14 DAY TRIAL // Representatives from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announce that they have just dispatched a new research airplane to the Gulf of Mexico. The measure was taken in order for experts to ensure that the best available data of the ongoing disaster are collected. These sets of information will help inform scientists and policymakers in their future decisions, officials at the American administration announce. The new plane is the second NOAA WP-3D Orion aircraft to be deployed in the area.
Air quality monitoring efforts have been ongoing for weeks just south of Louisiana, where the Deepwater horizon rig exploded and sank in late April. Since then, between 12,000 and 19,000 barrels of oil have been seeping into the waters each day, although British Petroleum (BP), the oil company that operated the platform, has been engaged in efforts of reducing the damage from very early on. But these efforts cause a lot of pollution, as do oil wastes and thick smoke emitted from the controlled burning of oil slicks.
“We’re taking every step we can to ensure the health and safety of Gulf Coast residents and oil spill responders. The data we gather through this next step in our partnership with NOAA will enhance efforts to monitor the air we breathe and better prepare us to address the long-term impacts of the BP oil spill,” says Lisa P. Jackson, who is the Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “Ensuring the health and safety of Gulf Coast families is a priority for NOAA. We want to make certain that the air is safe for coastal residents as well as workers on the water. We are pleased to partner with EPA in this effort and to provide state-of-the-science air quality instruments in our flying laboratory aboard the P-3 aircraft,” adds NOAA Administrator and US under-secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, Jane Lubchenco.
The Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible drilling rig, which operated only tens of miles south of the coasts of Louisiana, suffered a large explosion on April 20. Eleven crew members are assumed dead, and all rescue efforts aimed at finding them have long since been called off. On April 22, the rig sunk into the waters of the Gulf, in spite of the fact that emergency response ships were on-site, evacuating workers, and pouring water on the platform. With the collapse of the Horizon, the pipes that carried the oil from a depth of 5,000 feet (1,500 meters), broke.
The valves designed to stop the oil flow in such an instance malfunctioned, and thousands of barrels of crude have been spilling in the water daily ever since. Actual amount may be a lot larger than this, experts warn, which means that the damage may be considerably larger than initially estimated. Given the size of the slick, some hypothesize that the oil may have moved from the site in underwater plumes, which are extremely difficult to detect, even with sensitive Earth-observing satellites.
“As part of the federal government's ongoing response to the BP spill, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues its extensive air quality monitoring along the Gulf Coast. In this case, NOAA and EPA are working collaboratively to take advantage of NOAA’s highly specialized atmospheric research capabilities, which can detect concentrations of compounds in the atmosphere with greater sensitivity than standard operational monitoring flights. The P-3 is currently involved in a major climate and air quality study in California, called Calnex, which is why it is already properly outfitted for this emergency gulf mission. Another NOAA P-3 is also in the Gulf and has done multiple flights to help monitor the location of the Loop Current,” NOAA officials said in a statement.