Updated: NEW Study indicates Microbes ARE rapidly consuming the Gulf Oil

by jamess

I, for one, hope that this is true, and will be further substantiated:

Study: Petroleum-eating microbes significantly reduced gulf oil plume
David Brown, Washington Post Staff Writer -- Tue, August 24, 2010

Petroleum-eating bacteria - which had dined for eons on oil seeping naturally through the seafloor - proliferated in the cloud of oil that drifted underwater for months after the April 20 accident. They not only outcompeted fellow microbes, they each ramped up their own internal metabolic machinery to digest the oil as efficiently as possible.

The result was a nature-made cleanup crew capable of reducing that reduced the amount of oil amounts in the undersea "plume" by half about every three days, according to research published online Tuesday by the journal Science.

The findings, by a team of scientists led by Terry C. Hazen of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California [...]

continued at Daily Kos....

Houston, We got a New Problem -- BP's Oil has ALL Disappeared!?

by jamess

OH  NOES!

Just when you thought the worse was over ...

BP to scale back some oil response units, new leader pledges to stay for long haul
by Doug Mouton / Northshore Bureau Chief
wwltv.com -- July 30, 2010

How much oil is in the Gulf now is up for debate.  Several Louisiana leaders, including St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis have argued that million of gallons of oil are underwater, waiting to surface.

"We haven't found that," [Bob] Dudley [new BP CEO] said.

Dudley said six ships and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are working to locate underwater oil.

"It's a big hunt going on right now," Dudley said. "It's going to keep going on."

Hey BOB! -- MAYBE you haven't "found it" because of 1.8 Million Gallons of Toxic Dispersants you managed to spray -- Kept much of it Underwater, eh?

They'll find ALL that missing Oil -- just give them some more time ... that's all they ask ...

continued at Daily Kos...

Science Says: Those 3-D Underwater Oil Plumes Belong to BP

by jamess

Now for a little exercise in News Spin Cycles, vs the Scientific Process ...

When the Facts, finally come in, IS Anyone even still Paying Attention?

"What we have learned completely changes the idea of what an oil spill is," said chemical oceanographer David Hollander, one of three USF researchers credited with the matching samples of oil taken from the water with samples from the BP well. "It has gone from a two-dimensional disaster to a three-dimensional catastrophe."
[...]

Together, the two studies confirm what in the early days of the spill was denied by BP and viewed skeptically by NOAA's chief — that much of the crude that gushed from the Deepwater Horizon well stayed beneath the surface of the water.

[link to follow]

continued at Daily Kos...

Move over Brave New World -- BioRemediation is a Test Tube away

by jamess

I hate to be a fearmonger (really I do). I'm a fact-driven guy, on most occasions. But this new plan on the Bio-drawing boards, has me a little worried. Especially considering the "kitchen sink" approach, that has been taken so far, to help "disperse" the mess in the Gulf ... If only this tale was from 'The Onion' ... Microbes developing appetite for oil Evolugate seeks approval to use its life forms to help clean up the Gulf oil spill. By Anthony Clark, Business editor, gainesville.com -- Monday, June 7, 2010 A Gainesville startup company is developing "designer microbes" specially tailored to the Gulf oil spill in hopes of helping cleanup efforts. Evolugate LLC has developed a technology to speed the process of evolution in microbes used to create biofuel and to control insects. In recent weeks, it has turned its attention to cleaning the Gulf oil spill. [...] Once the microbes are ready, Evolugate will need approval from the Environmental Protection Agency. Well, at least, the EPA will need to give the Green Light first ...

continued at Daily Kos....