The spreading environmental fallout from the gushing Deepwater Horizon BP oil well is likely to continue throughout the summer, barring the discovery of a bold new idea for how to cap a runaway oil well. It appears that BP lied when it allegedly told regulators over a year ago that it had the technology to deal with a rupture resulting in a leak of 300,000 gallons per day. Clearly, none of BP’s standard responses are working. Even today, as they successfully placed a custom-made "cap" on top of the well, oil continues to gush from under the cap. 

It is now estimated that between 800,000 and 2 million gallons per day are spewing into the Gulf of Mexico unchecked, making this by far the worst environmental disaster the United States has ever faced. Containment efforts are limited to the surface, and BP appears to have no viable technological strategy for dealing with massive underwater plumes which may migrate by powerful underwater currents throughout the Gulf and the surrounding coastal areas.

Conservation biologists are now reporting the process of ecosystem contamination is well underway, as birds that eat fish caught in the contamination zone spread the toxins, when they die on land or are eaten by larger animals. So the technical response to the crisis must be more strategic than tactical, a widespread, multi-layered technological strategy, not simply one effort to deal with one aspect of the problem: the source.

We need new ideas, from wherever they might emerge, for each of the following:

1. How to overwhelm the massive upward pressure of the well?
2. How to cap the gushing well, pressure reduced or not?
3. How to execute the plan at 5,000 feet below the surface?
4. How to contain 100% of the surface oil slick, without toxic chemicals?
5. How to contain 100% of the underwater plumes, without toxic chemicals?
6. How to plan for site-relevant immediate response to a blowout?
7. How to clean up the oil in the water, without toxic chemicals?
8. How to clean up the oil on the beaches and in marshlands, without toxic chemicals?
9. How to protect coastal cities from oil arriving by water?
10. How to upgrade all offshore rigs to secure them against similar disaster?

Join the discussion to share any ideas on these or other technical challenges of the Deepwater Horizon disaster…

Sample ideas posted to date:

1. Marine scientist and conservation leader David Guggenheim posted this on Twitter: “RT @torrencesalces: would vol. ash pushed into hole encased in dissolvable mat’l form Roman concrete seal long enough to get more perm cap?” Could volcanic ash have this effect and allow for a more direct, more reliable way of temporarily sealing the well, or at least slowing the flow to a trickle, while a more complex technologically advanced and permanent seal were devised? 
2. Child prodigy, confirmed genius, and Drexel University engingeering PhD candidate, Alia Sabur, has proposed a very simple, very bold solution that could work to plug the blown-out BP well 5,000 feet beneath the Gulf of Mexico, depending on the structural specifics of the well itself. According to a report yesterday in the NY Post, Sabur believes it would be possible to insert a narrower pipe, surrounded by tires welded to it, so as to be airtight, but with an inflation mechanism built in to the well-plugging system. Hundreds or even thousands of tires could be included, to maximize the seal potential. Once the system is in place, and the tires inflated, the flow of oil and natural gas should be stopped, and a flow-control valve inside the smaller pipe could be opened or closed, to regulate pressure and/or extract oil if necessary or advisable.
3. Thanks to Steven Brower for sharing this discussion on plugging the well: “How about pouring cement (concrete) to plug the mouth of that spill ? Cement is heavier than water so it will sink, and it hardens naturally under water. The Romans poured cement underwater to build Herod’s port in Caesarea, Israel, some two thousand years ago, and it still holds firmly.” [Click here for more...]
4. From ABC News: “[Kevin] Costner has been funding a team of scientists for 15 years in hopes of developing a technology to clean up massive oil spills, and his research has created a powerful centrifuge that he claims can separate oil from water and dump the oil into a holding tank.”