Unvanished

You know, for a "shoo-shoo" Tropical Storm Karen sure did kick up a lot of oil.

U.S. Coast Guard crews found a one-ton tar mat that was uncovered by the storm's currents on Fourchon Beach, according to Petty Officer Michael Anderson. On other coastal beaches in Louisiana, crews found about 500 pounds of tarballs scattered along 15 miles of shore. 

The oil found on the beaches will not be tested, but it is assumed to be residual oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

Or maybe there' just a lot of oil out there. 

Although this guy with the slinky says there's really not as much as you might think.

Using Blunt's estimate, BP contends it is liable for only 2.45 million barrels of oil, since Barbier already has ruled that the fines will not cover 810,000 barrels of oil that were collected directly from the well at the surface and taken to refineries, with the revenue donated to charities.

On Wednesday, several Justice witnesses testified that about 5 million barrels of oil flowed from the well, resulting in 4.2 million barrels for fine purposes.

Blunt brought a relaxed, classroom-lecture style to Barbier's courtroom, with the assistance of BP attorneys. At one point, he used a Slinky attacked to a mock-up of the Macondo oil reservoir to describe how waves of pressure emanated to and from the bottom of the well when it was finally capped.

Blunt said he rejected the modeling methods used by the Justice Department witnesses because they did not capture the unique geology of the reservoir and of other characteristics that he said resulted in a smaller amount of oil flowing from the well.

On the other hand, maybe we should be dumping more poison in the ocean before these things climb out and start coming for us. 

Update:  Here's what else BP has been telling us about these beaches.

Thibodaux's Daily Comet reported that over a ton of oil has been recovered in the wake of Tropical Storm Karen according to the Coast Guard.  The article is incorrect in that it implies the oil was discovered by BP crews during a standard clean up process but it was actually discovered by Wisner employees monitoring the beach.  This is important because this area, "Zone 4", was taken out of response by BP after they labeled it "clean" and that it needed "no further response".  Not that this was the Daily Comet reporter's intention but the article implies that BP is continually monitoring this area and that is simply not true.