lose.

best case scenario – BP stops the leak this week and does not force other leaves to blow – then it is a matter of clean up.

worst case – bp misses the mark or other leaks blow – this will be an international crisis.

the gulf is running red with the blood of mother earth – the reason alaskan indians did not want drilling is because they believed oil to the the blood of the earth – are they right – could very well be that this vain of oil may not be contained anytime soon.

what if the all avalable gulf boats ,ships fleet were hired to help with the boom skimming.
this is a emergency disaster. Not a time for pointing fingers.Just solutions!

The fishing fleet can not earn during this disaster, nor many other ships.
1. It is there best interest to help save what is left of there economy.
2. They can not fish now or in the future in tell this is fixed
3, the slick is too big for one company to handle
4. the economic and ornamental damage is growing exponentialy. TIME is against us.

the con is we well probably lose some boats. and more lives.
It has to be voluntary,

This is a huge problem and all available resources should not be over looked.

I realize that this ,if done ,may only hold back the oil for a short time .
Trying is better than letting it just destroy the gulf food supply and habitats
Yet ,hopefully this is the time that the ones that are trying to seal the hole need.

Please post other potential solutions you may think of and coments that may assist . I well be forwarding this to others thank you.

If the fishing boats don’t assist in the disaster, they won’t earn for a very long time because the oil spill will kill all the fish and it will be a long time before the fish can move back

what if the all avalable gulf boats ,ships fleet were hired to help with the boom skimming.
this is a emergency disaster. Not a time for pointing fingers.Just solutions!

The fishing fleet can not earn during this disaster, nor many other ships.
1. It is there best interest to help save what is left of there economy.
2. They can not fish now or in the future in tell this is fixed
3, the slick is too big for one company to handle
4. the economic and ornamental damage is growing exponentialy. TIME is against us.

the con is we well probably lose some boats. and more lives.
It has to be voluntary,

This is a huge problem and all available resources should not be over looked.

I realize that this ,if done ,may only hold back the oil for a short time .
Trying is better than letting it just destroy the gulf food supply and habitats
Yet ,hopefully this is the time that the ones that are trying to seal the hole need.

Please post other potential solutions you may think of and coments that may assist . I well be forwarding this to others thank you.

You haven’t been keeping up with the news. They are using all available boats to help with the clean up.

Until they stop the flow of oil from the well they are fighting a losing battle. Shutting down the well is the top priority.

Can anyone tell me where this oil boom took place?

The oil boom that won world war II

American petroleum, from Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, certainly helped. More critical was the work of our navy’s submarines in torpedoing tankers coming from oil rich Indonesia to Japan. I agree that it was not an American oil boom that won the war. The entire American industrial and raw material production could be said to be decisive.

Where was the oil boom that "won world war I"? I’ve heard it was also the greatest oil boom in history.

probably in texas somewhere