Day 85 Numbers

 

 From deepwaterhorizonresponse.com

 

By the Numbers to Date (7/13/2010)

:

·         The administration has authorized the deployment of 17,500 National Guard troops from Gulf Coast states to respond to this crisis; currently, 1,564 are active.
 

·         More than 45,000 personnel are currently responding to protect the shoreline and wildlife and cleanup vital coastlines.
 

·         More than 6,800 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.

·         More than 3.15 million feet of containment boom and 6.34 million feet of sorbent boom have been deployed to contain the spill—and approximately 892,000 feet of containment boom and 2.66 million feet of sorbent boom are available.
 

·         More than 31.4 million gallons of an oil-water mix have been recovered.
 

·         Approximately 1.81 million gallons of total dispersant have been applied—1.07 million on the surface and 735,000 sub-sea. Approximately 502,000 gallons are available.
 

·         330 controlled burns have been conducted, efficiently removing a total of more than 10.3 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. 
 

·         17 staging areas are in place to protect sensitive shorelines.
 

·         Approximately 550 miles of Gulf Coast shoreline is currently oiled—approximately 311 miles in Louisiana, 102 miles in Mississippi, 66 miles in Alabama, and 71 miles in Florida. These numbers reflect a daily snapshot of shoreline currently experiencing impacts from oil 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 83,927 square miles of Gulf of Mexico federal waters remain closed to fishing in order to balance economic and public health concerns. More than 66 percent remains 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 Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Russia, Spain, 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.
 

 

A little levity

July 10--LAS CRUCES -- It's not unusual for motorists to report a suspicious-looking hitchhiker to the police -- unless the hitchhiker is naked and running into highway traffic with a prosthetic leg on fire.

The 47-year-old Mesilla Park man is recovering at a Texas burn center after being found on the U.S. 70 bridge over Del Rey Boulevard just before 7 p.m. Monday, with "significant" burns to his leg, buttocks, his plastic prosthesis "and what was left of his sock," according to Las Cruces Police Department reports.

In addition to "the burnt remains" of his clothing, an officer also found a 5-inch tube stuffed with wire mesh, which appeared to have been used as a smoking pipe.

The cause of the burns, the man told police, was losing a drinking game for having "only drank a six-pack," according to the police report.

As punishment, his three friends set his jeans and his prosthesis on fire and let the material -- then his flesh -- burn and blacken until he "could not stand the pain of wearing clothes" and stripped down to his shoes, the police report states.

When he couldn't stand the flames any more, he asked for a ride from his friend's home on Butterfield Boulevard to somewhere near a medical clinic, since his friends "didn't want to take him all the way to the hospital because they thought they were going to get arrested," the man told police. His friends got nervous when he complained of his pains, he said, and dropped him off on the highway.

Before police arrived, the man

ended up throwing his cigarettes and wallet into the bed of a truck, whose occupants locked the door and drove off when they saw he was naked. (The motorist later contacted police to return the man's wallet.)

No criminal charges were filed against the men who set him on fire or left him on the highway, and the man told police he didn't once try to stop them.

"If they had lost the bet," the man told police, "he would have done the same to them."

 

Oilspill Website for public comments

Gulf Oil Spill Commission Launches Public Comment Feature on Website, as First Public Meeting Begins
Source: PRNewswire
PRESS RELEASE
Publication date: 2010-07-12

WASHINGTON, July 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Commission on the BP Oil Spill wants to hear from residents of the Gulf. To help, it has launched a new feature on its official website, which allows members of the public to make comments about how they have been impacted by the spill and offer suggestions about prevention and response.

Those   who want to make their voices heard can do so at www.oilspillcommission.gov. Details about the time and place for the first public meeting can also be found on the site.

 

 

Rolling Thunder 2010 - A Marine's Vigil

Waveland, Mississippi

Here is a photographic journal showing the oil spoiling the beach at Waveland, Mississippi.

http://andylevin.com/2010/07/waveland-mississippi-bp-spill/

 

 

The Talking Feds.mov

Oysters are all dead

HT: American Zombie.

Report: BP crimnally abused animals

Activist Files Police Report - Alleges BP Criminally Abused Animals

(New Orleans, LA) –The Executive Director of the Humane Society of Louisiana, Jeff Dorson, filed a police report yesterday with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Department, alleging that BP violated several Parish ordinances hundreds of times since the April 20th blowout of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig. The report alleges that BP violated the parish animal cruelty codes and the ordinances that specifically prohibit the exposure of poisonous materials, the avoidance of mistreatment of animals, and the littering of waterways.

"I realize this is a modest legal action in light of the crisis, but I hope it has a significant impact.” Dorson says. “Every time we see an oil-covered animal and contaminants in the water we are witnessing a crime and it should be reported."

Dorson backed his claims with information he gathered on three visits to the barrier islands in Barataria Bay off Grand Isle. His photos of oiled birds and oil globs bobbing in the water, along with statistical counts of captured animals injured by oil and the number that subsequently died are included in the police report.

The claim will be reviewed by the Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office where the decision on whether to prosecute will be made. If the matter is tried in court, hundreds of residents could be called to testify. Dorson says: “I hope they prosecute and allow us to testify in open court. We need to stand up for the tens of thousands of birds and animals who have been in harmed, killed, or displaced by this criminal activity," Dorson adds.

Established in 1988, The Humane Society of Louisiana is one of the state's largest animal protection agencies, with over 10,000 members and supporters. To tackle many of the issues surrounding the BP Deep Horizon oil spill, the group launched Operation Here to Help, which can be found on Facebook. For more information, please call 1-888-6-humane or visit www.humanela.org.

Surviving the Oil Spill

Louisiana Seafood Board Newsroom


A Gulf Fisherman Speaks Out About Surviving the Oil Spill
Posted: 07 Jul 2010 10:01 PM PDT
Pete Gerica is 57-years-old and has fished the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Portchartrain, north of New Orleans, all his life. As a 3rd generation southern Louisiana fisherman, there is determined grit in his words when asked about the massive BP oil gusher in the Gulf and pride in his profession as an independent Louisiana fisherman.

Gerica’s keenly aware of public concern over seafood safety but he points out that Louisiana seafood is under more testing scrutiny and inspections than any other seafood in America, and far more carefully checked than the significant influx of seafood from unregulated foreign sources.

Gernica has been catching drum fish in Gulf waters in recent weeks that are open to fishermen and has not seen or heard of fish tainted by oil.

Peter Gerica believes the lack of usual availability of fish and shellfish from Louisiana is attributed to restrictions on fishing, and that’s led to a false perception about quality.

While millions gallons of oil have poured into the Gulf of Mexico, Gerica steers away from anything that might sound promotional or self-serving. He talks about the research that is being done by scores of scientists and marine biologists and prefers to stick with the facts.

There is currently a significant shortage, he says, of wild caught seafood from Louisiana due to Gulf fishing waters being closed for precautionary reasons, and not – he emphasizes – because of any pollution of seafood. Louisiana fishing waters are a main source for America.

Gerica believes the lack of usual availability of fish and shellfish from Louisiana has shortages and that’s led to a false perception about quality.
Furthermore, he points out that tar balls in the water – now making for sensational media coverage – are nothing new. Tar balls have been seen on beaches and in Gulf and ocean waters for generations … and, as long as anyone can remember. Many come from natural oil leakage in the ocean floor, he says.

Gerica and his wife lost everything five years ago during Hurricane Katrina, including three fishing boats. They nearly died after being swept into a tree. He rebuilt and takes pride in the quality of fish and shrimp he catches, when available, and says that he’ll survive the BP oil spill … even though the end is not yet in sight today.

BP Gulf Oil Spill - Unreleased 60 Minutes Documentary PII

A request for help

From Pensacola resident Diana Stephens
A message that might help us "Fight BP on their own turf".

Who knows, it may work. Please read and send an email to Ms. Caroline Lucas (email in this message)

Got this reply from Rob, a UK resident, in response to one of my oil spill vids on Youtube. He suggest that we, the American people. contact a minister in the Parliment, whose platform is focused on the environment and Ecology. Since BP is a British company, I believe this is a great idea.

*** PLEASE be kind in your email to her. . . she is sympathetic to our cause and may be able to help get Corexit banned in the US. ****

Here is his reply:

"hi Diana,

I'm from the UK and have been watching this tragedy unfold with horror and sadness - my heart goes out to all you locals esp. the media over here has been useless in reporting the truth, which is to be expected with such a huge corporation involved. Very few people I fear are really aware of what's going on.

A huge worry and mistake is clearly the use of corexit, and I have been thinking about how to raise the awareness of the problem with the public. Seeing as BP is considered by many to be a British company, I think it's about time we got our government involved. We have one (yes, only one) green party politician who holds a seat in our parliament (for Brighton). Her whole politics is based around the enviroment and ecology.

I've been writing to others like you who've been doing an amazing job on youtube with the suggestion that you and as many locals and viewers write to this minister. Her email is as follows:

caroline.lucas.mp@parliament.uk

She is able to raise issues in public debate within the house of commons, directly to the prime minister and all of our politicians. The debates are also televised, so will go out to the nation and be picked up by the media. I don't know whether or not she is already working on this, but my view is that if she is bombarded with emails directly from you residents at source, then she will find herself at the centre of an ecological mission that her conscience will find hard to ignore. We can put this mission upon her in the nicest way, as she is quite possibly the most influential green politician in the UK.

I would like to suggest that perhaps the most pressing issues to begin with are to make her aware of the vile horrors of corexit, and urge her to request that the government force BP to cease using this chemical, and to accept the offers of outside help which they have so far refused, as after all this is now a global issue rather than a corporate one.

I hope you are able to co-ordinate as many emails as possible to Caroline - I really think there is a possibility of achieving something this way. Please pass this message on to as many as possible.
Good luck and all the very best to you,
Rob"


A short polite email - detailing what we have been and are going thru - might just help us. Please, send one to her. Thanks