New BP Effort Could Make Things Worse

(From Slate, 6-2-10):

After "Top Kill" failed late last week, BP officials announced that they would try another method to stop the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon site in the Gulf of Mexico. The new method involves placing a giant cap over the opening of the well and siphoning oil to the surface of the water. (The site of the leak is about 5,000 feet below the surface.) Before the cap can be lowered into place, though, the broken riser pipe must be cut down to a size that will fit under the brim. "[I]t's a big gamble: Even if it succeeds, it will temporarily increase the flow of an already massive leak by 20 percent—at least 100,000 gallons more a day," the Associated Press reported. "That's on top of the estimated 500,000 to 1 million gallons gushing out already." Estimates of the amount of oil vary widely, but somewhere between 20 million and 40 million gallons of oil have leaked into the Gulf since April 20, when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, killing 11 workers. It is already the largest oil spill in U.S. history, and if the cap fails, it could continue spewing oil until August, when a set of relief wells are completed. "Eric Smith, an associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute, likened the procedure to trying to place a tiny cap on a fire hydrant that's blowing straight up," theAssociated Press reported.

Read original story in The Associated Press | Wednesday, June 2, 2010