14 DAY TRIAL // Recently, two research teams working in the Gulf of Mexico, near and around the Deepwater Horizon accident site, managed to find an underwater plume of oil each. Low concentrations of hydrocarbons and other toxic chemical compounds have been found at various locations, and at multiple depths. Although the scale of the disaster is more reduced that researchers anticipated, top officials from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say that a huge risk to the environment, ecosystems and species still exists. The scientists who led the new studies said, however, that these were only early analysis results, and that they did not represent a clear conclusion.
The two sample ships that were used for the investigation spotted signs of contamination as much as 78 kilometers away from where the BP-operated, semi-submersible drilling rig sunk nearly two months ago. The oil traces were primarily found in two layers. The first of them was located at a depth of about 400 meters (about 1,310 feet) deep and another between 1000 and 1400 meters deep. The top concentrations detected were in the range of several hundred parts per billion, the teams report, quoted by ScienceInsider.
The new results do “not mean [the oil] doesn’t have significant impact. The impact that it has we remain to understand,” said yesterday the NOAA Administrator, Jane Lubchenco, in a conference. Her view was immediately supported by Texas Tech University in Lubbock ecotoxicologist Ronald Kendall. “We're glad [the concentrations] are not higher, but it's just a snapshot of an unfolding event,” the expert adds. About 16 of the polycyclic aromatic (PCA) hydrocarbon compounds analyzed proved to exist in concentrations well below danger levels. The teams also found increased concentrations of oil-eating microbes in the waters, meaning that the ecosystem is working toward cleaning itself.
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.