Friday, April 23, 2010

300,000 gallons per day

An oil rig that exploded in one of the worst offshore drilling disasters in recent U.S. history sank into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, with still no sign of 11 missing crewmembers.

The Deepwater Horizon sank about 10 a.m. after burning for roughly 36 hours. Survivors of Tuesday night's explosion told company officials that some of the missing crewmembers were around the area of the explosion when the rig unexpectedly went up in flames.

. . . The Coast Guard is also focused on minimizing any potential environmental impact. A 1-mile-by-5-mile sheen of crude oil and other substances has spread from the site of the rig's sinking, Landry said.

It's unclear how much crude will continue to flow from the wrecked rig. On Wednesday, Landry said the rig was spewing about 13,000 gallons of crude oil per hour.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-04-23-deepwater-horizon_N.htm

This destroyed rig will leak 300,000 gallons of crude per day into the Gulf for the foreseeable future.

This is a completely foreseeable consequence of offshore drilling.

Remember that as the same people leading us in celebration of "Earth Day" also lead us in expanding off shore drilling.

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