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.

Click here to see photos.

“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.

 

 

Oilspill Graphic

Incredible graphic that gives you all the info you need on the oilspill, including the impacts to tourism and government spending.

Spend some time visiting this graphic. There is TONS of information on it.

Thanks, BP.

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:

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.

Oil Spill Activities-May 15, 2010

Events May 15, Day 26 of a Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began with an explosion and fire on 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 about 210,000 gallons per day.

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 .

Oil Spill Activities-May 14, 2010

Events May 14, Day 25 of a Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began with an explosion and fire on 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 about 210,000 gallons per day.

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.

Being taken for a ride

Something inside of me says that BP/Transocean/Haliburton and anyone else involved in the Gulf Oil Spill is taking Louisiana's citizens for a ride.

It's been almost a month since the explosion. Thousands of people have been yanked back and forth in the shrimp season open/shrimp season closed. Same with oysters, crabs, fishing.

I'm tired of BP's daily updates on what they've spent so far.

And I'm afraid that our fisher people are going to get screwed by big bidness, probably with the help of MMS. After all, BP and MMS have partied and had sex together, so they're good buddies, aren't they?

BP has proven their wiley ways by preying upon the Asian fisher people through provision of training in english, not considering that nearly half of their class of Asian fishers don't speak english. Where are you Spencer Aronfeld?

Our coastal residents are being told that the air quality is good, yet people are suffering from symptoms that weren't present three weeks ago.


I feel that there are more wildlife annihilations than those that are being reported.

I can smell a huge coverup.

Like Katrina, this is bigger than politics, but the politicians - outside of the affected states - don't care unless it concerns them.

It's very frustrating here, where hundreds of ideas come in on how to clean up the coast. Those suggestions cannot be taken into consideration until BP/Coast Guard approval. Anyone who's worked for corporate America knows how long the approval process is.

I'm at the point where I want to scream until my voice is gone.

Oh, and there's a lovely stench of oil outside my backdoor, mixing with the 85% humidity. Ugh.

Pray for us!

Oil Spill Activities-May 13, 2010

Events May 13, Day 24 of a Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began with an explosion and fire on 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 about 210,000 gallons per day.

HOW TO FIX IT?

BP engineers decided to first try sucking oil away from the gushing well with a tube that will be inserted into the jagged pipe leaking on the seafloor. Company spokesman Bill Salvin said BP hopes to start moving the 6-inch tube into the leaking 21-inch pipe — known as the riser — on Thursday night. The smaller tube will be surrounded by a stopper to keep oil from leaking into the sea. The tube will then siphon the oil to a tanker at the surface. BP could still use a second containment box, which would be placed over the well and also would siphon the oil to the surface.

THE BILL GETS BIGGER

BP said the costs for fighting the spill now total about $450 million — $100 million more than it was three days ago. The company said in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the tab includes money it has given to Gulf Coast states and the federal government for their responses. The costs also include efforts to contain the crude, ongoing work to drill a relief well and settlements. The company says the price tag generally is increasing by at least $10 million a day. A spokesman says the $100 million increase was likely caused by a lag in reporting costs.

SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS

The chairman of a subcommittee delving into what caused the well blowout said he wants to know why federal regulators gave permits to BP and the other companies involved for the well and rig. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., told CBS' "Early Show" he wants to talk to the Minerals Management Service. The agency enforces drilling regulations and collects royalties paid by oil companies to the government.

LIMITING LIABILITY

The owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig is trying to limit its liability from the disaster to about $27 million. A spokesman for Transocean Ltd. said a company petition will cite an 1851 law in asking for the cap. If successful, the liability limit would cap how much Transocean would be forced to pay if it loses any of the numerous lawsuits filed over the disaster.

A LACK OF REGULATION

A sequence of equipment failures likely caused the devastating Gulf well blowout, and it drives home an even more unsettling point: key safety features at thousands of U.S. offshore wells are barely regulated. Hearings Wednesday uncovered several breakdowns, including a leaky cement job, loose hydraulic fitting and dead battery.

The trail of problems highlights the reality that, even as the U.S. does more deepwater offshore drilling in a quest for domestic oil, some key safety components are left almost entirely to the discretion of the companies doing the work. It remains unclear what, if anything, Congress or the Obama administration may do to address these regulatory deficiencies.

source: yahoo news

Incredible Pictures

Boston dot com provides some hi-res pictures taken in the Gulf last week.

Top Hat deployment

Go here to see the pictures of the lastest attempt to quell the oil gushing from the ocean floor

 

https://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/2931/547099/