Saturday, May 29, 2010

Effort to Plug Gulf Spill Faces Another Setback

It appears British Petroleum and the United States government were quite premature in their victory claim earlier this week, as we learn today that engineers have again failed to plug the gushing oil well.

BP made a third attempt at what is termed the “junk shot” Friday night, a procedure that involves pumping odds and ends like plastic cubes, knotted rope, and golf balls into the blowout preventer, the five-story safety device atop the well. The maneuver is complementary to the heavily scrutinized effort known as a “top kill,”which began four days ago and involves pumping heavy mud into the well to counteract the push of the escaping oil. If the well is sealed, the company plans to then fill it with cement.

The technician working on the project said Saturday pumping has again been halted and a review of the data so far is under way. “Right now, I would not be optimistic,” the technician, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly about the effort. But he added, that if another attempt at the junk shot were to succeed, “that would turn things around.”

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2 comments:

Diving Discoveries said...

I´m getting sick of seeing all the pictures of dead wildlife that has washed up due to this nasty spill.

Heck, even Kevin Costner has presented a supposed solution that could help separate oil from water.

The more time we wait, the more wildlife and resources are lost.

Neutral Dive Gear said...

=/