My cousin introduced me to a friend working directly on the horrific oil spill in the Gulf. I don’t know this man well, so I’m not sure, entirely, of his character, but I do trust my cousin enough to exchange a few emails with his buddy.

I’m not going to sugar coat it…the more I learn, the more I realize nothing will ever be the same. I’m not going to identify this man who “specializes in radio-isotope technologies to provide real-time diagnostics” in order to protect this source…but from time to time I will share our emails.

“Our way of life is permanently changing before our eyes. I’ve been in meetings all day in *city redacted* and it’s bad. Very very bad. I’m watching some lives feeds online right now and I can already see the hydrates forming. This latest attempt I’m afraid will be a complete failure. I feel sad for us, but I feel especially sad for my girlfriends 3 1/2 year old boy.

This is very very bad.”

And then this:

“I’m currently scheduled to head out to the *redacted* boat…which is currently deploying 2 work class ROV’s…
I imagine my goal when I chopper out on *redacted* will to be monitoring
the new lower marine riser package (LMRP) for hydrates. Hydrates are ice
formations created when natural gas and seawater combine in such depths,
pressures, and temperatures. This was what happened with the first
containment dome was lowered to the leak sight. With the LMRP I suspect
that the same thing will happen because the LMRP will not and cannot
create a watertight seal. I suspect that this package will freeze very
quickly. A couple years back I monitored a hydrate plug in a natural
gas pipeline in which we injected over 5000L of methanol into the
pipeline and it still took 19 days to break free and start melting. I
just can’t see their theory of being able to use methanol to prevent
hydrates in this new package being successful.

What does all this mean to me? This means to me that anything and
everything they throw at trying to contain the oil coming to the surface
will be a failure until the relief wells are finished. Do I think the
relief wells will be done by August like they are saying? Absolutely
not! With the upcoming hurricane season coming, and the pressure
problems they already encountered with the well when the Horizon
exploded and sank, I suspect that the relief wells will not be complete
until late fall or early winter.

BP and the government I think are doing EVERYTHING in their power to
try and contain this and stop the leak, but the options are limited. BP
and the government have the best technology and people working on this.
I’m confident with that statement. I’m just afraid that they DO KNOW
these techniques being tried will be failures but need to perform
anything available for the public’s sake. I’m afraid that we’ll be
waiting for the relief wells to be completed before the oil will stop
gushing.

Will that all being said, I hope I eat my words and they can contain
the oil with the techniques I mentioned above in a timely fashion. I
wrote this pretty quickly so I’m sorry for any grammar errors. Feel free
to ask any other questions you have, and I’ll try and keep in touch
while I’m out there and possibly get you some pictures from the onsite
effort.”

And when I told him I was freaking out…

“I’m freaking out too. I think everyone should be freaking out a bit at
this point. This oil that has leaked out already will impact the rest
of OUR lives for sure. I’ll keep in touch”

My kids may never play in the Gulf again.