I realized they had to close the well slowly, in order to avoid a "water hammer" - the dynamic pressure that results from abruptly stopping a flow - and that causes your whole house to ring when your toilet tank stops filling. Swiftly closing the well could cause the well casing to rupture.
I'm a bit bewildered why they will open the well up again in order to collect oil, except as proof of concept. Whatever. At least we are finally getting a feeble handle on this problem. It took only three months to get the weakest handle on it - far better than the ten-month Ixtoc fiasco in 1979 - which is good, because this Macondo well is ever so much larger than Ixtoc ever was.
The environmental damage is almost unknown, except that it is likely to be ghastly beyond belief once we fully understand it. Still, as far as I'm aware, Key West has yet to be oiled by the underwater plumes. Where are those plumes now anyway? They won't be up to any good, wherever they are. I hope no news is good news.
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