Blogging from Slidell, Louisiana about loving life on the Gulf Coast despite BP and Katrina
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Oilspill Events May 18, 2010
INQUIRIES
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar caught sharp criticism from lawmakers Tuesday over the government's failures in overseeing offshore oil drilling. And he acknowledged his department had been lax in holding industry accountable. Salazar, in his first appearance before Congress since the April 20 accident that unleashed a massive Gulf oil spill, promised an overhaul of the agency that regulates offshore oil drilling to give it "more tools, more resources, more independence and greater authority."
Three Senate committees held hearings Tuesday. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen were also testifying.
COLLECTING THE OIL
BP says its mile-long tube siphoning oil from a blown-out well is bringing more crude to the surface. In a news release Tuesday, BP PLC says the narrow tube is now drawing 84,000 gallons a day for collection in a tanker — double the amount drawn when it started operation Sunday. BP — which puts the leak at 210,000 gallons — has said it hopes to draw about half the leaking oil. Scientists who have studied video of the leak say the amount could be significantly more.
FISHING SHUT DOWN
Federal regulators nearly tripled the federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico where fishing is shut down because of the spill. They had already shut down fishing from the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle, about 7 percent of federal waters were affected. Now nearly 46,000 square miles, or about 19 percent of federal waters, will be shut under the expanded ban.
WILDLIFE
Federal officials say 189 dead sea turtles, birds and other animals have been found along Gulf of Mexico coastlines since a massive oil spill started last month. The total includes 154 sea turtles, primarily the endangered Kemp's ridley variety, 12 dolphins and 23 birds. What they don't know is how many were killed by oil or chemical dispersants. Acting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Rowan Gould says the spill's effects could be felt for decades and may never be fully known because so many affected creatures live far offshore.
WHERE IS IT GOING?
Government scientists are surveying the Gulf of Mexico to determine if oil from the spill has entered a powerful current that could take it to Florida. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Jane Lubchenco says aerial surveys show some tendrils of light oil close to or already in the loop current, which circulates in the Gulf and takes water south to the Florida Keys and the Gulf Stream. But most oil is dozens of miles away from the current. Lubchenco says it will take about eight to 10 days after oil enters the current before it begins to reach Florida. But scientists from the University of South Florida are forecasting it could reach Key West by Sunday.
NATIVE AMERICANS
Like many American Indians on the bayou, Emary Billiot blames oil companies for ruining his ancestral marsh over the decades. Still, he's always been able to fish — but now even that is not a certainty. The oil spill has closed bays and lakes in Louisiana's bountiful delta, including fishing grounds that feed the last American-Indian villages in three parishes. It is a bitter blow for the tribes of south Louisiana, who charge that drilling has already destroyed their swamps and that oil and land companies illegally grabbed vast areas.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Miami's top federal prosecutor says the Justice Department is closely monitoring the Gulf oil spill but currently there is no criminal investigation of BP or the other companies involved. U.S. Attorney Willy Ferrer said the federal government's focus now is on stopping the oil leak and cleaning up the mess.
Too much coverup going on
Wildlife taking a beating before oil hits mainland
National Park Service Ranger Jody Lyle told Bellona Web that one oil covered gannet had been discovered and rescued on Ship Island earlier Saturday. She also said that, more generally along the gulf coast from the Florida panhandle to Mississippi, 10 oily Pelicans had been found alive over the past several days, and that five had been found dead. Two had been cleaned and treated and released back into the environment.
But Rangers from the National Park Service insisted to Below the Surface, that both the turtle and the dolphin carcasses had washed up on Ship Island more than a week ago. Reporters from Bellona Web, however, who had visited the exact site where the carcasses now lie last Saturday, contradicted that for Crisculo.
Barbara Groves for Bellona Web
The National Park Service has an agenda of its own – dead animals on protected beaches, and the spill at sea, mean a lean summer. But even larger environmental and scientific institutes on the Gulf coast are reluctant to draw any connection between the Dolphin, bird and turtle deaths and the spill.
Are dispersants killing the animals?
These deaths would not have to result from oil, say many environmental scientists. BP has poured some 400,000 gallons of highly toxic Corexit chemical dispersant on the spill. Though EPA reports on the use of oil dispersants remain inconclusive, especially at depth, BP announced that it will from Saturday forward continue to dump dispersants on the spill 24 hours a day both from boats and planes.
Those who have studied oil spills and cleanup efforts, like Defenders of Wildlife’s oil drilling specialist Richard Charter and Riki Ott, an oil spill expert and author of “Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill,” say mixing dispersant and oil creates a substance more toxic than the oil itself.
Why they're not using bagasse or anything else
Corexit is manufactured by Nalco of Naperville, Illinois, and its board is packed with several retired BP and Exxon executives. With that in mind, there simply isn’t enough money to be made off of biodegradable solvents that actually devour the oil, a source close to Nalco told Bellona Web. Corexit creates sludge, and hence sweetheart trucking deals to haul it off.
Listed below are the members of the committees of Nalco Holding Company's Board of Directors.
Audit Committee
Mr. Richard B. Marchese - Chairman
Mr. Rodney F. Chase former Deputy Group Chief Executive and Managing Director, from 1992 to 2003, of BP
Mr. Douglas A. Pertz
Ms. Mary M. VanDeWeghe
Compensation Committee
Mr. Douglas A. Pertz - Chairman
Mr. Paul J. Norris
Mr. Daniel S. Sanders retired in 2004 as President of ExxonMobil Chemical Company
Nominating And Corporate Governance Committee
Mr. Rodney F. Chase - Chairman
Mr. Carl M. Casale
Mr. Richard B. Marchese
Ms. Mary M. VanDeWeghe
Safety Health And Environment Committee
Mr. Daniel S. Sanders retired in 2004 as President of ExxonMobil Chemical Company
Mr. Carl M. Casale
Mr. Paul J. Norris
I'm very, very sick and angry right now.
From nola dot com:
Inventors say BP is ignoring their oil spill ideas
Oil-eating bacteria, bombs and a device that resembles a giant shower curtain are among the 10,000 fixes people have proposed to counter the growing environmental threat. BP is taking a closer look at 700 of the ideas, but the oil company has yet to use any of them nearly a month after the deadly explosion that caused the leak.
"They're clearly out of ideas, and there's a whole world of people willing to do this free of charge," said Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of InnoCentive Inc., which has created an online network of experts to solve problems.
BP spokesman Mark Salt said the company wants the public's help, but that considering proposed fixes takes time.
BULLSHIT.
Oil in Plaquemines Parish
PLAQUEMINES, La. -- 20 miles down the Mississippi River from Venice at the mouth of South Pass where it meets the Gulf of Mexico, large patches of oil stain the beach. Bright, slimy stains cover nearby rocks where thousand of birds normally perch.
It is the arrival of the heavy oil at the coast that officials have dreaded.
“If I had been standing up, I’d have fell to my knees,” said Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser. “We got the call first thing this morning from one of our boats. We dispatched a helicopter out there. And it’s our greatest fear. It’s coming into the marsh lands.”
Cleanup crews scoured the affected area, filling bright yellow bags with contaminated debris, which is taken to a station area where it is placed in special containers by workers wearing protective gear.
But the site of oil stained marsh grass is a big fear.
“This is extremely concerning to us, because this is really home to 30 percent of the nation’s seafood. This coast produces 30 percent of the nation’s energy,” Jindal said.
“And you still get emotional about it. This is where I was born and raised, in south Louisiana, and you don’t want to see an area that you work in, and that you care about covered in oil,” said Capt. William Wall of Pellagic Charters.
Wall took us four miles off the coast, where we found rainbow colored, thin sheens of oil surrounded by thicker crude oil, colored red as if warning of catastrophe.
“Places like this can’t be wrote off. You can’t replace this. This has taken hundreds of year to become what it is,” Wall said. “I’m very worried.”
Jindal said this state is using seven levels of defense to keep the oil out of the marshes, but the best bet remains using dredges to turn broken barrier island chains into a solid line of sand to block the flow of oil. He’s making preparations even as he awaits for permission from the Army Corps of Engineers.
“We’ve also asked the Coast Guard to go ahead while we’re awaiting approval of the permit, to go ahead and approve the pre-mobilization of the dredges,” Jindal said.
It’s the heavier oil causing damage to the marsh lands that has Jindal and Nungesser worried. Plus, when they called the White House, they heard more predictions of what could come.
“They’re projecting more shoreline impact. We saw some areas today with Pass a Loutre. They’re projecting other areas as well in Plaquemines Parish, between South and Southwest Pass,” Jindal said. “They’re also projecting more impact in the Timbalier Bay area as well."
“We’ve lost that small battle,” Nungesser said. “We can’t lose this war.”
Nungesser said had the federal government took action when the idea to build dredges was first proposed, workers would probably already be at work on the dredges.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Army Corps of Engineers - please email them
Quotes - May 17, 2010
United States Coast Guard Admiral Mary Landry:

(AP) KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) - The U.S. Coast Guard says 20 tar balls have been found off Key West, Fla., but the agency stopped short of saying whether they came from a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Some 5 million gallons of crude has spewed into the Gulf and tar balls have been washing ashore in several states along the coast.
Scientists are worried that oil is getting caught in a major ocean current that could carry it through the Florida Keys and up the East Coast.
The Coast Guard says the Florida Park Service found the tar balls on Monday during a shoreline survey. The balls were 3-to-8 inches in diameter.
Coast Guard Lt. Anna K. Dixon said no one at the station in Key West was qualified to determine where the tar balls originated. They have been sent to a lab for analysis.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Oil Spill Activities-May 15, 2010
CAPPING THE LEAK
BP PLC expressed confidence that its latest attempt to capture much of the oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico will succeed despite a setback late Friday. Engineers trying to connect a lengthy tube to framework on the bottom of the ocean had to bring equipment back to the surface, but have returned it to the depths near the well. They hope to begin sucking oil to the surface Saturday night.
UNDERWATER CHEMICALS
BP began spraying chemical oil dispersants beneath the sea Saturday and said the technique appears to be reducing the amount of surface oil. Louisiana officials have expressed reservations because spraying has never been done underwater, but the Environmental Protection Agency still approved the move. Fishing groups also protested the underwater chemical use.
DAMAGE COMPENSATION
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano asked BP to make clear in public if the company will limit how much it will pay for cleaning up the spill and compensating people hurt by it. In a letter to BP's CEO Tony Hayward, she noted that he and other executives have said they are taking full responsibility for cleaning up the spill and will pay what they call "legitimate" claims. Napolitano asked BP to say clearly if will ignore the current $75 million cap set by law for liability in some oil-spill cases.
BP SAFETY
Records and interviews show that BP also owns another rig that operated in the Gulf of Mexico with incomplete and inaccurate engineering documents. In February, two months before the Deepwater Horizon spill, 19 members of Congress called on the agency that oversees offshore oil drilling to investigate a whistle-blower's complaints about the BP-owned Atlantis. A former federal judge whose law firm served as BP's ombudsman — Stanley Sporkin — 2007 said that the allegation "was substantiated, and that's it."
Source yahoo news .
Friday, May 14, 2010
Oil Spill Activities-May 14, 2010
PIPE INSIDE A PIPE
Out on the Gulf, BP engineers were working on a seemingly simple but risky maneuver — threading a mile-long, 6-inch tube into the 21-inch pipe gushing oil from the ocean floor. Technicians gingerly moving joysticks to guide deep-sea robots aimed to place the tube into the leak. BP only went ahead with the plan after X-raying the well pipe to make sure it would hold up with the stopper inside, spokesman David Nicholas said. They also had to check for any debris inside that may have been keeping the oil at bay — dislodging it threatened to amplify the geyser.
UNDERWATER CHEMICALS
Federal regulators have approved another tool for stanching the flow from the oil spill: BP can now shoot chemicals directly at the leak, 5,000 feet below, to break apart the oil before it reaches the surface. U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said the Environmental Protection Agency approved use of the chemicals, called dispersants, after three underwater tests.
'A RIDICULOUS SPECTACLE'
President Barack Obama sternly took the companies involved in the disaster to task for their finger-pointing, calling it a "ridiculous spectacle." Obama said that during congressional hearings, executives for BP, Transocean and Halliburton were "falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else." The president said he will not tolerate any more of it and added that all parties — including the federal government — should be prepared to accept blame.
COZY NO MORE
Obama also pledged an end to the cozy relationship between federal regulators and companies drilling offshore for oil and gas. The president said a lack of vigilant oversight contributed to explosion and oil spill. He said federal regulators sometimes have approved drilling plans based on the oil companies promising to use safe practices. He said the rule from now on will be "trust but verify."
HOW MUCH IS LEAKING?
Obama said it's unclear exactly how much oil is leaking into the Gulf. But he said the government is ready to handle a potentially "catastrophic event." Obama said Friday that no one knows exactly how much oil is leaking because human inspectors cannot reach the mile-deep well head. He said he would not rest until the leak is stopped, the oil is contained and cleaned up, and people of the Gulf region resume normal lives.
'AS BAD AS I THOUGHT'
Vice President Joe Biden said the federal government's oversight of offshore drilling "was as bad as I thought it was." Biden was responding to a question about a New York Times story published Friday about Gulf of Mexico drilling plans that received approval from the Obama administration without the permits required under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Biden told Pittsburgh radio station KDKA he thought lax federal oversight of permits was a problem throughout his six-term Senate career.
HUGE TAR BALLS
Louisiana wildlife officials found huge tar balls littering the beach at Port Fourchon, south of New Orleans, some of them 8 inches across. Laura Deslatte, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said the glossy globs of oil were found along the entire beach at Port Fourchon. Workers from her department have not yet seen so much oil washed up anywhere else.
In Mississippi, officials were testing tar balls that washed up on that state's shores to determine if it came from the Gulf spill.
Source: yahoo news .
I want to shove bagasse down his throat.....

Tony Hayward, the beleaguered chief executive of BP, has claimed its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is "relatively tiny" compared with the "very big ocean".
In an bullish interview with the Guardian at BP's crisis centre in Houston, Hayward insisted that the leaked oil and the estimated 400,000 gallons of dispersant that BP has pumped into the sea to try to tackle the slick should be put in context.
"The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume," he said.
By the way, Bagasse is a byproduct of sugar cane and when treated with amonia has proven to be an excellent source of oil spill cleanup.
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