My Prediction about the Oil Tragedy

Its’ old news but in the “wastewater” industry I work for, we have known for years and years one gallon of oil will pollute one million gallons of water. Now the general public is aware of this. Keep in mind I am not against “oil”. We need it. It moves our economy and our future. Without it, the only transportation we would have is horse and buggy and bicycles. But oil is like nuclear energy. If you can keep the genie in the bottle so to speak, it works well. But now, the genie has gotten out of the bottle and as of this writing, literally millions upon millions of gallons of oil and methane gas has been let loose into the Gulf. The genie is on the run. So it’s a not so simple math question, If one gallon of oil pollutes one million gallons of water, how many millions or it now trillions of gallons of water are polluted from the millions of gallons of oil?
I am here to bet BP is withholding far more information than they are letting out into the public. This is a major worldwide catastrophic event. It will affect mankind for years to come. Their engineers may not be able to design a “fix” but you can safely bet their scientists know what is going to happen. And here is why.
The earth rotates on its axis. The moon’s gravity pulls and tugs and creates tides. The wind drives the ocean currents too. These currents flow around the entire world, not just in “the Gulf”. The oil will not stay in the Gulf. It will make its way by current into the open ocean and then on to every corner of the world. The cities located on the shores of the oceans that draw in water to treat to drink will have to deal with oil in their systems. They can remove it but it will be costly. It will wash up on beaches around the world. It will show up in the main rivers too and those water treatment plants will have to treat that to remove the oil or do like they do now. They shut down the intakes until the spill passes.
This is a long term disaster. It’s no longer an American problem, it is a world problem. When the oil shows up on a European shore you think they are going to be kind to America for polluting their beaches? No, they will not. They will demand justice and compensation. Wars have started for less than this. BP is a British-based company. Notice how you haven’t heard much noise from England yet? It’s because we are allies. They are being quiet about the problem even though it was one of their companies and not ours. We (as in “America”) have allowed a foreign country to decimate our waters. So how much longer before we squabble over it and start the big blame game? Bp has already said that the oil rig wasn’t theirs at the beginning of this ordeal, they were only renting it.
So what happens when it washes up on Cuba’s shores? We already aren’t friends but Castro (and his brother) is allies with Russia. Or how about when it washes up on Venezuela’s shore? America also has a strained relationship with their President Hugo Chavez. He also considers Russia an Allie. Russia and America are not bosom buddies by any means…
This will impact the children of the future. Think not? Here are some more examples of where the past has endangered the future. I won’t go into much detail about each one of them but here they are.
1. “The Love Canal”. From 1942 to the mid 1950’s Hooker Chemical buried toxic waste in Niagara Falls, New York. They eventually sold the ground for one dollar. Later on a school was built over the site and then a neighborhood. The dumpsite was “re” discovered in 1976 and the neighborhood evacuated in 1978. Kids were born with birth defects and other issues. As of today the site is still vacate and despite the clean up, not safe to live there.

2. Picher Oklahoma. In the early 1900’s it was discovered to have Lead and zinc deposits. Over half of the lead and zinc used during World War I was mined from there. The mining ceased in 1967 and the water pumps were shut off. The mines flooded and the ground water was contaminated with lead and zinc and the abandoned mines began to collapse and swallow the town. So not only was the water unfit to drink, the scale deposits left on the ground were a breathing hazard and the ground under their feet was falling in. Despite cleanup efforts the town has been deemed unfit for habitation. So what started 100 years ago is still affecting people.

3. Chernobyl. In 1986, Russia let the genie out of the bottle in the form a nuclear power plant meltdown. It was far worse than 3 mile Island. The city of Pripiat was evacuated and as of today 25 years later is still uninhabitable from the radiation contamination. It now resides in the “zone of Alienation. Chernobyl has not been fixed, it was band aided up and is still a ticking time bomb and will be for at least 1000 more years. So it too, is left for the future generation to deal with.

4. Exxon Valdez. 1989. The ship Exxon Valdez strays off course and hit Prince Williams Sound reef and tears a hole in the bottom. It’s estimated it spilled 10 million gallons of oil. 22 years later and despite a massive cleanup the oil is still found in the Sound. That was only one ship and 10 million gallons of oil….keep that in mind when you think about what is happening today.

5. Deepwater Horizon. 2010. We only just began……

chuck 2010

Severe Earthquake Warning For California in September 2010