TheBurr.com

Kristyn Soltis

HED: Ocean of oil

SUB: The summer of the spill appears to be over, but effects from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion may continue to cause damage for months, or even years.

When the Deepwater Horizon rig sank into the Gulf of Mexico on April 22, more than 200,000 gallons of oil a day poured into the sea from the well HEAD BROKEN BY THE EXPLOSION. it was drilling.

Response teams worked day in and day out in an effort to clean up the floating slick COMMA while experts attempted to shut off the flow from the wellhead.

But the oil soon reached the coast, closing down fisheries and threatening fragile ecosystems.

Kathryn Stonecipher, 20, was working as a waitress in Pensacola Beach, FL when the OIL-BASED tar balls washed ashore. “I never went to the beach because of the oil and what people I know that did go only went to take pictures,” she says. “Locals were all pretty upset about it.”

The seasonal beach that normally attracts thousands of tourists began to slow THE BEACH CAN’T “SLOW” – THE TOURISTS CAN STAY AWAY…. So did business.

“The oil spill did not just affect our ‘pretty’ beaches, SEMI COLON…people lost their jobs,” Stonecipher says.

Crude oil blanketed the beaches of Mississippi and Alabama’s coast, tangled itself in the Louisiana marshes and spread east to Panama City.

The oil was far from the Great Lakes, but members of the Kent Environmental Council say all people, no matter their residence, need to be aware of the damaging effects from the spill on both the environment and human health.

“It’s a world problem. It isn’t just the Gulf coast, although they’re hit the hardest,” says KEC member Walt Adams.

Fellow KEC member Rick Hawksley says tests show residents of the Gulf Coast are experiencing elevated levels of the volatile organic compounds in their blood related to crude oil and dispersants.

Environmental writer Jerry Cope describes his experience in the Gulf in his Huffington Post essay, No Safe Harbor on Gulf Coast; Human Blood Tests Show Dangerous Levels of Toxic Exposure. Cope says he experienced burning, itching eyes, a constantly runny nose, chronic coughing, a burning sore throat, chest congestion, and lethargy. The symptoms continued to progress over the next several weeks until Cope developed chemically-induced pneumonitis.

(NEEDS TRANSITION TO ADAMS) THAT’S WORRYING ADAMS.

“The accumulation of toxic byproducts in water and air are accumulating in our circulatory cells,” Adams says. “We don’t know the consequences of this but scientists propose sterility.”

Fellow KEC member Edith Chase adds THAT along with airborne toxins from the crude oil, there is the danger of eating contaminated products shipped north from the Gulf.

HERE, YOU HAVE VONEIDA…BUT YOU JUST TALKED WITH CHASE. SO IF THIS QUOTE IS VONEIDA… WELL, INTRO HIM.

TED VONEIDA, ANOTHER KEC MEMBER, THINKS THE PROBLEMS SOCIETY FACES DUE TO THE OIL SPILL BE LONG-TERM.(TAKE OUT THE FIRST QUOTE)

“We have to recognize this is an extremely long-term problem,” says KEC member Ted Voneida. “This is not going to go away very quickly VONEIDA SAYS. The fact is this stuff isn’t just on the surface. That’s a minor part of it. It’s gone down and we don’t know what the effects are of these deeper parts of the spill, and we probably won’t know until we see the effects.”

Stonecipher says she would like her generation to be aware of issue and continuing effects as it will be their problem to deal with in the future.

“People need to see the bigger picture about this. It’s not just a pretty beach ruined; it’s our oceans and what amazing creatures that are in the ocean that could potentially be ruined forever.” Stonecipher says. “College students need to know is that the oil spill is our problem. The oil is going to be in our oceans for a while. It’s not going to just disappear.”

Kent State director of the School of Exercise, Leisure and Sport and KEC member Wayne Munson agrees. “A lot of us play the role of worker, parent, son or daughter… but one of the most important roles is being a good citizen. I think students need to start thinking about the fact that the world is going to be in their hands someday.”

HOW ABOUT ONCAMPUS? IS HE DIRECTOR NOW? OR FORMER DIRECTOR? HMM. I THOUGHT THEY WERE SUCKED INTO THE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION OR WHATEVER IT’S LONG NAME IS.

REVERSE TIMELINE????

TIMELINE:

Sept. 21 – The federal government finally declares the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico dead after months of failed attempts.

Aug. 20 – the journal Science published a study confirming the existence of a huge plume of dispersed oil deep in the Gulf of Mexico, raising the possibility that the effects of the spill might pose a threat to wildlife for months or years.

Aug. 3 – Engineers successfully pump mud into the well forcing the oil and gas back down into the reservoir. Cement is used to seal the well.

July 27- BP announces CEO Tony Hayward will be replaced by American Robert Dudley Oct. 1. BP also reported a record quarterly loss and set aside $32.2 billion to cover costs of the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

July 15 – after 86 days of oil gushing into the gulf, the Macondo well leak was finally stopped when BP managed to install a much tighter-fitting cap on the well a mile below the sea floor and gradually closed a series of valves.

July 12 – the Helix Producer, a production vessel on the surface, collects oil. BP officials say they expect to have four vessels on site to collect oil and gas.

July 10 – Robotic submarines working a mile underwater removed a leaking cap from the gushing oil well, starting a painful trade-off: Millions more gallons of crude flow freely into the sea for at least two days until a new seal can be mounted. The federal government estimates between 87 million and 172 million gallons of oil has poured into the Gulf.

June 26 – BP says “a total of approximately 22,750 barrels of oil were collected or flared by the two systems and 52.9 million cubic feet of gas were flared.”

WHAT IS FLARED? DESCRIBE IT THERE….

June 16 – BP releases a statement that it will put $20 billion in a compensation fund for victims of the Gulf oil spill and will not pay shareholders a dividend for 2010.

June 10 – U.S. scientists double their estimates of the amount of oil gushing from the well, saying between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels (840,000 and 1.7 million gallons/3.2 million and 6.4 million liters) of oil flowed from the well before June 3.

June 8 – U.S. weather forecasters give their first confirmation that some of the oil is lingering beneath the surface rather than rising to the top.

June 2 – Fishing restrictions are expanded to cover 37 percent of U.S. federal waters in the Gulf.

May 29 – BP says the “top kill” maneuver has failed, crushing hopes for a swift end to the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

May 26 – A “top kill” maneuver starts, involving pumping mud and other material into the well shaft in an attempt to choke the flow.

May 24 – Protests begin at BP headquarters in Houston.

May 20 – Lawmakers post a link to a live webcam feed of the oil spill after legislators and scientists pressure BP to release the footage to help determine how much oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

May 19 – The first heavy oil from the spill hits the Louisiana marshlands.

May 17 – BP reports the tube it had inserted into a broken pipe May 16 was gathering more than one-fifth of the spewing oil. In the meantime, scientists report that the spill has found its way into the Gulf of Mexico’s powerful loop current, meaning the oil could reach Florida and the East Coast.

May 14 – Obama criticizes executives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton involved in the spill, criticizing them for a “ridiculous spectacle” of publicly trading blame over the accident during a Senate hearing.

May 9 – BP announces its idea to plug the undersea leak by using a “junk shot” which would pump materials such as shredded tires and golf balls into the well at high pressure.

May 7 – An attempt to place a containment dome over the spewing well fails when the device is clogged by frozen hydrocarbons.

May 6 – Oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon well made its first confirmed landfall in Louisiana.

May 2 – BP starts drilling a relief well alongside the failed well, a process officials estimate may take two to three months to complete.

Early May: the Coast Guard carried out a number of control burns and booms are strategically placed to protect sensitive areas of coastline. BP officials say several thousand barrels of oil have been destroyed.

April 30 – BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward says the company takes full responsibility and will pay all legitimate claims and the cost of the cleanup.

April 28 – Crude oil begins to surface on the water. Later that night, BP officials announced that they had underestimated the flow from the wellhead by fivefold, estimating that at least 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil are being released from the well each day.

April 24 – Oil is discovered leaking from the damaged drill pipe of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

April 20 – After a massive explosion, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig burned for more than a day before sinking into the Gulf of Mexico on April 22, Earth Day, forming a 5-mile-long oil slick.