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US govt fights oil spill with obsolete technologies

bub

R.I.P. Léo
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De Standaard Online -

Dutch and Belgian dredgers have the appropriate technology to fight against the oil spill.

According to them, the "top hat" that has been placed can only "capture" 3/4 of the oil, which means that thousands of oil barrels are still leaking every day.

Thus, numerous dams of sand and stone should be built all along the coast of the US southern states, in order to protect places such as the mouth of the Mississipi or the natural reserves of Florida.

However, the Americans would need 9 months to build these dams, while the Belgian dredging companies Jan de Nul and DEME says it could do so in 4 months, maybe 3 if the American companies cooperate.

"The Americans use outdated technologies. That's a consequence of the Jones Act, which says that transportation by ship between US havens has to be done on US ships, built in the USA and whose crew is American. Thus, a dredger costs twice as much in the USA than here, since we build ours in Asia. They're so expensive that they're not replaced easily, and so they're much older than ours.

The lastest technologies are thus used only in two Dutch and two Belgian dredging companies. Just one week ago, the Dutch "Flinstone", has been inaugurated in Singapore. It is a fallpipe vessel that can place stones and sand with a great precision at great depths. They say that within a month they could be operational and soak up the oil spill.
 
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De Standaard Online -

Dutch and Belgian dredgers have the appropriate technology to fight against the oil spill.

According to them, the "top hat" that has been placed can only "capture" 3/4 of the oil, which means that thousands of oil barrels are still leaking every day.

Thus, numerous dams of sand and stone should be built all along the coast of the US southern states, in order to protect places such as the mouth of the Mississipi or the natural reserves of Florida.

However, the Americans would need 9 months to build these dams, while the Belgian dredging companies Jan de Nul and DEME says it could do so in 4 months, maybe 3 if the American companies cooperate.

"The Americans use outdated technologies. That's a consequence of the Jones Act, which says that transportation by ship between US havens has to be done on US ships, built in the USA and whose crew is American. Thus, a dredger costs twice as much in the USA than here, since we build ours in Asia. They're so expensive that they're not replaced easily, and so they're much older than ours.

The lastest technologies are thus used only in two Dutch and two Belgian dredging companies. Just one week ago, the Dutch "Flinstone", has been inaugurated in Singapore. It is a fallpipe vessel that can place stones and sand with a great precision at great depths. They say that within a month they could be operational and soak up the oil spill.

The US allowed BP to drill for oil. It makes no sense why they wouldn't allow Belgian and Dutch companies to help us. I suppose American pride will bring the demise of American shores.
 
The US allowed BP to drill for oil. It makes no sense why they wouldn't allow Belgian and Dutch companies to help us. I suppose American pride will bring the demise of American shores.

The Jones Act is the reason

I just looked it up and was suprised at how old of an act it was dating from the 1920's

I am not sure if a temp waiver could be put into place by Presidential decree or if congress would need to modify it or not
 
The Jones Act is the reason

I just looked it up and was suprised at how old of an act it was dating from the 1920's

I am not sure if a temp waiver could be put into place by Presidential decree or if congress would need to modify it or not

The US needs all the help it can get at this point.
 
Dutch and Belgian dredgers have the appropriate technology to fight against the oil spill.

According to them, the "top hat" that has been placed can only "capture" 3/4 of the oil, which means that thousands of oil barrels are still leaking every day.

Yeah, probably because they can't clamp it down. If those wells had the right kind of regulations, they would have been forced to install emergency shut off valves on the risers. Probably cost under $10,000. Of course it's too late now to retro fit anything, especially since there are only robotic submersibles a mile down there.

My idea to crimp (squeeze) the riser steel pipe flat by modifying the giant shears would have worked, but not after they cut the riser down to the BOP base.

ricksfolly
 
Thus, numerous dams of sand and stone should be built all along the coast of the US southern states, in order to protect places such as the mouth of the Mississipi or the natural reserves of Florida.

My dad was down at the (Texas) coast over the weekend, and he said the beach is overrun with piled-up clumps of saragasso weed, and the shore area of the water was clogged with it as well.
When he inquired about this, he was told that this amount of seaweed is normal, but usually it is cleared away, to make for a cleaner beach area.
Right now it's being left in place, however, in hopes that it will soak up some of the oil if the oil approaches the area.
But he said there was no oil, at least not yet.
I think all the damage is slightly to the east of us.
 
Outdated =/= obsolete in this case. If our equipment did not work or serve its purpose (albeit not as well as Dutch equipment), we wouldn't have it.


Anyway, we can not be saved by The Flintstones; that'd be embarrassing. We considered the Junk Shot, that was goofy enough - no Flintstones.
 
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This is sad, the US taught the world how to drill for oil and now because a law, designed for unions, we're falling behind in technology.
 
The dutch offered this on day 3, Obama sent a letter saying "no thanks".....
 
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