Oil-Eating Microbes and the BP Spill
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-08-26/oil-eating-microbes-and-bp-spill
Oil containment boom on the beach at Grand Isle, Louisiana on June 10, 2010
Flickr user geauxlouisiana
A new study suggests mother nature might be cleaning up the BP spill faster than expected. Researchers found several species of oil-eating bacteria thriving in the submerged plume, but uncertainty remains over the threat to marine life.
Guests
Juliet Eilperin
Environmental reporter, Washington Post
Terry Hazen
Head of the Ecology Department and Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, the U.S. Department of Energy BER Distinguished Scientist, and the lead scientist on a new study of microbial activity in plumes of oil from the BP spill.
Richard Camilli
Associate Scientist of Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and chief scientist for a research team that first mapped the underwater plume.
Ronald Atlas
a microbiologist at the University of Louisville and past president of the American Society for Microbiology
David Guggenheim
president of 1planet1ocean, a project of The Ocean Foundation where he is a senior fellow
Comments
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Paul Mcqueen , Orange Beach Hilton owner reported on AP Wire service for help by anyone who could thicken oil because it was so thin that it was splashing over the boys and threatened 22 million losses.
I am a Veteran Chemist and know how t thicken oil. I sprinkled fumed silica, Cabosil M5 on a 2 foot oil slick in a lid and was shocked to see the oil attracted like a magnet to the silica and a silly putty type glob formed. I was able to pick it up with a screened kitty litter scoop and clear water remained.
I also tried Mt. St Hellens ash and it also clumped the oil. My suggestion is to use Icelandic Volcanic ash that is fumed silica to thicken the plume and watch it now settle to the bottom of the ocean and more importantly to absorb the glycol ether Corexit which is way more toxic to marine life than oil is but didnt run that experiment. SiO2 + H3C are ionically bonded and should ionic bond the Corexit dispersant.
Also if Silica is spread as corexit was on the oil as it rose to the surface, Kevin Kostners scimmers could pick it up and it could be used as fuel and the ash recycled.
Diane,
Please ask what microbes eat the microbes that eat the oil. If these oil eating microbes are not being eaten then pollution issues are greater when not having the biodiversity of others feeding.
Thank You,
John Nicholson
Arlington, TX
My grandmother had a small 160 acre farm here in rural Oklahoma. She had several oil comopany leases on her property. She had a moderate sized oil spill/leak on her property which destroyed about 4 acres of land. Her land did ultimately recover. It took about 10 years, but it did fully recover. This happened back in 1979. I would challenge youy or anybody to try to locate where this occured. Nature has a great way of recovering, and the Gulf will ultimately recover both habitat and marine wildlife wise. it may take some period of time, which to us may appear protracted. But, in the great scheme of things, it is but a blink of the eye!
Will these same microbes eat the oil that hides six inches below ground level in beaches and wetlands?
From Nell Williams, Rockport, MA Recently there was dialogue about creating an environmental agency such that it would include more scientists, more control outside the political framework, an authorizing body separate from politics. What have any of our guests heard in this regard?
I have been an analytical chemist when in theAir Force at Wright Patterson and at General Motors for 5 years, hold patents, and formulated a new hair product that is safe and designed to eliminate the illegal Keratin formaldehyde smoothing formulations that are also banned in Brazil due to death and several other nations. www.antidoteusa.com describes the history and what a revolutionary product "Antidote" is.
I hope this adds to the credibility about what I have experienced with the solition to the oil spill.
No one talks about the 500 million gallons of oil and how much of that bacteria can digest. It sounds crazy, and it distracts from the devastating effect that dispersant -oil will have on marine life.
I believe that by replacing dispersant with fumed silica that the oil will be ionically bonded and settle to the bottom of the ocean where bacteria can digest the oil-dispersant clumps as I demonstrated in a lid using my engine degreaser as the dispersant to emulsify the oil. Iceland can be studied for the ,I believe positive effects, on maarine life.Underwater aquariums to test
oil, and oil-corexit dispersant. and In the Cuban waters.This will immediately end the debate as to how to address future spills.
It's good to know there are bacteria who eat petroleum and release waste products of carbon dioxide and water so that toxins do not climb the food chain.
The information that bivalves (clams, oysters) are the most vulnerable category of seafood because of their filtering was also valuable information.
We didn't get a definitive answer about underwater plumes and dispersant toxicity, but maybe scientific research will eventually supply accurate answers.
Thanks Diane and staff for continuing to delve into something still mysterious and possibly concealed. One valuable civic asset is that you get people on record about these issues. Later events determine their credibility.