BP Refuses To Allow Scientists To Confirm Origin Of Oil Plume Found In Gulf Stream Off Florida Keys

  Posted by - June 15, 2010 at 7:47 pm - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog
Thermal Image of Gulf Steam Current and possible path of Oil Spill
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Over the last several weeks scientists have warned that oil from the BP Gulf Oil Spill is likely to hit the loop current and travel up the US East Coast through the Gulf Stream.

A group of University of South Florida has now confirmed a concentration has been found in the Gulf Stream off of the southern tip of Florida, near the Florida Keys.

Those scientists have told the ST. Petersburgs Times that BP has refused to offer a sample of its oil to University of South Florida scientists who are working to confirm the source of the oil clouds in the Gulf Stream.

“I was just taken aback by it,” said David Hollander, study’s chief investigator, “It was a little unsettling.”

The confirmation of the oil in the Gulf stream is also corroborated by sights of oil of the East Coast of Florida.

On June 6th a Fort Lauderdale-based yacht captain was boating about 12.5 miles offshore from Port Everglades when he and his passengers noticed the oil slick pictured
to the right, according the the Palm Beach Times.

Last Tuesday, USF scientists also announced they had found concentrations of oil-related chemicals 42 miles northeast of the Deepwater Horizon rig and 142 miles to the southeast in addition to the oil that is already in the Gulf Stream.

Some of the substance was found two-thirds of a mile below the surface.

The scientists sad that they are trying to chemically match the oil, or “fingerprint” it, to the oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon well that collapsed on April 20th that may could be leaking anywhere from 500,000 to 4.2 million gallons of oil per day.

From the St. Petersburg Times:

Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia, who recently returned from a two-week expedition in the gulf, was quoted in the Washington Post: “There is strong evidence that the plume does derive from the Deepwater Horizon.”

She said she has “never seen concentrations of methane this high anywhere” in the 15 years she has worked in the gulf, suggesting that natural seepage is not a factor.

The University of Georgia-led team tracked the plume from three-quarters of a mile to nearly 14 miles from the BP wellhead.

Also Tuesday, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration survey vessel, Thomas Jefferson, found clouds of hydrocarbons less than 8 nautical miles from the site of the BP oil spill. The clouds, at depths of more than 3,600 feet, are about 330 feet in height.

Meanwhile, the USF scientists had more bad news:

They’ve confirmed a low concentration of oil off the southern tip of Florida, in the gulf stream. That oil is projected to flow north, off Florida’s east coast, but is unlikely to reach shore.

They also had troubling news about the loop current, the warm river of water that enters the gulf from the Yucatán Peninsula and surges north into the central gulf before looping south and around the tip of Florida.

Last week, they said it appeared to be reshaping, meaning it would be less likely to carry oil from the spill toward Florida and the East Coast.

That respite may be over, said USF Ocean Circulation Group director Robert Weisberg.

“Over time, there will be more oil getting into the loop current and the Florida Straits,” he said. “We just have to watch.”

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