And WHO is going to COMPENSATE them?
"Suggestions to stop Gulf spill rolling in; But inventors say BP ignores their proposals" by Michael Kunzelman and Mike Baker, Associated Press | May 20, 2010
NEW ORLEANS — A suggestion box or publicity stunt?
Oil-eating bacteria, bombs, and a device that resembles a giant shower curtain are among the 10,000 fixes people have proposed to counter the growing environmental threat. BP is taking a closer look at 700 of the ideas, but the oil company has yet to use any of them nearly a month after the deadly explosion that caused the leak.
“They’re clearly out of ideas, and there’s a whole world of people willing to do this free of charge,’’ said Dwayne Spradlin, the chief executive of InnoCentive Inc., which has created an online network of specialists to solve problems.
BP spokesman Mark Salt said the company wants the public’s help, but that considering proposed fixes takes time.
“They’re taking bits of ideas from lots of places,’’ Salt said. “This is not just a PR stunt.’’
BP said yesterday that it hopes to begin shooting a mixture known as drilling mud into the blown-out well in the Gulf by Sunday. The “top kill’’ method involves shooting heavy mud into crippled equipment on top of the well, then aiming cement at the well to permanently keep down the oil. Even if it works, however, it could take several weeks to complete.
“This is all being done at a depth of 5,000 feet and it’s never been done at these depths before,’’ said Doug Suttles of BP PLC, which leased the rig that exploded April 20 off the coast of Louisiana.
If the top kill effort fails, BP is considering a “junk shot,’’ which involves shooting knotted rope, pieces of tires, and golf balls into the blowout preventer. Crews hope they will lodge into the nooks and crannies of the device to plug it.
About 70 BP workers are taking more suggestions at a tip line center in Houston. The company plans to test an idea from actor Kevin Costner — a centrifuge device to vacuum up the oil — but that was not delivered through the suggestion box system. Costner, the “Waterworld’’ and “Field of Dreams’’ actor, has invested more than $24 million in developing the centrifuge invention, along with business partner John Houghtaling II of New Orleans.
Thousands of barrels of oil are still pouring into open waters each day, and some of it has washed ashore as far east as Alabama. Tar balls found in the Florida Keys were not from the spill, the Coast Guard said yesterday.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists said a small portion of the oil slick from the blown-out well has reached a powerful current that could take it to Florida. They said diluted oil could appear in isolated locations in Florida if persistent winds push the current toward it, but that oil could evaporate before reaching the coast.
Pfft!
Shut up, government!
The United States and Cuba were holding talks on how to respond to the spill, said Gordon Duguid, State Department spokesman, underscoring worries the oil might reach Cuba’s northern coast.
BP succeeded in partially siphoning away the leak over the weekend, when it hooked up a mile-long tube to the broken pipe, sending some of the oil to a ship on the surface.
Gerald Graham, a marine environmental consultant and oil spill response specialist from Victoria, British Columbia, said he suggested a similar idea at the end of April to the joint incident command center run by BP, government agencies and
“Why didn’t they do this sooner?’’ Graham said. “Why did they wait so long?’’
In the weeks before BP hooked up the tube, it tried but failed to use a four-story concrete-and-metal box to funnel the oil into a pipe and to the surface.
--more--"
