
Longest-running oil spill in history releasing more than 4,500 gallons per day - mitchelldeacon9
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/06/24/fourteen-years-after-it-started-federal-government-has-studied-longest-oil-spill-history/
======
crisnoble
>[Taylor Energy Company] claim that only one drop of oil per minute is being
released from a small area covered in mud, amounting to less than three
gallons each day.

.... 14 years later ...

Somewhere between 1,000 and 71,000 gallons have been leaking per day.

> Taylor Energy has disputed every outside assessment of oil flowing from the
> site.

Welp hopefully now that there is proof, they will get to pay for their
externalities.

From [http://www.taylorenergy.com/](http://www.taylorenergy.com/)

>Taylor Energy Company LLC sold its oil and gas assets in 2008 and ceased all
drilling and production operations. Taylor Energy exists today solely to
respond to the MC-20 incident.

Okay nevermind. Socialize the losses, concentrate the profits, the American
dream.

~~~
Ajedi32
So the company basically went out of business. Sounds about right to me. What
more could you possibly ask for?

~~~
opportune
It doesn't really seem fair that a company can return profits to its
shareholders for many years while being environmentally negligent, then once
it actually has to respond to environmental issues, it can just goes out of
business. One, those profits are basically ill-gotten gains, and two, you are
encouraging this kind of behavior by letting the people who received the
profits keep them.

I'm not sure how to implement this, especially in a way that's fair, but if
the company is unable to cover the environmental damage itself I think those
profits out to be paying for the damage before taxpayers.

~~~
nradov
The usual solution in other industries is to require all companies in the
industry to pay a percentage of revenues into a common insurance fund. Then
there would be a pool of money to pay for cleanup even after bankruptcy.

~~~
nojvek
Insurance is a pretty dirty word right now. Especially when they are for-
profit insurance companies.

US healthcare is a great example of insurance companies causing so much
complexity that people willingly chose death over going bankrupt.

------
la_barba
Link to actual report page: [https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/data_reports/an-
integrated-a...](https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/data_reports/an-integrated-
assessment-of-oil-and-gas-release-into-the-marine-environment-at-the-former-
taylor-energy-mc20-site/)

PDF: [https://cdn.coastalscience.noaa.gov/publication-
attachments/...](https://cdn.coastalscience.noaa.gov/publication-
attachments/nccos-tech-memos/NCCOS-TM-260_Mason_2019.pdf)

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saalweachter
Here's your bimonthly reminder that fossil fuels also create toxic waste that
lasts generations and affects huge swaths of the globe.

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yellingdog
[http://archive.fo/04vtS](http://archive.fo/04vtS)

~~~
bork1
whoa! This seems like an awesome tool to get around paywalls.

~~~
because_of_you
You using a PC? The link didn't work for me on my Android for whatever
reason:( Maybe it's the app I am using or something.

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yeukhon
If one day we run out of oil, someone would go back and ask “what if we
stopped all the leaks and perhaps we could have two extra days.”

I don’t understand and perhaps I missed it... it’s only 450 feet below. Why
can’t anyone stop the leak?

~~~
mulmen
It’s not a question of if they can. It’s a question of if they want to. Fixing
it would cost money and it’s cheaper to just leave it so here we are.

~~~
yeukhon
Cheaper? They could be selling.

~~~
hanniabu
Not for enough apparently

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m463
I would mention there are a lot of natural oil leaks.

A friend of mine living in Santa Barabara has said there's a lot of 100% all-
natural tar on the beaches there.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Oil_Point_seep_field](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Oil_Point_seep_field)

~~~
arrosenberg
Also had one of the largest oil spills in history -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Santa_Barbara_oil_spill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Santa_Barbara_oil_spill)

and another one recently -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugio_oil_spill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugio_oil_spill)

A fair bit of that tar wound up there because of human activity.

~~~
whymsicalburito
(Long time Santa Barbara resident) The tar that washes up on the beaches is
natural and not from those spills.

Also, if you need to get tar off your feet after a walk on the beach, baby oil
works well :)

~~~
arrosenberg
I went to the University. Baby oil was a necessity ;)

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jdlyga
Every hour, hour after hour

~~~
blotter_paper
work is never over.

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quasse
It's really weird how, if there's one thing that a large majority of Americans
seem to _hate_ , it's forcing companies to take responsibility for negative
externalities that they create by profiting off of something.

There seems to be basically no limit to how much damage the "America is open
for business!!!" cheerleaders will support as long as

1\. Someone is making a profit off of it.

2\. It's happening in someone else's backyard (This one is sometimes optional,
see the entire state of Louisiana [1] or flammable tap water in Pennsylvania
and NY [2])

[1]
[https://iaspub.epa.gov/triexplorer/release_geography?region=...](https://iaspub.epa.gov/triexplorer/release_geography?region=&REGIONINDICATOR=&p_view=USGO&trilib=TRIQ1&TAB_RPT=1&LINESPP=&sort=RELLBY&industry=ALL&FLD=RELLBY&FLD=TSFDSP&sort_fmt=2&TopN=56&STATE=All+states&COUNTY=All+counties&chemical=_ALL_&year=2017&report=&BGCOLOR=%23D0E0FF&FOREGCOLOR=black&FONT_FACE=arial&FONT_SIZE=10+pt&FONT_WIDTH=normal&FONT_STYLE=roman&FONT_WEIGHT=bold)

[2]
[https://www.pnas.org/content/108/20/8172.abstract](https://www.pnas.org/content/108/20/8172.abstract)

~~~
e40
You are 100% right and it has baffled me ever since I noticed it. Anyone have
a hypothesis as to why this happens/is happening?

~~~
momokoko
Because there is no social safety net. If you don't have a job you have to
live on the street. Companies have the jobs. When the alternative is seen as
living on the street, Americans see these issues with fear for their immediate
well being. The environment being destroyed is a far-ish off problem. To many
Americans, homeless could be a month or two of joblessness away.

~~~
gwright
What are you talking about?

EITC, SNAP, Section 8 housing, SSI, TANF, WIC, Medicaid, etc.

This site estimates over $700 billion per year spent on these programs:
[http://federalsafetynet.com/safety-net-
programs.html](http://federalsafetynet.com/safety-net-programs.html)

~~~
adamnemecek
The question is about the quality of life people have when they are on such
programs.

Also, it's not about how much is spent but how much people actually get. I
read somewhere not too long ago that if you divided the amount of money spend
on welfare programs by the number of recipients a family of three would be
getting $60,000 a year. This is not the case. Welfare administration eats up
the difference.

~~~
gwright
I just pointed out that $700 billion isn't nothing.

I'm well aware of the myriad of flaws in the existing programs. I certainly
wasn't claiming that the $700 billion was being spent wisely but apparently
that is what a number of people assumed.

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PeterSmit
Paywall

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billysielu
pay/privacy wall, why even bother posting this link...

~~~
bork1
If you press esc quickly after the text has loaded you can stop the
pay/privacy wall from loading. It might take a couple of refreshes to get the
timing right :)

~~~
bigwheeler
I can’t find the iPhone escape key

~~~
Fezzik
On mobile you can quickly hit the X in the address bar as the page is loading,
it accomplishes the same thing.

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sp332
"up to" 4,500 gallons per day. The two new estimates in the article are 9-47
barrels per day and 19-108 barrels per day. A total of 250-700 barrels of oil
per day might be flowing into the Gulf from various sources, so this is a
significant fraction but not a majority.

~~~
CGamesPlay
Without changing units to make the numbers seem smaller:

> "up to" 4,500 gallons per day. The two new estimates in the article are
> 378-1974 gallons per day and 798-4536 gallons per day. A total of
> 10.5k-29.4k gallons of oil per day might be flowing into the Gulf from
> various sources, so this is a significant fraction but not a majority.

