The nightmare just keeps getting worse.
from nola dot com
May 20, 2010, 10:57AM
Oil is washing up on Elmer's Island off lower Jefferson Parish, a wildlife refuge and popular spot for bird-watching and beach camping, a Jefferson Parish official said.
Councilman Tom Capella said this morning that oil from the BP rig explosion has washed up on the island just west of Grand Isle.
Capella was traveling to the island to attend a 12:30 p.m. news conference with Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Jindal declared the island a wildlife refuge in 2008 and reopened it for public use for the first time since 2002, when a private access road was closed.
A six-mile stretch of beach, sand dunes and marsh ponds between Fourchon Beach and Caminada Pass, Elmer's Island had been prized for decades as one of the few road-accessible beaches in eastern Louisiana.
Update: Deano Bonnano - Chief of Homeland Security in Jefferson Parish - stated on WWL that during a surveillance trip over Elmer's Island a few days ago they spotted an oil slick and gave the GPS coordinates to BP and BP did not respond. They're thumbing their noses at everyone.
I have such fond memories of camping out on the beach at Elmer's Island. This is just sickening.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
time for this to stop
From a WWL radio interview at 7:20 AM 5/20/2010 (one month after the disaster that is killing our coast):
Billy Nungesser detailing all the run around he's been getting from BP, the Coast Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers
It's an emergency, we've lost 25 miles of marsh this week.
We called this in on Monday morning, 6 o'clock; as of this day, no one is out there cleaning up the marsh.
It doesn't take 3 days to get a crew out there.
The oil in Pass a Loutre is 1" in the surface, in the canes. Nothing will survive. Within 5 days everything will be dead. Its the
only thing holding the marsh together. 25 miles of marsh is dead.
If we would have started this 10 days ago (when we requested "permission" to build the berm) - if it was really considered an emergency - we'd be picking this oil off the berm. The Federal Gov't has us wrapped up in red tape.
If we don't stop it coming into the marsh, we won't need the offshore money. This marsh will
deteriorate so fast that the Grand Isle fisning rodeo will be held in Baton Rouge in a few years.
They want me up in DC Tuesday to testify. I replied in a letter saying I will testify about everything and I'm not
sure you want to hear from me. We'll talk about everything, not just what you want to hear.
Not expecting to get a return invitation.
BP has an opportunity to step up to the plate and authorize this berm today. There were a couple of birds
that landed in the cane while we were out there. They're dead. Everything in that area is dead or
dying, it won't survive. I pulled out one of the canes from the roots, it was already turning brown.
You can write it off.
The corps not equipped to tell us how to build our levees and flood walls. It's a crime to go thru these
procedures and we know what has to be done.
Oil Spill Coverup
From the huffington post:
When CBS tried to film a beach with heavy oil on the shore in South Pass, Louisiana, a boat of BP contractors, and two Coast Guard officers, told them to turn around, or be arrested.
"This is BP's rules, it's not ours," someone aboard the boat said. Coast Guard officials told CBS that they're looking into it.
here's the link to the story and a video:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/19/bp-coast-guard-officers-b_n_581779.html
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Oilspill Events May 18, 2010
Events May 18, Day 29 of a Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began with an explosion and fire April 20 on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean Ltd. and leased by BP PLC, which is in charge of cleanup and containment. The blast killed 11 workers. Since then, oil has been pouring into the Gulf from a blown-out undersea well at a rate of at least 210,000 gallons per day.
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.
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
An exerpt from website bellona dot org
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$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill,” say mixing dispersant and oil creates a substance more toxic than the oil itself.
Wildlife taking a beating before oil hits mainland
National Park Service Ranger Jody Lyle told Bellona Web that one oil covered gannet had been discovered and rescued on Ship Island earlier Saturday. She also said that, more generally along the gulf coast from the Florida panhandle to Mississippi, 10 oily Pelicans had been found alive over the past several days, and that five had been found dead. Two had been cleaned and treated and released back into the environment.
But Rangers from the National Park Service insisted to Below the Surface, that both the turtle and the dolphin carcasses had washed up on Ship Island more than a week ago. Reporters from Bellona Web, however, who had visited the exact site where the carcasses now lie last Saturday, contradicted that for Crisculo.
Barbara Groves for Bellona Web
The National Park Service has an agenda of its own – dead animals on protected beaches, and the spill at sea, mean a lean summer. But even larger environmental and scientific institutes on the Gulf coast are reluctant to draw any connection between the Dolphin, bird and turtle deaths and the spill.
Are dispersants killing the animals?
These deaths would not have to result from oil, say many environmental scientists. BP has poured some 400,000 gallons of highly toxic Corexit chemical dispersant on the spill. Though EPA reports on the use of oil dispersants remain inconclusive, especially at depth, BP announced that it will from Saturday forward continue to dump dispersants on the spill 24 hours a day both from boats and planes.
Those who have studied oil spills and cleanup efforts, like Defenders of Wildlife’s oil drilling specialist Richard Charter and Riki Ott, an oil spill expert and author of “Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: 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
From the American Zombie blog:
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.
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
On Tuesday, May 11, 2010, Plaquemines Parish requested from the USACO permission to build sand berms to protect their waterfront parish sites. Today - May 18, 2010 oil has been found close to the inlets of the marshes. The oil is heavy. Please email the USCOE and ask them to accept President Billy Nungesser's request to build the berms to protect the nurseries of 90% of the sealife in the Gulf of Mexico. Please.
Quotes - May 17, 2010
BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles:
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.
This morning I flew over the spill area and over the area of activity with Governor Jindal from the State of Louisiana... our efforts offshore are making a big difference now. The combination of the riser insertion tube with using dispersants and other tools. This was probably the smallest amount of oil i've seen on the surface since the effort began. The smallest amount of heavy oil i've seen to date.
United States Coast Guard Admiral Mary Landry:
We know that the oil has not entered the loop current at this time. There might be some leading edge sheen that's getting closer to the loop current, this spill has not entered the loop current. The important thing to focus on is the volume of oil that we have on the surface. It's being reduced as we speak and as Doug Suttles talked to you about in his over-flight.
(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.
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