Monday, September 20, 2010

The picture is NOT so rosy in the Gulf

From the website of the National Resources Defense Council regarding
Reports of oiled shrimp and crabs getting caught in some areas continue to crop up. Last week, New Orleans WALB-TV in Mobile, AL, reported crabs caught in Louisiana’s St. Bernard Parish were coated in oil after being brought into the dock for sale. According to WALB-TV, seafood dealer Kevin Heir of B&K Crabbing said they tried to notify state officials about the oiled crabs but no one ever came to test them. When he inquired why later, he was told a state supervisor had quashed it, he told WALB.

"We dumped them in ice water, picked the box up, dumped them on the table, and the smell like to knock us down," Heier said. "[We] emptied the box of crabs and the water that was coming off the crabs on the table was just like a sheen."

New reports and fisherman describe oil continuing to wash into the marshes and the beaches along the coast and bays of southern Louisiana. Last week an oiled baby sperm whale and a dolphin washed into the coast, according to fishermen and cleanup workers who saw them before they were hauled away by state authorities. What caused it? No one seems to have answers.


First we couldn't trust BP, then the EPA, then the Natiional Wildlife Agents, then the White House and now? NOW WE CAN'T EVEN TRUST OUR STATE OFFICIALS.

2 comments:

H.O.W. TV said...

Has BP started laying off clean up workers, or are they still there?

judyb said...

It's hard to tell by reading their press releases. From their 9/19 activity report:

By the Numbers to Date:

The administration has authorized the deployment of 17,500 National Guard troops from Gulf Coast states to respond to this crisis; currently, 1,001 are active.
Approximately 25,200 personnel are currently responding to protect the shoreline and wildlife and cleanup vital coastlines.
More than 2,600 vessels are currently responding on site, including skimmers, tugs, barges, and recovery vessels to assist in containment and cleanup efforts—in addition to dozens of aircraft, remotely operated vehicles, and multiple mobile offshore drilling units.
Approximately 670,000 feet of containment boom* and 9.66 million feet of sorbent boom have been deployed to contain the spill—and approximately 2.04 million feet of containment boom are available.
More than 34.7 million gallons of an oil-water mix have been recovered.
Approximately 1.84 million gallons of total dispersant have been applied—1.07 million on the surface and 771,000 sub-sea. Approximately 577,000 gallons are available.
411 controlled burns have been conducted, efficiently removing a total of more than 11.14 million gallons of oil from the open water in an effort to protect shoreline and wildlife. Because calculations on the volume of oil burned can take more than 48 hours, the reported total volume may not reflect the most recent controlled burns.
15 staging areas are in place to protect sensitive shorelines.
Approximately 110 miles of Gulf Coast shoreline is currently experiencing moderate to heavy oil impacts—approximately 99 miles in Louisiana, 9 miles in Mississippi and 2 miles in Florida. Approximately 490 miles of shoreline are experiencing light to trace oil impacts—approximately 226 miles in Louisiana, 90 miles in Mississippi, 60 miles in Alabama, and 114 miles in Florida. These numbers reflect a daily snapshot so that planning and field operations can more quickly respond to new impacts; they do not include cumulative impacts to date, or shoreline that has already been cleared.
Approximately 39,885 square miles of Gulf of Mexico federal waters remain closed to fishing in order to balance economic and public health concerns. Approximately 83 percent is now open. Details can be found at http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/.
To date, the administration has leveraged assets and skills from numerous foreign countries and international organizations as part of this historic, all-hands-on-deck response, including Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization, the European Union’s Monitoring and Information Centre, and the European Maritime Safety Agency.

Monday Smile

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