The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

The initial rescue operation following the explosion is what caused an oil spill of disastrous proportions, according to an expert cited by this article from The Globe And Mail. (Thanks to ‘ames’ on SI for this find.)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/cleanup-specialists-not-optimistic/article1553400/

Mike Miller, chief executive officer of SafetyBOSS Inc., a Calgary-based company [that] …has helped stop out-of-control wells across the world, faulted first-response crews for making a bad situation much worse.

When an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig ignited a massive fire on April 20, fireboats raced to put it out. Pictures show at least four vessels pumping massive streams of water onto the rig.

That was a mistake, Mr. Miller said.

“Why they put the fire out is beyond me,” he said. “Basically once it was burning it’s not going to get any worse. But when they pulled all those fireboats out there, the result was they sunk the rig by filling it full of water.”

He blames the oil leak on that act, since the sinking oil rig took with it the main connection to the well, which is located 1,500 metres below water. That allowed oil to leak out. Had the fire been left alone, the oil would have burned instead – a more palatable choice...