oil slick cars

Just a thought for you gulf coast area opperators, when a hurricane comes thru the gulf onto shore you are going to need to be able to wash the oil off cars that falls with the rain.

Oil isn't going to evaporate into the air to fall again as rain.

MEP1 is correct. Oil does not evaporate at the same temperature as water. Try frying something in plain water and you have to keep adding more water due to evaporation. Do the same with common cooking oil and there is almost no evaporation. Same would hold true in our atmosphere without the added heat of a frying pan. Oil would have to be heated well above the air temperature of the Gulf region.

I think if temp ever gets hot enough to evaporate the oil, then we'd all be toasted before we ever get the chance to see oily rain. :)

I have some experience washing oil soaked cars. My wash is located near a large Ashland/Marathon refinery. Over the years they have had equipment problems that resulted in large areas of our city being coated with oily discharges. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=12485DF88EC2AFC0&p_docnum=229&p_theme=gatehouse&s_site=RCOC&p_product=RCOC

It was not a problem getting the oil off the cars and the end result was a lot of extra business. Marathon paid for over 800 cars to be washed during a 2 week period.

Oils didn't make your tunnel "oily"? You did some prepping before sending through?

I would think that the oil would be so diluted that it shouldn't be a problem. Even though this oil leak is clearly a disaster, the volume of oil compared to the volume of water in the ocean and atmosphere is tiny. We did no extra prepping and had no problems with oil in the tunnel.

When I see the oil on TV, I see the stuff in different stages of emulsion. Add a little agitation from a hurricane and I don't doubt it will be emulsified enough to carry into a storm. Think of a hurricane as a giant pre-rinse with a BAD, OILY drying agent. Won't be a problem to clean, just be ready for a ton of business.

Not to be an alarmist, but I think it would be a good idea to stock up on bottled water (those in areas affected by hurricanes) now before the "rush". By the time hurricanes hit the US, there probably will be another 100 million gallons of oil in the Gulf. How much of it will find its way into our water resevoirs and what affect it will have on animal and plant life remains to be seen.

This thread sounds like Uncle Remus or Chicken little has been taken to heart.

As Br'er Rabbit would say: "Ain't no tar babies in Panama City..so far!"

These two dudes look like they fiqured out how to cope with their beach
being oiled over....must be from LA or Texas.