Domes & Dogpiles

 I am not an engineer but I have come up with some creativesolutions to solve really big problems in the past.


The Dome

1. Containment - the first step is the leak has to be containedfrom the rest of the ocean (think top hat solution). The problemis that the force of the leak is so great that its hard to put a cap in place. I suggest that what they do is build a dome aroundthe perimeter of the well. They could add panels to the dome piece by piece while they are taking measures to reduce the pressure.

2. Reducing the pressure - have several large tanker ships with pumpsthat are able to pump up water and oil and have them begin to pumpthe water and oil mixture from the area of the dome as you are buildingit. This will reduce the pressure on the outside of the dome by the amount of the water and oil that is being pumped out. We just needto reach the point where the pumping exceeds the amount of oil thatis coming out of the well.

3. Clean the water - since oil and water don't mix there must be a wayto seperate the oil from the water and then pump the "clean" water back into the ocean extending the usefulness of the tankers in place.


The Dog Pile

Here is another idea that is well a bit crazy - think kill shot but MUCH bigger...What if instead of being precise we just dump massive amounts of materials...rocks, sand, whatever, over the top of the well site....couldn't we drag up massive amounts of sand and soil from the areas around the well site andjust dump it on top of the area until the pile is so high nothing can rise outof the pile. If there are tons of material all over the service of the hole spillingoil wouldn't that stop the leak?



John Paul Engel is motivational speaker and consultant. He compiled the bookProject Be The Change which brings advice from highly successful people fromaround the world for free to parents, teachers, and students. You can get a free copy at www.projectbethechange.com. John is a Phi Beta Kappa graduateof the University of Iowa and he earned his International MBA from the Universityof Chicago.