從媒體得知：墨西哥灣漏油事故油井的3個漏油點中，有一個被成功封堵，終於有一點進展了！
毛髮可以用來吸油，幫忙圍堵漏油範圍的擴大－作法是把毛髮塞到襪子裡，弄成頭髮香腸，然後連接起來，用來西一些油。因此就有不少美容美髮店、作襪子的商家捐贈毛髮與襪子。現在已經有超過180噸的毛髮，與五萬雙襪子了。不過這是民間組織的努力，他們也還沒連絡上海岸防衛隊(US Coast Guard)或是英國石油公司(BP)，要如何佈建，也還不清楚，不過可以看出民間人士也積極參與挽救生態浩劫。
美國海岸防衛隊和英國石油公司宣布：BP要將一個98噸重的大型鋼筋水泥罩（稱為 containment dome, 由 Wild Well Control 公司承製）運往墨西哥灣漏油故出事地點，準備封堵其中一個漏油點後收集泄漏的原油；在由一艘油輪在海面上把油抽出。但是這種方法從來不曾用在5,000英呎的深海，因此是否成功，仍在未定之天。
另外還在思考的方法有："Top Kill" 就把它翻譯成「滅頂法」吧！用泵浦打入較重的液體，讓壓力強過漏油的壓力，阻止原油繼續外洩。
另外，我也注意到負責這次除由任務的一位指揮官：海岸防衛隊(US Coast Guard)的瑪麗蘭德力(Mary E. Landry)少將(Rear Admiral)，是一位女性軍官。
remarks:
1. 漏油的情形：Tracking the oild spill
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/01/us/20100501-oil-spill-tracker.html?ref=science
2. 海岸防衛隊(US Coast Guard)的瑪麗蘭德力(Mary E. Landry)少將, Commander of Eighth Coast Guard District. http://uscg.mil/hq/cg092/flag_bios/D8.asp
May 5, 2010
Unable to Stanch Oil, BP Will Try to Gather It
By SAM DOLNICK and HENRY FOUNTAIN
The 98-ton, four-story container that BP hopes will take care of themain oil leak was loaded onto a barge in Port Fourchon, La., onWednesday in preparation for its journey to the well.
BATON ROUGE, La. — With remote-controlled robots a mile underwater unable to seal the gushing well, and with the drilling of relief wells that would allow crews to plug the spouting cavity months away from completion, it is time for the big box.
The end of the oil spill, or at least the end of much of the oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico, may soon be delivered by a 98-ton steel box standing four stories tall, with a fresh coat of white paint.
The containment dome, as engineers are calling the structure, was built over the past week by a crew of more than two dozen welders working around the clock at a shipyard in Port Fourchon, La. On Wednesday, the dome began its journey to the site of the ruptured well, where it will be lowered by cable 5,000 feet beneath the sea to sit atop the larger of the two remaining leaks.
The dome will not shut off the gushing well, which is still spilling an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil a day; the goal is just to keep some of the oil out of the water by capturing it and then funneling it to a drill ship, called the Discoverer Enterprise, waiting on the surface.
Think of the dome as an inverted cup gathering the gushing oil, and the drill pipe as a straw carrying it to the surface. If it sounds simple, it is not. Containment domes have been used in shallow water, but never at this depth.
“This is new technology,” said Bob Fryar, BP’s senior vice president for operations in Angola, who was brought to Houston for the engineering effort. “It has never been done before.”
BP was leasing the Deepwater Horizon oil rig from the owner, Transocean, when it exploded on April 20. BP officials said they hoped the dome would be working by Monday. If successful, it will remove about 85 percent of the oil spilling into the sea, officials said.
To construct the dome, BP turned to Wild Well Control, a contractor that helps battle oil well disasters. Wild Well Control works in a crisis relief niche that rarely attracts such international attention but often provides high drama.
Despite the hopes placed on the big box, questions remain: Can it withstand the conditions nearly a mile beneath the sea? Will ice plug up the pipe? Will bad weather interrupt the work? Will the combination of gas, oil and water mix uneasily — or explosively — on the ship above? Add global scrutiny to the mix, and you have some anxious engineers.
“I’m worried,” said David Clarkson, BP’s vice president for project execution, “about every part.”
BP engineers in Houston have sketched out models to account for what they expect to happen in this novel approach, along with several contingency plans. To combat the ice, which is likely to form as gas bubbles out of the oil, engineers will inject warm water along the pipe, and methanol into the oil.
But as so many other response efforts so far have shown, engineering problems that can be solved on the ground can prove perilously stubborn 5,000 feet underwater.
“We’ll learn a lot in the first three or four days,” Mr. Clarkson said.
The oil captured in the box can be stored on the Discover Enterprise — more than five million gallons in all — and then offloaded to a standby vessel to be processed, Mr. Clarkson said. It may require special treatment at a refinery before it is reused, he said.
“We know that we can get the fluid into the drill ship,” Mr. Clarkson said. “We don’t know the exact conditions that will arrive in the drill ship.”
On Wednesday, for the first time in several days, cleanup crews were able to conduct a controlled burn in two of the most concentrated areas of the oil spill. Officials also said that engineers had shut off one of the three leaks from the damaged well late Tuesday night, although that did not appear to greatly diminish the overall flow.
Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry of the Coast Guard said the spill was close to the Chandeleur Islands. “But,” she said, “the heavy concentrations are farther offshore.”
BP continued to pursue other ways to bring the well under control soon. One idea being worked on by engineers, Mr. Fryar said, is called a top kill, and involves a heavy liquid being pumped into the well to overcome the pressure of the oil coming from below. That could stop the flow of oil.
Mr. Fryar said a second containment dome was being built to collect oil coming from a leak in the riser, directly above the blowout preventer. But putting the dome over that leak would make it extremely difficult to work on the blowout preventer, so no decision has been made to deploy it yet.
Engineers were continuing to try to get the blowout preventer to activate fully, which would shut off the flow. But after two weeks of futility, Mr. Fryar said, “the possibility of that is lessened.”
Sam Dolnick reported from Baton Rouge, and Henry Fountain from Houston.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/science/06container.html
May 5, 2010
People, and Poodles, Contributing to Cleanup
By SARAH WHEATON
Scott Anderson/Journal Times, via Associated Press
Brenda Mendez, a groomer in Racine, Wis., isdonating her shop's clippings. Bubu, a toy poodle, did his part.
As millions of gallons of oil float toward the Gulf Coast, tons of one eminently renewable — and absorbent — resource are being shipped in to stop it: hair.
And pantyhose.
At least 400,000 pounds of human hair and animal fur (cat, dog, sheep, alpaca), donated from salons and groomers throughout the country, are heading to warehouses in the gulf region. Volunteers plan to gather for “Boom-B-Qs” to learn how to make homemade booms stuffed with natural fiber.
According to Matter of Trust, a San Francisco environmental charity, the ridged texture that helps hair sop up natural skin oils also make it effective at catching crude. The group first started collecting hair 10 years ago, using booms and mats made of hair to help deal with a series of small spills before a major push to clean up the Cosco Busan tanker spill in 2007.
Lisa Craig Gautier, who co-founded Matter of Trust with her husband, Patrice Olivier Gautier, said the group had reached a “tipping point,” increasing its network of donors to 90,000, from 35,000 three days ago.
“It’s truly just a surge of philanthropy,” Mrs. Gautier said. “Everybody can get a haircut and donate.”
Hosiery companies are also donating remainder nylons, including 50,000 pairs from Hanes. Salons and groomers are sending hair directly to 15 collection sites, including 20,000 square feet of donated space in Fort Myers, Fla.
Amanda Richardson-Bacon, whose Clear Point, Ala., home is on Mobile Bay, came up with the idea to hold boom-construction parties with another volunteer from Mississippi. She planned to soon train about 125 people, each of whom would then host Boom-B-Qs.
Ms. Richardson-Bacon said the process was simple: Stuff hair into nylons using PVC pipe and a broom or toilet plunger. Remove pipe, tie at top.
“It looks like a giant hair sausage,” she said. “It’s very nasty looking.”
Matter of Trust has not been able to coordinate with the official response team handling the spill, so volunteers are putting out the booms themselves.
“We learned this with the hurricanes,” Ms. Richardson-Bacon said. “You can’t wait for the government or BP to come protect you.”
Catharine Skipp contributed reporting from Miami.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/us/06hair.html
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