Monday, July 12, 2010

When is the "A Whale" skimmer going to skim? The containment cap has been removed, gushing oil full throttle.


The "A Whale," a giant supertanker converted to skim oil from the spill in the Gulf of Mexico will continue testing after "inconclusive results" over the Fourth of July weekend, a spokesperson for the Unified Command Joint Information Center said.

The tests were "inconclusive in light of the rough sea state we are encountering," a
spokesperson said. Testing operations were located in a 25 square-mile area just to the north of the well-site according to Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Joint Incident Commander.

The ship, must still gain approval to operate from the U.S. Coast Guard, officials said.

No timeline has been set for the completion of additional tests, according to Unified Command. Why not?

The oil leak, which began on April 20, with the fatal explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig, and is still gushing from a ruptured well pipe, is the largest oil spill disaster in U.S. history.

The 1,100-foot-long vessel (approximately 3 ½ football fields) is ten stories high and can process 500,000 barrels (21 million gallons) of oil mixed with water every day.

The A-Whale "brings a piece of technology that has never been used in the U.S. oil spill response," Allen said.

Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft of the Coast Guard said on Friday that sea levels needed to be "about three feet or less" to be able to effectively skim.

With the containment cap removed since Saturday, July 10th, allowing crude oil gushing into the Gulf at full throttle, why isn't something, ANYTHING, being done?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Criminal! K.

petra michelle; Whose role is it anyway? said...

Wholeheartedly agree, K.!

jay said...

Inconclusive results? SURELY better than doing nothing? I can't believe they'd keep her in dock when she could be out there at least trying!