What are WE going to do if.........

[Pez7378]

Politics aside, I've been following this oil spill bit from a safe distance, and most of my information comes from the radio and a few websites. It truly is a disaster, and it's heartbreaking to hear of the impact its having on the gulf coast, the shores of Florida and perhaps up the southeastern seaboard.

What I want to ask you collectively is this:

If something like this were to happen here, in the Puget Sound, what are we going to do? This is an opportunity to brainstorm a solution to a problem I hope we never experience, but even a bad plan is better then no plan at all.

[selkie]

I am not getting my new drysuit in it.

[Dashrynn]

Im not familiar with every choice possible or how it looks exactly since a month or so ago, i just listen to the radio. But i proposed we have a long suction hose down to the ship and place it over the ripped spot, it would suck up contaminants and water also but, theoretically move all the oil to another spot.

[scottsax]

WARNING: Absolutely no knowledge about energy companies, oil spill cleanup, or environmental science went into the following post.

The good news is that Puget Sound is no more than, what, 600-1000 feet deep? Part of BP's problem (deep breath...politics aside...) is that it's a mile down, and NONE of the options that have been proposed or attempted have really been done that deep underwater before.

So are we talking about spills, or drilling operations failing? If it's a spill, we should contain it on the surface as much as possible, vacuum it up, and ship it to a refinery in Anacortes. It seems to me that any port/harbor/region a tanker enters should have some sort of spill response team that's capable of reaching a spill and beginning containment/cleanup operations within a matter of a few hours. Paid for by the oil company (I'm pretty sure they can afford it) and supervised by some sort of non-oil-company-affiliated entity.

If it's an underwater well, I have no friggin' clue, but they'd better act fast, because I suspect that the dive community here will not tolerate feet-dragging.

[airsix]

Chris, you are asking a good question. I don't have a useful response but I'm posting to let you know your thread isn't being ignored. The gulf spill is heart-breaking. As far as the Sound goes, a major disaster would be horrible, and I don't want to think about how terribly it would likely be handled.

At the same time I think we should be giving equal concern to the "death by a thousand cuts" that is already going on. The pollution going into the Sound as we speak is not as visible as a large oil-slick and because of this lack of visibility too many are ignoring what is already a serious problem.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack.

[dieseldude]

Shut up! why would you even want to think of such a thing. That would be terrible pez! Perish the thought!
I dont have enough tanks for a 1,000' dive. I do have a sacrificial drysuit, H20 doc could loan me a light, Scratch that-he could video tape it & i'll use his light, a 1 1/8th inch wrench & a welder......no! Its not going to happen. There damn oil will probably make up here anyway.
MJ

p.s You might want to get your tanks back from Norris in case I need to borrow them for deco gas. If there going to kill my ocean, there takin me with them.

[Grateful Diver]

Puget Sound is already experiencing a major oil spill ... stormwater runoff puts the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez worth of petroleum pollution into the Sound every two years.

What are we doing about it?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[lamont]

Puget Sound is already experiencing a major oil spill ... stormwater runoff puts the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez worth of petroleum pollution into the Sound every two years.

What are we doing about it?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Can we turn loose the busybodies who want to prevent 'un-natural' artificial reefs on this problem instead?

(I don't have anything truly helpful to add -- i really just don't know what to do about it).

[renoun]

Well Washington Sate has some fairly detailed Geographic Response Plans and is activly working reevaluating the current planning. I hope that all the planning will actually result in effective responses. That last spill off Vashon turned into a bit of a fiasco.

[Grateful Diver]

Puget Sound is already experiencing a major oil spill ... stormwater runoff puts the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez worth of petroleum pollution into the Sound every two years.

What are we doing about it?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Can we turn loose the busybodies who want to prevent 'un-natural' artificial reefs on this problem instead?

(I don't have anything truly helpful to add -- i really just don't know what to do about it).

I know ... it's silly.

I've spent a significant part of the past two years seeing what we're doing about it ... at least in Tacoma. We're installing treatment options to remove heavy metals, petroleum and what's known as "suspended solids" from the water before it reaches Puget Sound. Problem is that all that stuff still has to get dumped somewhere. Cattails and other plants used in detention ponds, bioswales and rain gardens trap these pollutants in their root systems, and then get pulled and disposed of in landfills. Storm filter cartridges are getting installed in vaults and catch basins to remove pollutants in a media that looks for all the world like the stuff they use in rebreathers. But again, that simply transfers the pollution from the water to the landfill. It's more controlled, and more isolated ... but it's not going away.

The only real solution is to quit breeding so damn much and quit developing everything in sight.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Mattleycrue76]

Puget Sound is already experiencing a major oil spill ... stormwater runoff puts the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez worth of petroleum pollution into the Sound every two years.

What are we doing about it?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Wow if this is true - and Bob I don't mean this in a snarky way at all - then a tanker spill is actually a lot less of a big deal than people make of it.

I wasn't around 100 years ago to dive here and so I really can't comment on how bad things have gotten compared to what they were, but for absorbing that kind of oil in a two year period the Sound looks pretty awesome to me. BTW I'm not in any way suggesting that we shouldn't try to minimize (or in an ideal world stop) pollution of the waters we all love so much. More of a general observation.

[Mattleycrue76]

The only real solution is to quit breeding so damn much and quit developing everything in sight.

Hey maybe then my house would be worth something again

[lamont]

Wow if this is true - and Bob I don't mean this in a snarky way at all - then a tanker spill is actually a lot less of a big deal than people make of it.

Dumping it in concentrated form over the course of days or weeks compared to 2 years make a difference. Time and diffusion does give the microbes a chance to attack it.

Also, I drew the opposite conclusion, which is that all the runoff is a big deal. All those microbes eating the petroleum are doing their part to contribute to hypoxia, it definitely is only going to hurt hood canal, and isn't doing anything good to the rest of the sound.

(although the impact of the BP oil spill probably is somewhat overstated -- there's a lot of natural seepage in the gulf and there's microbes which will eat a lot of this oil -- and 10 years from now there will have been a remarkable amount of recovery, but again it isn't helping the environment out, and isn't going to do anything good for the economies of the states around the spill -- it isn't in the end of the world, but at what point do you say that its enough damage to the environment and we need to rethink our course?).

[Maverick]

The only real solution is to quit breeding so damn much and quit developing everything in sight.

Hey maybe then my house would be worth something again

quit BREEDING, not a single guy i know is giving that up

[lamont]

The only real solution is to quit breeding so damn much and quit developing everything in sight.

Hey maybe then my house would be worth something again

quit BREEDING, not a single guy i know is giving that up

MATING != BREEDING

[dsteding]

there's a lot of natural seepage in the gulf and there's microbes which will eat a lot of this oil

Uh, not that much natural seepage. Orders of magnitude difference.

[Pez7378]

Well Washington Sate has some fairly detailed Geographic Response Plans and is activly working reevaluating the current planning. I hope that all the planning will actually result in effective responses. That last spill off Vashon turned into a bit of a fiasco.

Good reading Ross. Has anyone ever actually helped with a major oil cleanup, whether it be shoreline or critters? If so, what was it like?

[ArcticDiver]

So much of our attitudes and our responses are based on perception. For example we don''t get excited at all by the 40,000 plus people killed in highway crashes each year but we get really bent over other incidents that involve far less people. We don't get excited about day in and day out pollution but we get very concerned by a single big spill. A couple hundred people are made sick by some polluted food and we get very excited but totally ignore other problems that cause far more human casualties.

Our problem and challenge is to learn and face the actual underlying causes and to do something about them.

[BASSMAN]

I don't want to be the wet blanket here but, Sounds like it's a loosing battle (keeping Puget Sound clean).
When people ask me about the P.S. vis, I tell them, "look at google maps, You will see on the sattle lite view,
Nice , blue waters in the open ocean and then look at Puget Sound, All Black! I know some of that or maybe even most of it is the bottom composition and shallow depths, but it sure looks bad to me!