It's a terrible accident that occurred mainly due to 2 circumstances: Drilling that far off the continental shelf, in water over 5000 feet deep, had not been done before; and there were a series of safety failures that, if each had happened individually would have been manageable, but in concurrence overwhelmed the failsafes.
As far as the amount of oil released, the US Geological Survey (USGS) estimates the release to be between 12,000 and 19,000 barrels a day. That all adds up to anywhere between 19 million and 30 million gallons of oil. Either is worse than the Valdez, but not even in the top dozen of oil spills, in terms of volume.
Clean-up for the Valdez was far more difficult than this will be, because of that spill's nearness to land, the terrain, and the remote location was an immense challenge. Most of this oil will be "cleaned" while still floating in the Gulf of Mexico. The issue with this spill won't be cleanup as much as the long-term effect on Louisiana's wetlands and barrier islands, which house all forms of wildlife and serve as protection from the storm surge of a hurricane.
This is all major news right now - what won't be major news is how, in 10 years, the shrimp catches still haven't caught up to pre-spill numbers, Louisiana losing umpteen square miles of coast due to advanced erosion, and Louisiana's economy in the dumps because of the massive loss of tourist sportsmen.
The possibilities of how bad this is are major news. How bad this will really be for people who live here won't even be mentioned in 5 to 10 years. By that time, the vultures will all be feeding on some other major superhuge big thing.
myfirstjeep02 wrote:
P.S. is any of this floating sludge still refinable? seems to me someone could make a killing if it is.

Unfortunately, no - not in any way that is profitable. I work in the petrochem industry, and I can tell you that what you would have to do with the floating sludge in order to refine it even to the quality of bunker oil would be financially prohibitive.
_________________
In this war of lines, so many have been crossed. Where will it all stop?
2006 Deep Beryl Green CRD Sport
*SOLD 1/22/12*Provent, V6 Airbox, Fumoto, Samcos, GDE ECO & TCM Tune, Euro JK TC, Magnaflow Catback
245/70/16 Destination A/T's
Boiler's Radiator Skid PlateJeepin' By Al 2.5 inch Adjust-A-Strut Lift, JBA Gen 4.5 UCA's (6/5/10)
