For the past several weeks I've been working on finishing up the last weeks of my semester at St. Petersburg college. In my Biology 2 class we were studying Wall Springs park and taking trips at Clearwater Marina. The number one thing we learned that causes loss of biodiversity is habitat destruction. We learned how important mangroves are to rookeries of fish and shrimp. We saw the beauty first hand of nature and the impact man can have on it. Then this happened.

On April 21st on the boat ride to visit some seabeds near Clearwater, I recall asking the biologist who works at Clearwater Marine aquarium what he thinks the impacts of drilling off the coast of Florida would be. Even with his sunglasses on I could see his face perk up in fear of what could happen.

Ladies and gentlemen, the worst has happened. What was estimated to originally be 1,000 barrels of oil let into the Gulf of Mexico is now estimated to be 5,000 barrels a day. That estimate has been adjusted further to 25,000 barrels of oil a day. Each barrel is 42 gallons, thats 1,050,000 gallons of oil every day released into the Gulf of Mexico. This isn't an oil spill, spills are finite and have an end, this is a river of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

This river is being released from a drill head nearly 5,000 feet down. This well represented the best technology humanity has at drilling deep. It could pinpoint a spot to drill over 5 miles down within a certain few feet radius. It was designed to work in depths up to 10,000 feet.

In 2001 the rig cost $350,000,000 dollars to construct. In order to replace the rig it would cost upwards of double that amount. It took 3 months to drill to the depth that the well is at right now and, in order to stop the surge of oil spewing forth, they will have to re-drill that same depth to redirect the oil. This will take close to 3 months or more. 90 days of 25,000 barrels of oil every single day.

This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2010.