What Percentage Of the Gulf Of Mexico Has The BP Oil Spill Contaminated?

Updated:
July 17, 2010 - with info from CNBC.com
July 31, 2010 - with info from RushLimbaugh.com, based on Time.com article with other statistics

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According to the EPA's official site, http://www.epa.gov/gmpo/about/facts.html#location, which says, "... The mean (average) water depth of the Gulf is ~1,615 m and the basin contains a volume of 2,434,000 cubic kilometers of water (6.43 * 10^17 or 643 quadrillion gallons)....", or 643 followed by 15 zeros.

So the est. 90-180 million gallons (90-180 followed by 6 zeros) of oil that would have flowed into the Gulf from the BP spill, less the 25%-50% that they've skimmed/collected, means that the spill has contaminated the Gulf at around 0.000000015% to 0.00000003% of the total Gulf water volume... or as one analyst said, "One-millionth of an ounce in a bathtub full of water".  Another compared it to "10 drops in an Olympic sized swimming pool."  CNBC.com said, "it's like a can of beer in a domed stadium".

Yes... it's still bad and needs to be cleaned up but don't let the tree-hugging, environmentalist wackos... like Obama's supporters and many so-called reporters in the LSM (Lame Stream Media)... try to make it worse than it really is. Out of tens of thousands of wells drilled in the Gulf in the past 60 years, this is the first major accident in American waters and the last major accident in Mexican waters was over 40 years ago.

Look at my blogs about the 1979 Ixtoc spill that was around the same volume of oil as the BP spill and most folks don't even remember that spill as it cleaned up nearly 100% within a couple of years and that was without all of the technological advances and skimming capabilities that we have today.

And... besides all of man's capabilities, God knew we would cause accidents from time to time so He created oil-eating bacteria that are also attacking the oil spill on a "Natural" front.

Lenny Vasbinder

7/31/2010 Update:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_072910/content/01125109.guest.html

"...Well, the next paragraph begins this way. Well, the obnoxious and anti-environmentalist Rush has a point. The Deepwater explosion was an awful tragedy for the 11 workers who died on the rig, and it's no leak; it's the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. It's also inflicting serious economic and psychological damage on coastal communities. ... Yes, the spill killed birds -- but so far, less than 1% of the birds killed by the Exxon Valdez. Yes, we've heard horror stories about oiled dolphins -- but, so far, wildlife response teams have collected only three visibly oiled carcasses of any mammals. Yes, the spill prompted harsh restrictions on fishing and shrimping, but so far, the region's fish and shrimp have tested clean, and the restrictions are gradually being lifted. And, yes, scientists have warned that the oil could accelerate the destruction of Louisiana's disintegrating coastal marshes ... but, so far, shorelines assessment teams have only found about 350 acres of oiled marshes, when Louisiana was already losing about 15,000 acres of wetlands every year." So it's convoluted piece, ladies and gentlemen, but does point out that the obnoxious and anti-environmentalist Rush Limbaugh has a point, that it's all been exaggerated..."

Also see the five reference links at the bottom of the RushLimbaugh.com article, with links to Time, USAToday, NewsBusters, VanityFair and the AP for related articles.

NOTE AND CORRECTION:

When I first wrote this blog on July 14, 2010, I had the percentage range as 0.015% to 0.03% (mainly due to a math typo where my calculator wouldn't allow so many zeros and I forgot to add the extra six zeros back into the percentages), but on July 17, 2010, CNBC.com posted a slide show which included their own calculations which showed 184 million gallons as being ".00000002788%" so I'll presume, at this time, that my calculations were wrong and I had things much worse than they actually are... presuming that CNBC.com is correct. I will continue to look for other calculations to see if I was correct, CNBC.com was correct or if the figure is somewhere in the middle. I have now double checked my math and I have corrected the original post above to reflect the corrected numbers.

Here's the link to the CNBC.com slide so you can see how they use Cowboy Stadium and a 24 oz. can of beer for comparison purposes. http://www.cnbc.com/id/38294088/What_Does_184_Million_Gallons_of_Oil_Look_Like?slide=9  I found out about this link when reading the July 22, 2010 edition of the http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/ daily e-newsletter.

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http://lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com/search/label/BP%20Oil%20Spill, to read
all of my other related articles about the BP spill.

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