Joe the Plumber (not that one) says he helped stop Gulf oil spill leak
A Kansas man says he's the 'mystery plumber' who influenced the BP containment cap design that stopped the Gulf oil spill leak. BP says Joe Caldart's sketch may have been one of many it's used.
Caldart's sketches, routed six weeks ago to BP and the Coast Guard through University of California petroleum engineer Robert Bea, are a near identical match to the design of a new containment cap lowered last week over the renegade Macondo well 50 miles off Venice, La.
"The idea was using the top flange on the blowout preventer as an attachment point and then employing an internal seal against that flange surface," says Dr. Bea. "You can kind of see how a plumber thinks this way. That's how they have to plumb homes for sewage."...
