OT -- Oil spill cleanup idea

[Doc Hudson]

Watch the video:

http://www.wimp.com/solutionoil/

I think these good ol' boys might be onto somthing!

[Rusty]

I heard on the radio that Kevin Kostner is a major investor in a device that should be a big help in cleaning up this spill.

[Tycer]

Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5frPV58tY


Start at 8:00

They used this in Cali in the bay.

[firefuzz]

The hay idea looks certainly worth the try.

Rob

[AJMD429]

I'll bet that upon close scrutiny, the BIGGEST impediment to getting the leak stopped would turn out to be the government. Their micro-managing, over-regulating, counter-productive way of messing up anything sensible done in any other industry leaves me doubting that deep-sea oil-drilling would be any exception to the rule. Whenever something needs to be done right, done quickly, done honestly, or done without wasting money, having them looking over your shoulder surely won't facilitate success...

[Mokwaw]

This idea would certainly help in slowing down the spread of the oil slick. After working in the petroleum pipeline business (retired last Oct.) part of our yearly training was containment of oil spills. Straw is one of the cheapest and easiest to find for containing oil spills on water. One of the problems is, it creates contaminated product that has to be disposed of afterward. Incineration is one idea, but then that creates the problem of air pollution. Another way is to store the contaminated straw in large containers where it can be treated with detergents and the oil reclaimed, this would be a gigantic undertaking with the amount of oil that is still spilling into the gulf. From what I have seen on TV the booms that have been deployed are doing a fair job of containment, except where they have not been connected together properly allowing oil to get by, and if a gulf storm starts creating rough water the booms become next to useless. The hay, straw idea would help emminsly in controlling the spread. The main priority should be in getting the oil flow into the gulf shut down. Since their mechanical safe guards (flow valve) failed, they have to get the open ended pipe closed some how. I was thinking explosives to cause the well to implode upon itself, but I'm no engineer so don't know if that would work. Anyway as to the original idea these fellows have it would work for clean up.

[Hagler]

Gents,

Stopping up the oil well would be the solution to stopping the oil flow. British Petroleum is taking entirely too long to do that. I feel that our government is playing a hand in this. We have heard of the straw & hay idea, plus an idea for using the leftovers of sugar cane harvesting & refining, to soak up the oil. I like Costner's filter the best, though.

What is causing so many residents of the Gulf Coast so much grief is that ALL of the local & state governments are waiting for approval from the EPA, the Corp of Engineers, and the Federal government to get "permits" (I believe they are called "404" permits") to dredge the gulf & build sand berms to protect the "wetlands". The oil has reached at least 10 miles into some of Louisiana's marshes, and they are now poisened. The gubment regulations say that "you cannot discharge or place, dredge or fill material into a wetland". The Corp of Engineers often sites this portion of The Clean Water Act, Section 404, in order to extort money from private land owners. Now, the oil is the biggest threart to the "wetlands", and our local & State governments' hands are tied by this "protection". Section 404 covered "The Waters of The United States". This included any "navigable waterway", which was defined as any tributary of (or runoff from) just about any kind of waterway, including "isolated wetlands" (regardless of how the water got there).

Shawn

EDITED to add some more-pertinent comments that I forgot to type.

EDITED to add the section # of, and more information on, the Clean Water Act.

[Sixgun]

Yea, this is a mess. The best way would be to strap a bale of hay on every mexican and give them the wrong direction to the Rio Grande

[El Chivo]

I heard about straw years ago after one of the big oil spills. Makes sense, if you can get enough of it.

Seems like the oil-laden straw could be made into bricks that would burn, ought to be useful for something.