http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/03/evaporating_oil_from_bp_spill.html Evaporating oil from BP spill likely posed a health threat, study says Published: Thursday, March 10, 2011, 5:58 PM Updated: Thursday, March 10, 2011, 5:59 PM Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune A new study about the way oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon accident evaporated into the air confirms that cleanup workers were exposed to high levels of airborne pollution, and that the fumes also may have made their way onshore in Louisiana. oil-spill-hand.jpgView full sizeTimes-Picayune archive The study does not attempt to assess the resulting health and environmental effects. The study's authors also found that the way fumes from the oil combined with particles already in the air could provide a major clue to the way harmful air pollution forms from vehicle and other exhausts in urban areas. Last June, scientists took air samples during flights over the vast area where oil was on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. The researchers found that 30 percent of the oil that made its way to the surface was made up of "light volatile organic carbon molecules" that evaporated within 10 hours. Another 10 to 20 percent of the surface oil was made up of heavier compounds that took several days to evaporate. The lighter compounds combined with particles in the air and were found in a narrow plume stretching from the Macondo well northwest towards the mouth of the Mississippi River. A much wider plume of aerosols associated with the heavier compounds was found stretching across the northern edge of the oil, also moving northwest with prevailing winds towards the Louisiana coastline. While the report does not directly address the environmental and human health effects of the aerosols, the results do indicate that offshore clean-up workers were exposed to both the vapors and the aerosol compounds, and that prevailing winds may have carried the aerosols onshore, said Joost de Gouw, lead author of the peer-reviewed report in the March 11 edition of Science magazine. "These concentrations were high," de Gouw said. "They are much higher than what you and I are exposed to in cities. We need to have a closer look at how these plumes of aerosol impacted people on shore." Some of those concerns will be addressed in future research papers by members of the same scientific team, which includes de Gouw, a research scientist with NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Research and Environmental Sciences in Boulder, Colo., other NOAA scientists and researchers with the University of Colorado, University of Miami, University of California-Irvine, Carnegie Mellon University and the National Center for Atmospheric Resarch. While the study does not attempt to assess the pollutants' health effects on workers or civilians, the differing evaporation rates support a theory that half of urban air pollution comes from organic aerosol particles from the slower-evaporating oil found in vehicle exhaust. "Down the line, we may have to reduce emissions of these compounds to improve air quality," said de Gouw. In urban areas, scientists have been unable to distinguish between the aerosols formed by lighter and heavier organic compounds because they're often also associated with heavier nitrogen oxide compounds, deGouw said. The BP spill provided a laboratory-like setting that allowed separate reviews of the lighter compounds -- which quickly attached themselves to particles in the air in the narrow plume -- and the broader area of heavier compounds, which took much longer to attach to particles and form aerosols. The federal Environmental Protection Agency in 2006 tightened its regulations of particulate matter to limit the amount of particles that are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller to 35 micrograms per cubic meter of air. It would take several thousand particles of that size to fill the period at the end of this sentence. Larger particles, sized 2.5 to 10 micrometers, are limited to 150 micrograms per cubic meter of air because they also cause fewer health problems. When inhaled, both sizes of particles can reach deep inside of lungs, resulting in health problems, ranging from aggravated asthma to premature death in people with heart and lung disease. Particle pollution also is the main cause of visibility impairment in cities and national parks. A podcast on this study featuring de Gouw is available on the web through CIRES at http://cires.colorado.edu/news/press/2011/gulf-air-quality.html. An abstract of study is available on the web at www.sciencemag.org.
Pics from a friend who is an environmental scientist. I've been out with him a couple of times on pontoon planes along the barrier islands. These were sent to him my a colleague. http://s291.photobucket.com/home/creekkeeper_2008#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ16 It goes for nearly 100 miles.:shock: They do not believe it is from Horizon. That's not good . Remember all that stress the floor has gone through releasing all the oil and pressure. Crazy thought , I know, but it could still very well sink according to geologists. Truthfully they don't know what is going on under there.o No: For the skeptics: we just saw a previous ignored fault line in a subduction zone slip and create 60ft. high walls of water that claimed over 18 thousand lives and crippled many nuke plants. I think our minds just can't believe what can REALLY happen. :sleep: What's that quote you hear on the news every day???? "You always hear about these thing, but never imagine it will happen to you."
Here are a couple of pics of the current slick. http://www.picassodreams.com/picass...p-boat-trawling-in-oil-contaminated-gulf.html Be sure to eat some Gulf shrimp this year. I recently saw a video of a cleanup crew member that was in the thick of the Corexit. She is dieing a slow death. She claimed that hundreds of workers are dieing or have died.
Not good.....http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/03/volunteers_work_to_repair_wetl.html Volunteers work to repair wetlands damaged by Gulf oil spill Published: Sunday, March 27, 2011, 7:15 AM Kari Dequine, Times Picayune By Kari Dequine, Times Picayune The Times- On a stretch of silt that feels like the end of the world but actually is the mouth of the Mississippi River, a small army of 20 volunteers planted rows of marsh grass and mangrove trees last week in hopes of reducing erosion and mitigating oil damage. The marshland around Pass a Loutre near Plaquemines Parish where volunteers worked Thursday is the closest land to the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded nearly a year ago, killing 11 men and dumping 172 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The plantings, made possible by a collaboration of coastal restoration enthusiasts, was the second deployment in a volunteer-driven effort to repair wetlands directly damaged by the deluge of crude. As opposed to planting cords of grass directly into the mud, burlap bags filled with a custom-mix of nutrients and oil-eating microbes give each Spartina sprig and black mangrove sapling its own "stability kit" -- a platform on which to grow, and a head start in a life faced with the challenges of storm surge, saltwater and rapid erosion, not to mention potential oil saturation. "The bags are really effective for revegetation in places where conditions are unfavorable, and particularly in areas heavily damaged," said Leslie Carrere, founder of Gulf Savers, a nonprofit initiative in charge of the project. Her assertion was confirmed after examining December plantings that were now clumps of bright green grass shooting out of the shallow water. 800 bags of saplings planted Carrere and P.J. Marshall, who together founded the oil-spill inspired Gulf Savers initiative, raised funds for the deployment of 800 bags on Thursday. Four hundred bags each held three plugs of grass, and the rest held the young mangrove trees. Carrere called Thursday's work a success and the result of "fantastic partnerships." Common Ground Relief Organization provided volunteers while the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries helped with transportation and logistics. Other contributing partners included For the Bayou, The Ittleson Foundation, Bayou Rebirth, and Sustainable Ecosystem Restoration, LLC. While evidence of residual oil could be found on the beach by simply digging the heel of a boot an inch into the sand, revealing a weathered dark mix of silt and oil with a faint petroleum smell, much worse vestiges of the spill were just around the bend, deeper into the marsh. Loud air cannons boomed every minute or so in an effort to keep birds from landing in the oiled marsh. The area, said Carrere, is an extremely important wildlife habitat and landing spot for migratory birds. Still working to remove oil Walking on boards on top of the sponge-like ground, Todd Credeur, who monitors the BP cleanup efforts in the area for the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, pointed out areas of heavily saturated marsh grass and described the efforts to remove it. With stems coated in sticky black oil, Credeur said there is a danger that as the river level rises and the temperature heats up, the oil will melt off the grass and get back into the water, and back into the ecosystem. But it is a delicate balance, and a lose-lose situation, said Don Blancher, a coastal scientist. If cleanup crews dig too deeply, they risk killing the root structure as well as create pools of water -- both actions which would accelerate erosion and destroy the already fragile and quickly disappearing land. Part of Credeur's job is to make sure the BP crews are not doing more harm than good. Carrere dug into the spongy sediment with a gloved hand. Just below the soft brown surface, thick black oily goo immediately appeared, and with each handful she dug up, the distinct smell that can only come from oil grew stronger. Credeur stressed that the boom surrounding the marsh must be maintained on a daily basis to keep oil from spreading. 'It's obviously not fine' Carrere said she worried that the rest of the country was convinced everything was fine and that the oil was no longer causing harm. "Based on what we're seeing today, it's obviously not fine," she said. "And it will require attention for many years." Leaving some of the oil may be the "lesser of two evils," Blancher said. However, "as long as we have buried oil it will remain for a long period of time, and if we make sure it doesn't mobilize and affect the rest of the estuary, it might be an acceptable tradeoff." The marshy, muddy expanse of land at the mouth of the river is not only a vital wildlife habitat but also provides crucial storm protection, acting as a crucial line of defense from the encroaching Gulf. Thus the sense of urgency cannot be overstated either, Carrere said. "We are losing a football field of wetlands every 30 minutes. And that was before the oil. We've got to start somewhere and we've got to start now."
Dolphins washin' up along the coast in big numbers... http://www.wwltv.com/news/Dozens-of-dead-dolphins-washing-up-on-shores-of-Gulf-Coast-117108088.html Pres. Obama issues gag order over dead dolphins.... wonder why???? Obama Administration Restricts Findings on Gulf's Dead Dolphins Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:25 CDT Print Lynn Herrmann Digital Journal dolphin Unknown Biloxi - The Obama administration has issued a gag order on data over the recent spike of dead dolphins, including many stillborn infants, washing up on Mississippi and Alabama shorelines, and scientists say the restriction undermines the scientific process. An abnormal dolphin mortality this year along the Gulf coast has become part of a federal criminal investigation over last year's BP oil spill disaster and as a result, has led the US government to clamp down on biologists' findings, with orders to keep the results confidential. The dolphin die-off, labeled an "unusual mortality event (UME)," resulted in wildlife biologists being contracted by the National Marine Fisheries Service to record the recent spike in dolphin deaths by collecting tissue samples and specimens for the agency, but late last month were privately ordered to keep their results under wraps. Reuters has obtained a copy of the agency letter that states, in part: "Because of the seriousness of the legal case, no data or findings may be released, presented or discussed outside the UME investigative team without prior approval." One biologist involved with tracking dolphin mortalities for over 20 years and speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters that: "It throws accountability right out the window. We are confused and ... we are angry because they claim they want teamwork, but at the same time they are leaving the marine experts out of the loop completely." Some scientists said they have received a personal rebuke from government officials about "speaking out of turn" to the media over attempts at determining the dolphins' deaths. Additionally, these scientists say the collected specimens and samples are being turned over to the government for evaluation under a deal that omits independent scientists from the final results of lab tests. Almost 200 dead bottlenose dolphin bodies have been found since mid-January through this week along shorelines of Gulf coast states, including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, Reuters notes. About half of the carcasses are newborns or stillborn infants. That number is around 14 times the average numbers recorded during the same time frame between 2002 and 2007 and has coincidentally occurred during the first calving season since the BP Deepwater Horizon debacle last year in the Gulf. Although many of the dolphin specimens recently collected show no outward signs of oil contamination, lab analysis is crucial in helping to determine their deaths. Some experts believe the recent surge of deaths is the result of dolphins inhaling or ingesting oil during the oil spill, the results of which are just now beginning to show their toll, including a possible upsurge in dolphin miscarriages. The recent spike in dolphin deaths has compounded the dolphin mortality problem, as scientists were already busy attempting to determine the deaths of nearly 90 dead dolphins, mostly adults, that washed up along the US Gulf coast during the weeks and months after the BP disaster. Some are questioning the Marine Fisheries Service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and its delay in providing dolphin samples to laboratories. "It is surprising that it has been almost a full year since the spill, and they still haven't selected labs for this kind of work," said Ruth Carmichael, of the independent Dauphin Island Sea Lab, located in Alabama, according to Reuters. "I can only hope that this process is a good thing. I just don't know. This is an unfortunate situation," she added. Officials with the NOAA state the confidentiality measures are an integral part of the current investigation over the BP oil spill. "We are treating the evidence, which are the dolphin samples, like a murder case," said Dr. Erin Fougeres, a Fisheries Service marine biologist, Reuters notes. "The chain of custody is being closely watched. Every dolphin sample is considered evidence in the BP case now," she added.
The dead marine life and tarballs are being cleaned up at night along Miss. and Fla.. No pics are allowed to be taken, it is Spring Break you know. Maybe there is a crack in the Gulf floor like a scientist was claiming. The scientist making the claim was murdered BTW.
Well the sheen (or most of it) from last week was from ANOTHER well being capped. They claim they lost ONE GALLON!!!!! Then upped it to 2!!!!!! It also comes from the river itself which is rising right now, bringing all that good run-off from half the country.... New evidence shows frantic Gulf oil spill repairs may have made things worse Published: Monday, March 28, 2011, 10:30 PM David Hammer, The Times-Picayune By David Hammer, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune Buried deep in a 551-page technical forensic report lies new evidence that BP and the U.S. government, in their frantic attempts to get mechanisms working to stop the Gulf oil gusher last April, may have inadvertently made the situation far worse. blowout-preventer-oil-leak.jpgView full sizeThe federal government estimated that 62,000 barrels of oil a day gushed out of the well, slackening to 53,000 barrels a day in mid-July. BP estimated the leak at 5,000 barrels a day in the first month. When industry experts and government overseers finally got part of the busted well's blowout preventer to work nine days after the accident, they opened a new, larger path for oil to flow, according to the report by forensic examiners at Norway-based Det Norske Veritas. The finding raises questions about whether the flow of oil might have been smaller at the start of the disaster, something BP has long argued as it disputes government estimates of how much crude was spilled. Read the report In August, a team of government scientists estimated that 4.9 million barrels of oil gushed out of the well based on a starting flow rate of 62,000 barrels of oil a day, decreasing as pressure in the underground reservoir slackened to a final rate of 53,000 barrels a day in mid-July. That's a far cry from the 1,000 barrels a day BP offered as a best guess April 25 or the 5,000-barrel figure it reported for the first month of the spill, and federal investigators are considering possible charges against BP officials for making false statements to government agents about this key piece of information. Settling on the rate of flow during the whole 87-day ordeal also remains important because every barrel of oil spilled translates into fines -- likely totaling billions of dollars -- for BP and its contractors on the Macondo well project. That, however, was probably not weighing heavily on the minds of experts from BP and its contractors, mainly rig owner Transocean, who gathered on shore in the days immediately after the accident, trying to find any way they could to get the blowout preventer, or BOP, to work. The BOP, a five-story-tall stack of valves and "rams," is designed to slice across pipes and cut off oil flow in cases of emergency. It was sitting atop the busted well as engineers tried desperately to use remotely operated submarines to stab into the machinery and get the sealing devices to work. When the blowout first happened, some seals at the bottom of the BOP actually did work: They closed around the drill pipe and made sure the oil, gas and sediment shooting up under intense pressure had only one pathway -- through the 5.5-inch drill pipe, and not the much larger wellbore, which is about 15 inches in diameter. Separate mechanisms about halfway up the BOP, called blind shear rams, were supposed to slice through the pipe and also use seals to shut it off. But they simply didn't work. Government-hired forensic examiners would later find that because the drill pipe had been knocked off-center in the blast, the blind shear rams' slicers got only a partial cut; the rams' rubber seals left a 2-inch gap for the flow to continue. On April 29, nine days after the blowout, the engineers finally had some success, with yet another set of slicers, called the casing shear rams. These rams cut the drill pipe. But there was one big problem: These rams, by design, have no seals. They just slice. The hydrocarbons now could flow through the full width of the wellbore. Oil, gas and rock battered the underside of the blind shear ram for the next 78 days, eroding it and creating larger pathways for the oil to escape. Det Norske Veritas, the Norwegian firm hired to examine the BOP on federal investigators' behalf, did not attempt to figure out how cutting the drill pipe on April 29 might have affected the rate of oil flowing into the sea. But their report says the impact was clearly in evidence: "After the (blind shear ram) was activated and closed on the off-center drill pipe, the well flow was concentrated through the partially sheared drill pipe .... This concentrated flow condition remained until the (casing shear rams) were activated ... shearing the drill pipe. This created a new flow condition that was no longer concentrated ...." That almost certainly would have increased the rate of flow, according to several independent engineers consulted by The Times-Picayune. Bob Bea, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at University of California at Berkeley who specializes in drilling risk management, was the head of a group of scientists that investigated the causes of the BP blowout in detail. He said that while the velocity of the oil and gas shooting up from deep below would have stayed relatively constant, the total amount of crude coming out into the sea would have increased when the area in the BOP through which it could flow got larger. That's true, said Benton Baugh, president of Radoil Tool Company Inc. in Houston. But Baugh, who has 50 years of experience in subsea engineering, added that the shear rams would have eventually eroded so much through the original 2-inch gap that the rate of flow would have ended up being the same. Opening the larger path "may have sped things up a couple of days, but I wouldn't see it as a serious contribution overall," he said. "In a 90-day blowout like this, that would have been incidental." Baugh said it's hard to criticize the responding engineers for activating the casing shear rams. "I would think they were trying all the operations they had available," he said. "Maybe that was an option better not used, but hindsight is 20-20." Bea and Baugh both said the forensic report makes it clear that the industry must update its BOPs. Devices like the 2001 model used by Deepwater Horizon were not designed to deal with the ultra-intense forces of a well like Macondo, and a bent pipe is just one scenario that can defeat a BOP, Bea said. He wants these design problems addressed before BOPs can be considered reliable enough for ultra-deepwater drilling.
This video was taken from one of the responding ships. It looks like we know why no bodies were recovered...... CAUTION!!!!!! LANGUAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mTAt494iY-w&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mTAt494iY-w&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>
Blowout preventer findings disputed Exec knocks theory on why device failed Saturday, April 09, 2011 By David Hammer Staff writer A top executive at the company that built the Deepwater Horizon's blowout preventer expressed major doubts Friday about recent theories as to why the massive subsea device failed to shut off BP's blown-out Gulf oil well last year. David McWhorter, Cameron International's vice president for engineering and quality control, spent several months helping advise the forensic examiners who were hired by the government to inspect his company's failed blowout preventer, or BOP. But he said during testimony before a federal investigative panel in Metairie on Friday that he had major questions about those forensic findings. The findings were released two weeks ago by Det Norske Veritas, a Norwegian company hired by federal investigators to produce what was essentially a coroner's report to help government agencies figure out what stopped the BOP from shutting off the worst oil gusher in American history. Advertisement Det Norske Veritas concluded that oil and gas shooting up through a 5.5-inch drill pipe at extremely high pressures caused the pipe to bend, knocking it off-center in the middle of the BOP. Without a centered pipe, the device couldn't use its powerful slicing rams to cut and seal the pipe shut. The implication of those findings is that the blowout preventer wasn't designed by Cameron to handle such intense emergency conditions. Cameron said it built the BOP to industry standards, but those standards never conceived of a bowed pipe. And standardized tests of BOPs never included a check to see whether the rams could cut off-center pipe. But under questioning earlier this week, Det Norske Veritas officials acknowledged that they had no physical evidence of the pipe bending and that the elastic bowing of the pipe was simply their theory of what happened based on modeling. Seizing on that, McWhorter faulted the examiners for not presenting several other things that he believes could have gone wrong to prevent the rams from cutting properly -- things that wouldn't have required the pipe to bend and would have resulted from poor maintenance of the blowout preventer's components by the rig's owner, Transocean. The Cameron executive questioned whether there could have been enough pressure to buckle the pipe, which by Det Norske Veritas' own calculations, would have required an incredible 113,000 pounds per square inch of force. McWhorter said the examiners also ignored the possibility that the critical blind shear rams didn't work because there simply wasn't enough power to get them to close fully. He said a normal level of 1,500 psi might have initially triggered the rams instead of the much higher triggering pressures that should have been employed in an emergency. "If that happened, it would not have been enough force to cut the pipe (even if centered)," McWhorter said. "It's possible then that the pipe was only dented, not sheared all the way through." He said hydraulic controls might also have simply "not been up to the game that day." And he noted that the "deadman" function that is supposed to automatically close the rams and disconnect the rig from the well when hydraulics, electricity and communications are all lost can be manually armed or disarmed. He suggested it wouldn't have worked if it wasn't armed when the blowout happened, but he didn't know whether it was or was not. There has been no testimony or investigative findings indicating whether the "deadman" was armed on the Deepwater Horizon that day. Investigators did find that a solenoid valve that helps trigger emergency closure of the BOP's rams worked only intermittently during later testing. That, McWhorter said, also could have yielded a partial closure of the blind shear rams even if the pipe had been properly centered. It's been difficult for investigators to get a clear picture of why the "fail-safe" mechanisms in the BOP didn't work, or, for that matter, when various functions of the BOP activated. Specialists spent two weeks after the explosions trying to get rams and valves to work using remote-controlled submarines, which meant the blowout preventer was not in the same position as it was on April 20, by the time it was brought to the surface in September. Also, people opened and closed valves and rams in the BOP when it was first brought to the surface and was still on a ship. That again moved devices before the forensic examiners had begun their review, which started when the BOP stack got to the NASA facility at Michoud in New Orleans. Videos of valves and rams being opened on the ship were posted on YouTube in September. McWhorter said Det Norske Veritas didn't take all of that tinkering into account when it made assumptions about what conditions and positions the various BOP components were in during the emergency. The Marine Board of Investigation panel of three Coast Guard officials and three Interior Department officials completed its seventh session of hearings with McWhorter's testimony Friday. The panel must produce a final report by July 27 detailing what caused the disaster and analyzing the effectiveness of the immediate response. http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-16/130233062238070.xml&coll=1
OK big rant: This got my blood boiling again........ BP Buys East Beach Of Cat Island Oil Giant Plans To Use Land To Help With Cleanup GULFPORT, Miss. -- A spokesman for BP says the company has bought part of Cat Island that includes the east-facing beach. BP spokesman Ray Melick told The Sun Herald that the land was bought from the Boddie family, which owes a large area of the barrier island in the Mississippi Gulf. The purchase price was not revealed. The island is shaped like a T, with the east-facing beach being the top of the T. Melick said the company hasn't decided what it will do with the land, but the purchase will help it expedite cleanup of the islands in the wake of the BP oil spill. Cat Island is 2,000 acres, named for raccoons mistaken for cats by early explorers. " See the reason is that my family has been fighting the Government for DECADES for the return of the island to us.:blast: When we were under Spanish rule (around 1770) the King gave my ancestors the land for helping out then governor Ulloa in keeping the peace at that time after an uprising that led to the execution of several people.:shock: It's also under Galvez other family helped hm fight the British years later in Baton Rouge and Pensacola for the AMERICAN REVOLUTION!!!!!!!!!:idea2: How's that for irony???? Oh yeah, I'm also Cherokee.... If you're gonna get screwed, get screwed before everyone else I guess....:TU: P.S. One lil' historical tidbit: During WWII they used the island to training dogs to attack just Japanese by using Japanese American volunteers. It was a Army (?) base back then.
You should take a gander at this J pop. Enlightening if true.:dollar: http://www.pakalertpress.com/2011/01/19/rothschilds-and-the-war-on-the-gulf-of-mexico/
Are they playing the fake BP commercials on your TV's? They constantly play commercials that show fake business owners talking about how BP helped them, and how BP cleaned everything up, and that business is better than ever. Edit: Found one on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbqjOiCJEGM Sounds like they should have used bigger pipe.
This is a good read of how people are being dealt with........ P.S. Just found out my Vangaurd portfolio has beaucoup BP stock... Longtime oil industry champion now calls BP liars, almost a year after oil spillPublished: Sunday, April 10, 2011, 7:00 AM Bob Marshall, The Times-Picayune By Bob Marshall, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune A year after the Deepwater Horizon exploded 60 miles south of his Buras hunting and fishing lodge, Ryan Lambert can distill his opinion of BP and the oil industry down to one word: Liars. Ryan Lambert After the Oil Spill Enlarge Ted Jackson, The Times-Picayune TED JACKSON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Ryan Lambert, owner of Cajun Fishing Adventures Lodge, one of the state's largest is furious with BP for not paying out claims. For his peak spring-summer season, business was down 94 percent from his average, a drop he says eventually cost him $1.1million. To help hedge his bets, he has gone into partnership in Willowdale Country Club in Luling, trying to bring it back from the brink, and looks over the fairways and ponds Thursday, April 7, 2011. It's an opinion he never thought he'd have. "The fishing industry has always lived side-by-side with the oil industry down here in Plaquemines Parish, and they've always told us that if anything happened, they would take care of the problem -- they would repair the damages and they would make us whole -- and I believed them," said Lambert, whose Cajun Fishing Adventures Lodge is one of the state's largest. "Well, they lied. About everything. They didn't take care of the problem, and they're not taking care of us. Guys in my business weren't made whole. A lot of them are starving. And now that the national media is gone, BP couldn't care less. "I'm sick of it, and I'm telling the whole country about it -- on national TV, in magazines and in front of Congress." As soon as BP's flood of crude oil began flowing toward the coast last year, Lambert, 52, knew change would rock the business he had spent nearly half his life building into a regional powerhouse. He expected his income to plummet, and it did; the peak spring-summer season was down 94 percent from his average, a drop he says cost him $1.1 million. He expected the 22 families that depend on his business for their livelihoods -- a lodge staff of eight, plus 14 guides -- to take a financial wallop, and they did. Only five of the guides were hired in the cleanup effort. The rest were "calling me daily hoping for work -- which I still don't have for them," he said. He expected the economic hangover to carry into 2011, and it has; his bookings for May and June are down 55 percent from a normal year, and he has nothing beyond that. But two changes occurred he never saw coming. First, the help BP said was on the way to repair damages inflicted on businesses and the environment never came, he said. A trust turned upside-down That event led to a second unanticipated change: His long trust in the oil industry and skepticism of environmental groups was turned upside-down. He has become a willing volunteer for national green groups, among them the National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Ducks Unlimited, The Green Group and the Izaak Walton league. In fact, on Sunday he leaves on his second trip to Washington as a guest of the Natural Resources Defense Council to tell his personal story of loss and disappointment. "Originally, I was using (the spill) as an opportunity to tell them about the real problem we have here: coastal erosion," said Lambert, who has been involved in that cause for years. "But the bad experiences we've had with all the lies and broken promises in this disaster have really opened my eyes. And I want everyone in the country to know about it ... know you can't trust what (the oil industry) promises you." Lambert said the bad experiences didn't start immediately. Like many charter and marina operators, he received a quick $5,000 check from BP in the first weeks of the disaster. That was hardly enough to make up for the losses at his idled 14,000-square-foot operation, but Lambert was encouraged when President Barack Obama got BP to put up $20 billion to establish the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. Tired of jumping through hoops Since then, he said, things have gone all downhill. He paid his accountant $7,000 to supply financial records proving his losses would total $1.1 million, but received checks for only $211,000. "In order to apply for payment, you had to keep your business open so you could help mitigate the final cost, so that meant I had to keep staff and pay operating expenses through the end of the year," Lambert said. "But after all that, I'm still out $904,000 in lost income." He said he was told he should apply again to be made whole. "Well, I'm tired of re-applying, because it never does any good," he said. "I'm tired of paying my CPA. Now I'm paying a lawyer." He plans to file suit. Lambert, vice president of the Louisiana Charter Boat Association, said his anger deepens when he thinks about the estimated 600 other charter captains in the state. He said the only members who have settled up with BP are those who took a flat $25,000 "quick payment" from claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg. "The only ones who took that were guys who had no other choice because of their situation," he said. "They had house notes or boat notes or medical expenses and no business coming in. Well, now that money is gone, and they still don't have any business -- and they're just screwed. "I don't know of any of the guys who have been made whole like they promised." Long-term concerns Lambert said his suffering pales next to his colleagues, because he owns his property and has other business interests to help pay bills. That's not the case for most charter fishers, he said. "They're independent contractors who work by themselves," he said. "Everyone talks about the ones who made a killing in the cleanup, but not all of them got those jobs. Only five of my 14 guides were hired." Lambert is also worried about the long-term effects on the ecosystem that provides his livelihood. He suffered through the leanest speckled trout winter ever, seeing only three of the fish brought to his cleaning tables from spots that traditionally produce daily limits of 25 fish in the cold-weather months. And while speck fishing has improved this spring, he said he has seen none of the small trout representing last year's spawning class, which entered the estuaries when oil was coming ashore. State fisheries biologists said tests to determine the effects on last year's spawning class were not complete, and ongoing tissue samples of fish from the affected areas have shown no signs of hydrocarbon contamination or other ill effects from the spill. Lambert wishes the rest of the country was convinced of that. "The attitude outside this area is that everything here is contaminated," he said. "I've done something like 15 TV shows since the spill, and the guys doing the shows tell me people ask them, 'Why are you going fishing down there -- you can't eat the fish.' "The only out-of-state bookings I'm getting are old customers who just want to show their support." That new business has dried up, even after Lambert's Cajun Fishing Adventures was named one of the top five fishing lodges in the nation by Sportsfishing magazine. Even the thrill of that honor was tarnished by BP, he said. "BP had the audacity to put that on their website, like it was a positive thing showing the Gulf Coast was coming back -- thanks to all their efforts," Lambert said. "That just made me crazy. "What we people should know is that all the millions they spent on those TV and newspaper ads about making things right is a lie. "And what people in this state should ask themselves is: If a giant like BP isn't making us whole, what do they think is going to happen when the smaller fish in that business have an accident?" That was a question Lambert said he never asked himself before last April. Now, he said, he thinks he knows the answer. http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/04/longtime_oil_industry_champion.html
Ted I've read some of that before. I certainly believe there is more to what we are being told about ANYTHING.:shock: I do, however, have to limit my readings as it gets me mad and sad.:af: Sometimes it's funny, like the links that say the "Simpsons" (creators) knew about certain things. :laugh:
Soooo, the people who were recreational fishers don't get a thing???? People fished to put food on the table. People fished to relax and ENJOY their community and what it provides. This article doesn't mention stress or anxiety that hurt the health of those down here at all. Would that be a different case all together. Ken Feinberg reaches deal to pay subsistence claims for commercial fishermen who consume a portion of their catch Published: Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 7:20 AM Updated: Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 10:15 AM David Hammer, The Times-Picayune By David Hammer, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune Commercial fishers and American Indians -- but not recreational anglers -- can finally be compensated for expenses they incurred when last year's oil spill took away their ability to feed themselves and their families using the seafood they would have caught in fouled Gulf waters. So-called "loss of subsistence" claims have befuddled Kenneth Feinberg's Gulf Coast Claims Facility since he took charge of BP's $20 billion oil spill damages fund last August. In that time, the operation has paid more than 170,000 claimants for loss of income or profits due to the spill, but just 23 of the more than 16,000 subsistence claims filed. Most of the claims have come from Vietnamese fishers and other fishing communities with a tradition of setting aside large portions of their catch for their families to consume and for gifts and bartering. But large numbers of claims also came from recreational fishers who wanted to be compensated for what they called "loss of enjoyment," something Feinberg decided not to honor. Subsistence claims are specifically allowed under the Oil Pollution Act, which governs oil spill damage compensation, but Feinberg's operation had trouble calculating losses for something that isn't generally well documented. Feinberg's team developed a new method for calculating subsistence claims March 28 and, after negotiations with nonprofit lawyers and community advocates, it was finalized late last week. The claims facility began sending letters Monday to subsistence claimants requesting specific documents and directing them to dedicated claims specialists at Hammond-based Worley Catastrophe Services, a GCCF contractor. "The GCCF will pay documented subsistence claims for Native American tribes and commercial fishermen -- including Vietnamese fishermen and others who live off a portion of their catch," Feinberg said. "We will not pay recreational fishermen claims if the claims simply involve 'loss of enjoyment.' Such claims cannot be documented. IT seems pretty obvious to me that it is very well documented. The sticking point has always been developing a credible, workable formula for determining damage in subsistence cases." The impasse was broken when GCCF said it would use scholarly studies to determine the amounts typically consumed by different groups of commercial fishers and by so-called "true subsistence fishermen," namely affected Indian tribes like the United Houma Nation. Hmmm. so I guess the lowly Cherokee like myself are SOL... After initially planning to pay the wholesale, or dock, price of the subsistence portion of a claimant's catch, GCCF also agreed to pay for the pre-spill retail costs of replacing that seafood. For those claiming losses for seafood they bartered, however, the price at the dock will be used. Mark Moreau, whose Southeast Louisiana Legal Services participated in the negotiations, said he hopes the first payments will be made in the coming weeks. But there are still some concerns. Feinberg is still trying to determine if an IRS Form 1099 will be filed with subsistence claims payments, something advocates argue is unfair because catch that is consumed by those who harvested it is not normally taxable. And on Monday, a group of advisers hired by the state of Louisiana to help claimants sent a letter to Worley asking for clarification on key points, including whether GCCF would pay interim quarterly payments for subsistence losses and how the organization plans to "verify" a claimant's level of consumption. Yes please come down here and tell us how much seafood we eat... "The GCCF Revised Subsistence Methodology is vague and, depending on how they interpret some of the key concepts, could either be promising or problematic for proper interim compensation," said May Nguyen, an adviser for Mary Queen of Viet Nam Community Development Corp. "Importantly, we defer to the court(s) for final adjudication of subsistence claims." http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/04/post_31.html
Isn't it wonderful that everyone's memory is so short? (Note sarcasm dripping) For my small minor part, I have copied and shared some of the above posted links to FB. I know it's not much, but maybe it'll start "snowballing". The "sheeple" mentality no longer astonishes me. If it's not in their face, they forget about it. AND if it stays in their face, within a short span they will forcibly ignore it. I despair the(our) species.
How true.... And guess what??????:af: ...... BP oil continues to wash ashore Coast Guard officials gather in Grand Isle Friday, April 15, 2011 By Paul Rioux West Bank bureau As the one-year anniversary of the BP oil spill approaches next week, areas along the Gulf Coast are still plagued by "chronic re-oiling" from balls of oil and sand that wash ashore after breaking free from submerged mats of degraded oil and sediments, according to officials overseeing federal cleanup efforts. The "surface residue balls" -- yet another term in an ever-expanding oil-spill lexicon that includes tar balls and oil mousse -- are about 90 percent sand and sediments, Coast Guard Commander Dan Lauer said Thursday at a news conference in Grand Isle. He said the rest is highly degraded oil that poses no health risks but is a nuisance to beach-goers, prompting a surge in cleanup efforts before a tropical storm can churn up the mats and curb another tourism season. Advertisement On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 men and triggering the nation's largest oil spill. The crisis, which lasted 87 days, shut down the Grand Isle tourism season and canceled the International Tarpon Rodeo for the first time in its 82-year history as workers flooded the area to support the cleanup effort. Lauer said Thursday that crews are experimenting with different types of sonar and radar to locate the mats resting on the sea floor. They are typically about 300 square feet and have been found from Louisiana to Florida, he said. The mats have been easier to find in the relatively clear waters of the eastern Gulf than in the murky waters off Louisiana's coast, Lauer said. "It's very difficult to find them, and then to remove them is a whole different matter," Lauer said. "We're doing the research and development as we go." He said 92 percent of the Louisiana shoreline has been cleaned,(uh that is one of the biggest lies I heard this century!!!) with persistent trouble spots in Barataria Bay and Pass a Loutre, where oil-choked mats of marsh grass line the shores. Lauer said crews have had success cutting back the dead grass to expose the oil to the elements, accelerating its degradation. "There is absolutely some damage to the wetlands, but we're also seeing good regrowth," he said. "If the root system stays healthy, the grass seems to grow back very well." The news conference was held on Grand Isle's beach, where a procession of four mechanical sand-sifters, or "sand Zambonies" as the crews call them, skimmed the top 2 or 3 inches of sand and sifted out any tar balls. During a question-and-answer session, several Grand Isle residents accused the Coast Guard of putting on a "dog and pony show" for the news media. "How come we don't see this every day and not just when the TV cameras are here?" said Dean Blanchard, who owns a seafood-processing plant on the barrier island. "How much are they paid to hold up shovels?" asked a woman. Lauer said the sand-sifting "is typical of the work that we are doing on a daily basis." "We had them do it here so the media wouldn't have to run all over the beach to see how it's being done," he said. ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!! Lauer said the number of cleanup workers has fallen from a peak of 48,000 when BP's gushing well was capped in July to about 2,000 now. He said cleanup efforts will continue throughout the upcoming hurricane season. After that, federal officials will re-evaluate the need to continue. But even if cleanup operations are halted, he said that if any oil comes ashore, the Coast Guard will be there to clean it up. "Regardless of where the oil came from, we are mandated to take care of it," he said. "We'll be here as long as it takes." http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-16/130284841959050.xml&coll=1
