Sealife returns to site of Deepwater Horizon

Native Orleanian dot com blogs about a trip taken last week by plane to photgraph the state of the Gulf.

They encountered leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles, whale sharks feeding, and a sperm whale. Click here to view more of the photos from that day, taken out the window of a moving airplane, but sharp and clear.

FUN WATCHING

Jackson Square Cam….a lot going on

 

http://www.nola.com/jacksonsquarecam/

 

 

The BP Crud

The Locust Fork News-Journal : "Thousands of People Along the Gulf Coast Suffer ‘BP Crud’"

An excerpt from the story:


The Washington Post was given an opportunity for first, exclusive rights to publish this story today, but took a pass “because of the complicated nature of this story and our concerns that it’s too early to judge the real health effects.”

bastards

When the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, Robin Young, a 47-year-old director of guest services for a property management company in Orange Beach, Alabama, was gearing up for what promised to be the best tourist season on the coast in years. From the city of New Orleans to the Florida panhandle, communities were finally starting to feel like they were recovering from the devastation left in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Ivan.

Since suffering a debilitating bout of what locals are calling the “BP Crud,” however, like thousands of other people along the coast due to their exposure to the oil and chemical dispersants, she is now part of a growing community of activists along the coast who are worried about their health.

Just a few days after BP’s oil made landfall along the Alabama Gulf Coast in June, Ms. Young’s symptoms started with “a fiery, burning sore throat,” she said. Then came the horrible, constant cough, followed by an achy feeling much like a severe flu virus — and a lethargy that kept her in bed for two weeks solid. Her memory started playing tricks on her, and her motor skills and even hand-to-eye coordination went south.


She started communicating with other sick folks over the Internet, and attending local meetings with corporate and government officials. At one meeting early on, she asked for a show of hands in a room of maybe 400 people to see how many had suffered symptoms similar to hers.

“Half the people in the room raised their hands,” she said in an interview at her cottage right next to the Intercoastal Waterway, which was polluted with oil and chemicals at the height of the disaster. Clearly, this was not some isolated event unrelated to the oil rig blowout.

Boston dot com photography

 Here’s a link to photographs taken by Boston dot com that covers Katrina-then and now.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/remembering_katrina_five_years.html

 

 

Joe Walsh -

In a true self confrontation of his alcoholism/partyism - musician Joe Walsh speaks for my generation. Well, the ones that partied.

Lovely Long Weekend

Hubby and I made the right decisions this weekend to take advantage of the low temps and humidity to do one of our favorite things - see how some of our nature trails were doing.

On Friday we checked out Lake Road in Lacombe. Anyone familiar with this area knows that Lake Road is a narrow gravel road with a few houses that is a fantastic place to fish and crab. The end of the road is called "Goose Point" and it offers a great view of Lake Pontchartrain and a skyline view of the city of New Orleans

Here are our pix


Crabbers crabbing


Sea birds enjoying the day....that pelican had a HUGE wingspan!


Here the pelican is "flexing" his wingspan

Here is a link to a FB friend with pictures taken the same day we decided to check out Lake Road in Lacombe.

After visiting Lake Road (former home to the BEST boiled crabs in SE Louisiana - Glockners) - we decided to head west to Mandeville for lunch and shopping.

During our trek on I12, we spotted a site something neither of us have ever seen


Both of us asked "why didn't they just fly the dang helicopter to its destination?"

Sunday morning we got up early to begin our trek at the Big Branch National Wildlife Refuge 10 minutes away from home in Lacombe, La.

This has got to be the most peaceful place I've found in my area. Let's let the pictures tell the story.












The kudzu - wild vines - has taken over a Katrina-killed pinetree and to me (because I'm getting ready to go to WDW) looks like Mickey Mouse.


Hubby finally got a decent photo of me (can you tell by my arms I've been working out? LOL)

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This was one of the most camera hungry dragon flies I ever met!!!! He/She spent at least 15 minutes "posing" for us.


Ooops, hubby took this picture on Friday when we went to check out the bridge across Bayou Lacombe on the Tammany Trace. I don't know if this was a parent transporting a baby or a dirty old man grasshopper having sex with a young grasshopper. Which ever, he did good, didn't he?


The Boy Scout trail is 2 miles one way and leads the traveler thru 2 miles of so many different ecosystems.

Hey, y'all this trip is free and is an easy jaunt. Your tax dollars are paying for the upkeep of this area and I must say that the money is well spent.

This is a trip for those willing to explore the other parts of southeast Louisiana that are NOT New Orleans.

Scuzzbucket of the Week

His name is Dan Hampton, a retired football
player who turned into a "sports analyst". Dan has all the class of a wild boar in his statement that
he makes in this video. Check him out at the 20 second mark



nice touch, Dan.

Is this WWII - checking for papers

Amtrak is "checking for papers" of passengers in upper New York State

Signs of paranoia circa the 1940's.
Scary

Corexit in swimming pools?

From Crooks and Liars blog (http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/corexit-found-swimming-pool-sickened)

This is disturbing news, via Florida Oil Spill Law. If toxic levels of Corexit are making people sick in Florida, that's not good:

“Our heads are still swimming,” stated Barbara Schebler of Homosassa, Florida, who received word last Friday that test results on the water from her family’s swimming pool showed 50.3 ppm of 2-butoxyethanol, a marker for

the dispersant Corexit 9527A used to break up and sink BP’s oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

The problems began for the Scheblers a few weeks after the April 20 blow-out. “Our first clue were rashes we both got early in May. Both my husband and I couldn’t get rid of the rashes and had to get cream from our doctor,” Schebler noted, “I never had a rash in my life.”Then, on “July [23], my husband Warren mowed the lawn. It was hot so he got in the pool to cool off afterward. That afternoon he had severe diarrhea and very dark urine. This lasted about 2 days,” she revealed.

Initially, they reasoned this was caused by the heat. The following week Mr. Schebler again mowed the lawn and went in the pool, and again he was sickened with the same severe symptoms.Suspicious that the pool may be a problem, the family set out to get the water tested. “We have a 15 year old and felt we owed it to him to live in a clean, healthy environment,” said Mrs. Schebler.

The Scheblers found Robert Naman, a Mobile, Alabama chemist who’s performed multiple tests (1, 2, 3) for WKRG Channel 5, also out of Mobile.“Warren collected a water sample from the pool filter on August 17th… packed the sample according to Mr. Naman’s instructions, and overnighted it to his Mobile, Ala. lab that same day,” she noted.

The results were delivered by Naman over the phone on August 27 at 11:00 a.m. EDT. A copy of the findings were then e-mailed to the Scheblers. To view the document, click here.“Naman [said] our pool water sample we sent him contained 50.3 ppm [parts per million] 2-butoxyethanol marker for Corexit,” according to Mrs. Schebler. Tests for arsenic came back at less than .02 ppm.

A July letter from four top scientists noted, “Corexit 9527A contains 2-BTE (2-butoxyethanol), a toxic solvent that ruptures red blood cells, causing hemolysis (bleeding) and liver and kidney damage (Johanson and Bowman, 1991, Nalco, 2010).”The safety data sheet provided by Nalco, the manufacturer of Corexit 9527A, warns, “Harmful if absorbed through skin. May be harmful if swallowed. May cause liver and kidney effects and/or damage. There may be irritation to the gastro-intestinal tract.

”Mr. Schebler’s “severe diarrhea and very dark urine” appear to indicate gastro-intestinal tract irritation.BP Press Officer Daren Beaudo released a statement on August 28 that reads, “Unified Command records indicate that the last date of use of the Corexit 9527 was May 22,” almost three months before the samples were taken from the pool.

Yet, the Schebler’s report is the second time in the last 10 days that the 2-butoxyethanol marker for Corexit 9527A has been discovered near the Gulf. It has also been found near the Florida border in Cotton Bayou, AL, at about 1/4 the level as in Homosassa, FL. A WKRG segment from August 19 featured an inland water sample that tested for 13.3 ppm of the Corexit dispersant.The question remains, how did this chemical find its way into the Schebler’s pool in such a high concentration?

“At night we would hear very low aircraft, including helicopters. We figured they were just heading to help out in the Gulf,” and Mrs. Schebler added that she was told, “The prevailing winds from the Gulf are easterly — and when they spray, it is airborne — and that we are right in the path of those winds.” It was also noted that, “We had a lot of rain here before my husband got sick, and wondered what was going on… We had been having daily downpours in July.”

 

Independent Environmental Sampling

LOUISIANA ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION NETWORK AND REPRESENTING ATTORNEY STUART SMITH CREATE WEBSITE FOR PUBLIC EXAMINATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLING DATA IN AREAS IMPACTED BY BP CATASTROPHE

http://bostonchemicaldata.com/LEAN/

For weeks, Attorney Stuart Smith and researchers Dr. William Sawyer and Marco Kaltofen have been providing evidence contrary to the federal government's assertions that the oil from the BP DEEPWATER HORIZON catastrophe is gone and that seafood from oil-impacted waters are not compromised.

Now, citizens can examine for themselves data compiled by Gulf Oil Disaster Recovery and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) at a public website maintained by Dr. Kaltofen's company, Boston Chemical Data.

"We are thrilled about this new resource," said Marylee Orr, Executive Director, LEAN. "This website allows anyone interested to see what chemicals were found, where they were found, and how much was found. We feel the public has the right to this information."

The website, http://bostonchemicaldata.com/LEAN/ provides oil spill data and mapping resources. You can compare where EPA, universities and independent labs have sampled. An individual must download Google Earth in order to view the site's various downloads and maps.
"This should be useful to environmental groups and the unified command," said Mr. Smith. "We've always believed there should be more transparency in this process."

Most recently, Mr. Smith's team has documented a large oil plume offshore of northwest Florida which is killing seafood. Samples have been sent to Canada for independent assessment.

"As state and federal officials continue to open Gulf waters to fishing, we have to again point to evidence that the 'all clear' is being sounded way too early," said Mr. Smith, who represents the United Commercial Fishermen's Association, the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, public entities in the Gulf Coast, as well as private property and business owners. "One of the cautionary notes is that our experts have documented that toxic chemicals remain in the water and food chain - and pose a significant health risk. Those studies have shown that PAHs (polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons) are present in shrimp from the impacted area. And the PAHs in off-shore Florida are at levels 43 times the levels of shrimp from inland, low-impact inland areas sampled in Louisiana. In our estimation, it may take eight months before the toxic soup has had substantial enough biodegradation to announce an 'all clear' on seafood."
###

________________________________________

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.smithstag.com
www.gulfoildisasterrecovery.com
www.oilspillaction.com
www.leanweb.org

Dr. William Sawyer: Chief Toxicologist of Toxicology Consultants & Assessment Specialists, LLC., Sanibel, FL (Registered d/b/a 1990, Incorporated January, 1994, 2009-FL)

Marco Kaltofen, P.E.; President of Boston Chemical is a Registered Professional Engineer (Civil, Massachusetts) and an environmental scientist with more than 25 years experience in environmental, workplace and product safety investigations in North America and Eastern Europe.

________________________________________

CONTACT:
S. Smith: (504) 593-9600 C. Brylski/H. Harper (504) 897-6110

FORGOTTEN BY FEMA

Here’s a video about Slidell 5 years ago

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/08/19/VI2010081903120.html