The Gulf Oil Spill Information Portal

Despite Ongoing Damage From Spill, BP Declares Mission Accomplished In Gulf Coast | ThinkProgress

2011-07-20T16:04:00.000-05:00

Despite Ongoing Damage From Spill, BP Declares Mission Accomplished In Gulf Coast | ThinkProgress

On the Bayou, BP oil spill hasn’t gone away » peoplesworld

2011-07-15T15:22:00.001-05:00

On the Bayou, BP oil spill hasn’t gone away

by: John Wojcik

July 15 2011

tags: Louisiana, environment

HOPEDALE, La. - Eric Guzman carries himself like any healthy 35-year-old, but his eyes tell you he's been through what only someone much older would normally have experienced.
Guzman is captain of a Bayou shrimp boat that he takes out now only on weekends. During the week he is a union electrician at the Folger's coffee plant here. He has also worked for Lazy Boy Seafood, an outfit that buys shrimp right off the boats.
"I'm glad I have this job," he said, when our reporters caught up with him during a break outside his plant gate. "You can't support a family without a good job, and now, after the oil spill, the shrimp and oyster businesses are hurting."
Guzman, like many of the fishermen in Louisiana, started out on the water as a kid and, like many others, when they got older, fished a big part of the year and worked in the building trades the rest of the year. He is a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 130.
He says he looks forward to the weekends when he can get out on his boat, the Captain Rusty. "I've been doing it since I was 12 years old," he said.
When Hurricane Katrina hit, destroying everything he and thousands of other families had, he went to Portland, Ore., where he could continue his apprenticeship as an electrical worker.
"I didn't want to drop that," he said, "because when you get through a union apprenticeship program you have top-notch skills that you can be proud of and that you can use for the rest of your life."
But he came back to Hopedale where, together with his wife, he re-started a life "in the place that me and all my friends and family love so much."
The BP oil spill intruded on that process a little over a year ago, and Guzman had to switch from shrimper to clean-up captain for the oil giant, skimming the oil off the waters of the Gulf. He and a crew of three worked a boat that belonged to someone else. They laid booms and skimmed the oil from the surface of the water.
"BP likes for people to think that the skimming got rid of all the oil," he said. "They don't want you to think about how most of the oil went down to the bottom. We were dead set against them using those dispersants but they didn't listen and they did it anyway." He recalled the "lack of concern they had for us out there doing the dirty work on the Gulf. No one knows how we've been affected by breathing in those vapors. People don't realize that they sent planes out over the Gulf spraying dispersants, not caring about whether those of us down in the boats were getting hit."
Guzman said the shrimp business has been hurt because, even though there are shrimp that have not been contaminated by the oil, people are afraid to take the chance on buying them. Prices have dropped, despite the smaller supplies, and people are going out of business.
A bait shop operated by a shrimp boat captain interviewed by the People's World right after the spill is going out of business.
The oyster farmers, Guzman said, are really suffering. "Only now are we seeing a few signs that oysters might come back," he said. He said the oyster business was hurt by the BP spill even in areas where the water was not actually poisoned. He explained how fresh water from the Mississippi was allowed to flow into the marshes to create an outflow to keep the advancing oil offshore. "The fresh water killed a lot of life forms that require salinity to survive," he said, "including the oysters."
The recent floods in the Midwest contributed to the destruction of the oyster beds also because river water had to be diverted again into the marshes to avoid flooding downstream in New Orleans. "Just as some things were coming back, there was a new setback," he said. "As a result of those Midwest floods we actually lost oyster beds to the west, even ones that had survived the BP spill."
Guzman said he was angry with BP because "even today they have not really made people whole for their losses. Some got back percentages of their losses and some have gotten nothing."
"I see crabs with sores on the bottom of them that are not supposed to be there. I see turtles and porpoises washing up on the beech and I wonder why. I worry about the long-term effects of those vapors, but I will never give up shrimping and crabbing" said Guzman. "It's in my blood."
Photo: Brad and Johnny Held, Louisiana IBEW members out crabbing in the Gulf recently. Blake Deppe/PW

Floodwaters marked with spills

2011-06-11T12:45:00.000-05:00

Floodwaters marked with spills | The Advertiser | theadvertiser.com

Audubon: House Gulf Caucus Moves to Secure Gulf Restoration - Offshore Oil Drilling

2011-06-09T12:45:00.000-05:00

Audubon: House Gulf Caucus Moves to Secure Gulf Restoration - Offshore Oil Drilling

YouTube - Coast To Coast AM - 26.5.2011 - 2/4 - Contamination, Fish Deaths, & Alien Abduction

2011-05-29T23:30:00.000-05:00

YouTube - Coast To Coast AM - 26.5.2011 - 2/4 - Contamination, Fish Deaths, & Alien Abduction

2011-05-06T13:30:00.002-05:00

Gulf Ecosystem Restoration Task Force Creates Citizens’ Advisory Committee, Releases Restoration Priorities EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, joined by CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley, other task force members, hold official meeting today in Mobile, Ala.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson convened an official meeting of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force today in Mobile, Alabama. During the meeting, the task force created a citizens’ advisory committee to help guide the group’s efforts and released a strategy background document outlining the priorities of the ongoing gulf restoration. The meeting in Alabama furthered the task force’s ongoing commitment to supporting the conservation and restoration of resilient and healthy ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico.

Jackson proposed to establish and support a 25-member Gulf of Mexico Citizen Advisory Committee during the meeting, acknowledging the need to ensure residents and local organizations have a formal process to offer input and guidance on the work of the task force and to voice environmental concerns. The newly formed committee will hold its first official meeting later this summer.

“Since President Obama first formed this task force, our focus has been on collecting the ideas and input of gulf residents,” EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said. “We’ve made clear that restoration plans should come from the gulf to Washington, and we’re counting on the people who know these areas best to shape our work through public meetings like this one, through the Citizens’ Advisory Committee and other efforts.”

During the meeting, the task force also identified four key priorities for the ongoing restoration of the gulf, including enhancing community resilience, restoring and conserving habitat, restoring water quality, and replenishing and protecting living coastal and marine resources. The priorities were developed based upon input from the general public and key stakeholder groups throughout the region. The task force plans for the priorities to serve as the main restorations goals and will identify specific actions to help to achieve these goals.

The Mobile meeting was the latest in a series of meetings that the task force is holding throughout the five gulf states. Previous meetings were held in New Orleans and Pensacola. President Obama issued an executive order in October to create the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, continuing the administration’s ongoing commitment to the gulf region. The task force works to integrate federal restoration efforts with those of local stakeholders and state and tribal governments, and to facilitate accountability and support throughout the restoration process.

More information on the task force: http://www.epa.gov/gulfcoasttaskforce

La. seeks larger share than other Gulf states of eventual oil spill liability reward

2011-05-05T13:12:00.000-05:00

BATON ROUGE, La. — State officials say Louisiana was hurt more than other states by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and so should get more money than other states from companies responsible for the disaster.

Garret Graves, who leads the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, told state lawmakers Wednesday that the state opposes such funds going to the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, given that 60-90 percent of the oil spills impacts have occurred on coastal Louisiana.

"This would be the federal government literally profiting from the injury that was experienced in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast," Graves said.

Rep. Joe Harrison, a Republican from Houma, agreed.

"We incurred the majority of the damage by far," he said. "And that's why I would hope that, and I know that our Congressional delegation and also the governor and the executive committees that are involved would present the type of information that supports our position to get the largest portion of that potential fine to assist us in what I think is going to be something we're going to deal with for years to come."

Graves said that recommendations in reports by Navy Sec. Ray Mabus and the National Commission on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, established by President Barack Obama, as well as legislation by U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., would divert up to 80 percent of fines to the coastal states.

But Graves said there is well-established precedent for a second alternative: directly negotiating a settlement between local authorities and responsible parties.

In that case, up to 80 percent of fines would be spent on supplemental environmental projects to restore the environment, coast and fisheries. Graves has asked federal authorities to begin negotiations for such a settlement.

He said Louisiana would fare better by negotiating a settlement with federal agencies rather than reaching a political solution in Congress.

"One of the challenges in going through Congress is that Sen. Landrieu, Sen. Vitter, our House delegation will have to negotiate with the delegations from those other states," Graves said. "Texas has a large delegation. Florida has a large delegation."

He said a Congressional solution would also require a budget offset from the diversion to the states, which he said would be very difficult in this budget climate.

Negotiating with the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and responsible parties directly "would be a better venue for Louisiana to negotiate based on true impacts and merit, versus based upon political considerations and who has a larger delegation."

Graves says federal liability may rise to $70 billion across the responsible parties.

2011-05-05T11:35:00.001-05:00

This handout photo shows some of the spill area where about 28,000 barrels of oil leaked out of a pipeline near Peace River. The pipeline is owned by Plains All American Pipeline. (Plains All American American Pipeline photo)

Natives say spill making kids sick

EDMONTON - More than 28,000 barrels of leaked crude oil near Peace River is making residents in the area sick, says a First Nations chief.
Steve Noskey, Chief of the Lubicon Cree Nation, says his town of about 300 people is being enveloped by a sickening odour he believes is coming from the spill, the biggest in the province since 1975.
"When the wind shifts, the odours are carried into the community," says Noskey.
The Lubicon Cree Nation is located about 10 km east of the Plains Midstream Canada pipeline leak.
The Little Buffalo school has been closed since Friday, after students became ill with nausea, burning eyes and headaches.
Environment Minister Rob Renner says he only recently became aware that residents in the town were affected.
"We immediately installed air monitoring equipment that was on site, and I'm advised our mobile unit has additional capacity for more minute forms of air quality (and) is on route and should arrive later today," said Renner Wednesday.
He can't say for sure if the odour that's believe to be making residents sick was in fact coming from the spill, but Noskey disagrees.
"I challenge anyone from Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), Plains or even the minister to come up to our community and have a smell for themselves," he says.
The K-12 school services about 130 students and was still closed as of Wednesday.
Noskey says he has not heard from the government or the ERCB, and isn't confident they'll do much to help his small town.
"I never do expect anything from the provincial government with respect for the native issues. We're an aboriginal community and that's all we are," says Noskey.
The Plains pipeline is nearly half a century old and has had minor leaks in the past.
Despite the major spill, Renner says Alberta still has a good record compared to how many pipelines there are in the province.
"Our safety record is one that we should be proud of. Sure there are incidences from time to time but I would put our record up against any others," says Renner.
NDP environment critic Rachel Notley and Liberal environment critic Laurie Blakeman both feel the spill is merely another example of an un-watchful government eye.
"It's more indication that Albertans cannot trust this government to protect the health safety and environment of Albertans," says Notley.
Blakeman goes further, saying, "This kind of an oil spill is what really frightens people about transporting oil across land or across water because this is the nightmare scenario."
Renner decided not to venture out to the spill site or the Lubicon First Nation, saying he would not have "any significant added value" if he did.
tanara.mclean@sunmedia.ca

Is oil spill responsible for illness?

Abby Tabor/Staff

Buy photo

Dr. Mike Robichaux talks to his patient Brandon Casanova at Ochsner St. Anne General Hospital in Raceland.

By Kathrine Schmidt
Staff Writer

Published: Sunday, May 1, 2011 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, May 1, 2011 at 12:06 a.m.

RACELAND — Lying in a local hospital bed this week, Brandon Casanova still can’t figure out how he got there.

Defendant in Racketeering Suit Works as U.S. Consultant on Gulf Spill - NYTimes.com

2011-04-29T10:00:00.000-05:00

Defendant in Racketeering Suit Works as U.S. Consultant on Gulf Spill - NYTimes.com

The outage today occurred about 6 a.m at the BP chemical plant

2011-04-27T13:26:00.002-05:00

Ref.no.: PW-20110426-30476-USA

Situation Update No. 2
On 2011-04-27 at 17:58:46 [UTC]

Event: Power Outage
Location: USA State of Texas BP, Marathon, Valero Texas plants Texas City
Situation: A day after power failed at several refineries in Texas City, a chemical plant in the city lost electricity this morning, officials said. The outage today occurred about 6 a.m at the BP chemical plant, said Bruce Clawson, director of Texas City Emergency Management. Clawson said power was restored at the plant about two and half hours later. No shelter-in-place orders were issued during the outage, and no injuries were reported, Clawson added. BP officials could not be reached for comment. Clawson said he did not know what caused the power failure. However, he added, no explosion or fire was reported. The outage occurred about the same time a power failure hit portions of Galveston Island. About 12,000 customers reportedly lost power beginning at about 5:30 a.m., according to CenterPoint Energy. Crews were working to restore power several hours later. Today's power failures come on the heels of outages at several refineries in Texas City Tuesday. Power was lost at the BP, Valero and Marathon refineries for several hours. Utility officials have said salty residue build-up on wires and power equipment is to blame for the power losses in Galveston and Tuesday in Texas City.

BP anniversary: Toxicity, suffering and death - Features - Al Jazeera English

2011-04-20T14:41:00.000-05:00

BP anniversary: Toxicity, suffering and death - Features - Al Jazeera English

THE BEST >>> BP's criminal negligence exposed - Features - Al Jazeera English

2011-04-20T14:40:00.000-05:00

BP's criminal negligence exposed - Features - Al Jazeera English

Please email your members of Congress today.

2011-04-20T14:22:00.000-05:00

Urge Your Members of Congress to Get Serious About Gulf Coast Restoration

One year after the BP oil blowout, Congress still has not passed legislation to direct BP's Clean Water Act penalties to restore the Gulf Coast and help the people, ecosystem, and economies harmed by the disaster.
Without Congressional action, these funds will simply end up in the Treasury, and the federal government will profit at the expense of Gulf Coast residents and wildlife who need support.
It's time to get serious about Gulf Coast restoration, and we need your help to make sure the BP fines are directed where they're needed most: to the Gulf Coast.
Please email your members of Congress today.

click here to take action

Just released: 30k pages of BP oil spill documents. Help us find out what we've got! | Inspiring action for a green and peaceful future

2011-04-20T14:19:00.000-05:00

Just released: 30k pages of BP oil spill documents. Help us find out what we've got! | Inspiring action for a green and peaceful future

2011-04-20T10:34:00.001-05:00

Deepwater Horizon victims' families

mark first anniversary of oil spill

Relatives of the 11 workers killed when BP's rig burst into flames overfly the site by helicopter while oil still washes up on beaches

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 April 2011 15.13 BST
Article history

Deepwater Horizon: a protest performance called Human Cost took place at Tate Britain in London on the first anniversary of the oil spill. Photograph: Jeff Blackler/Rex Features

Relatives of some of the 11 men who died aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig are to fly over the Gulf of Mexico to mark the first anniversary of the worst offshore oil spill in US history.
On land, vigils were scheduled in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to mark the moment on the night of 20 April last year when the rig, owned by Transocean Ltd, burst into flames while drilling a well for BP.
The explosion killed 11 workers on or near the drilling floor and the rest of the crew were evacuated before, two days later, the rig sank to the seabed. The bodies of the dead were never recovered.
Over the next 85 days, 206m gallons (5m barrels) of oil – almost 20 times more than was spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster – leaked from the well. In response, the US commandeered a fleet of vessels in an effort to contain the spill, and BP spent billions of dollars to cap the well and clean up.
"I can't believe tomorrow has been one year, because it seems like everything just happened," Courtney Kemp, whose husband Roy Wyatt Kemp was killed on the rig, wrote on her Facebook page on Tuesday. "I have learned a lot of things through all of this but the most important is to live each day as if it were your last … what matters is if you truly live."
In a statement, President Barack Obama paid tribute to those killed in the blast and thanked the thousands of workers and volunteers who "worked tirelessly to mitigate the worst impacts" of the spill.
"But we also keep a watchful eye on the continuing and important work required to ensure that the Gulf coast recovers stronger than before," Obama said in the statement.
Transocean invited up to three members of each family to attend the flyover. They were expected to circle the site a few times in a helicopter, though there is no visible marker identifying where their loved ones perished. On the seabed 11 stars were imprinted on the cap of the well.
While ceremonies mark the disaster, oil is still occasionally washed up on beaches in the form of tar balls, and fishermen face an uncertain future.
Louis and Audrey Neal of Pass Christian, Mississippi, who make their living from crabbing, said it had got so bad since the spill that they face foreclosure as the bills keep piling up.
"I don't see any daylight at the end of this tunnel. I don't see any hope at all. We thought we'd see hope after a year, but there's nothing," Audrey Neal said, adding that financial difficulties were only part of the problem. "Our lives are forever changed," she said. "Our marriage, our children, it's all gotten 100% worse."
She said the couple received a $53,000 (£32,000) payment from BP early in the crisis, but that was just enough money to cover three months of debt. They have as yet received nothing from the $20bn compensation fund set up by BP, they said.
The outlook is, however, not all bleak. Traffic jams on the narrow coastal roads of Alabama, crowded seafood restaurants in Florida and families taking their holidays along the Louisiana coast attest to the fact that familiar routines are returning, albeit slowly.
"We used to fuss about that," said Ike Williams, referring to the heavy traffic heading towards Gulf Shores, Alabama, where he rents chairs and umbrellas to beachgoers. "But it was such a welcome sight."
"It seems like it is all gone," said Tyler Priest, an oil historian at the University of Houston. "People have turned their attention elsewhere. But it will play out like Exxon Valdez did. There will be 20 years of litigation."
Most scientists agree the effects "were not as severe as many had predicted", said Christopher D'Elia, dean at the school of the coast and environment at Louisiana State University. "People had said this was an ecological Armageddon, and that did not come to pass."
Biologists, however, are concerned about the spill's long-term effect on marine life.
"There are these cascading effects," D'Elia said. "It could be accumulation of toxins in the foodchain, or changes in the food web. Some species might dominate."
Accumulated oil is believed to lie on the Gulf seabed, and it still shows up as a thick black crust along miles of Louisiana's marshy shoreline. Scientists have begun to notice that the land in many places is eroding.
Confidence in Louisiana's seafood is eroding, too. "Where I'm fishing it all looks pretty much the same," said Glen Swift, a 62-year-old fisherman in Buras who works the lower Mississippi river again. But he cannot sell his fish. "The market's no good," he said.
But the BP spill has faded from the headlines, overtaken by the tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, unrest in the Middle East and political clashes in Washington.
"Nationally, BP seems like a dim and distant memory," said Douglas Brinkley, a Rice University historian. But the accident will have long-lasting influence on environmental history, he said.

2011-04-20T10:12:00.002-05:00

Day of remembrance for 11 killed in Deepwater Horizon explosion

Cain Burdeau and Harry Weber / Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Relatives of some of the 11 men who died aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig are flying over the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, back to the epicenter of the worst offshore oil spill in the nation's history.

Meanwhile, on land, vigils were scheduled in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to mark the spill.

On the night of April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon, a rig owned by Transocean Ltd., burst into flames after drilling a well for BP PLC, killing 11 workers on or near the drilling floor. The rest of the crew evacuated, but two days later the rig toppled into the Gulf and sank to the sea floor. The bodies were never recovered.

Over the next 85 days, 206 million gallons of oil -- 19 times more than the Exxon Valdez spilled -- spewed from the well. In response, the nation commandeered the largest offshore fleet of vessels since D-Day, and BP spent billions of dollars to clean up the mess, saving itself from collapse.

"I can't believe tomorrow has been one year because it seems like everything just happened," Courtney Kemp, whose husband Roy Wyatt Kemp was killed on the rig, wrote on her Facebook page Tuesday. "I have learned a lot of things through all of this but the most important is to live each day as if it were your last ... what matters is if you truly live."

Natalie Roshto, whose husband Shane Roshto also died on the rig, posted a message on Courtney Kemp's Facebook page on Tuesday evening: "Can't believe it's been a year.. It has brought a lot of tears and a great friendship I'm Soooo thankful for.. We are a strong force together!! Love u sista."

In a statement, President Barack Obama paid tribute to those killed in the blast and thanked the thousands of responders who "worked tirelessly to mitigate the worst impacts" of the oil spill.

"But we also keep a watchful eye on the continuing and important work required to ensure that the Gulf Coast recovers stronger than before," Obama said in the statement.

The president said significant progress has been made but the work isn't done.

Transocean invited up to three members of each family to attend the flyover. They were expected to circle the site a few times in a helicopter, though there is no visible marker identifying where their loved ones perished. At the bottom of the sea, 11 stars were imprinted on the well's final cap.

Several families said they didn't want to go on the flyover, and Transocean decided to not allow media on the flight or at a private service later in the day in Houston.

The solemn ceremonies marking the disaster underscore the delicate healing that is only now taking shape. Oil still occasionally rolls up on beaches in the form of tar balls, and fishermen face an uncertain future.

Louis and Audrey Neal of Pass Christian, Miss., who make their living from crabbing, said it's gotten so bad since the spill that they're contemplating divorce and facing foreclosure as the bills keep piling up.

"I don't see any daylight at the end of this tunnel. I don't see any hope at all. We thought we'd see hope after a year, but there's nothing," Audrey Neal said.

"We ain't making no money. There's no crabs," said Louis Neal, a lifelong crabber.

"I'm in the worst shape I've ever been in my whole damn life. I'm about to lose my whole family," he said. "I can't even pay the loans I have out there. That's how bad it's gotten."

His wife said the financial hit was only part of the past year's toll. "Our lives are forever changed," she said. "Our marriage, our children, it's all gotten 100 percent worse."

She said the couple received about $53,000 from BP early on, but that was just enough money to cover three months of debt. They haven't received a dime from an administrator handing out compensation from a $20 billion fund set up by BP, they said.

Still, it's not all so bleak.

Traffic jams on the narrow coastal roads of Alabama, crowded seafood restaurants in Florida and families vacationing along the Louisiana coast attest to the fact that familiar routines are returning, albeit slowly.

"We used to fuss about that," said Ike Williams, referring to the heavy traffic headed for the water in Gulf Shores, Ala., where he rents chairs and umbrellas to beachgoers. "But it was such a welcome sight."

Many questions still linger: Will the fishing industry recover? Will the environment bounce back completely? Will an oil-hungry public ever accept more deepwater drilling?

"It seems like it is all gone," said Tyler Priest, an oil historian at the University of Houston. "People have turned their attention elsewhere. But it will play out like Exxon Valdez did. There will be 20 years of litigation."

Most scientists agree the effects "were not as severe as many had predicted," said Christopher D'Elia, dean at the School of the Coast and Environment at Louisiana State University. "People had said this was an ecological Armageddon, and that did not come to pass."

Biologists are concerned about the spill's long-term effect on marine life.

"There are these cascading effects," D'Elia said. "It could be accumulation of toxins in the food chain, or changes in the food web. Some species might dominate."

Meanwhile, accumulated oil is believed to lie on the bottom of the Gulf, and it still shows up as a thick, gooey black crust along miles of Louisiana's marshy shoreline. Scientists have begun to notice that the land in many places is eroding.

For example, on Cat Island, a patch of land where pelicans and reddish egrets nest among the black mangroves, Associated Press photographs taken a year ago compared with those taken recently show visible loss of land and a lack of vegetation.

"Last year, those mangroves were healthy, dark green. This year they're not," said Todd Baker, a biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Land is eroding on sites where the oil has killed vegetation, he said.

On a tour of the wetlands Tuesday, Robert Barham, Louisiana's wildlife secretary, showed reporters the lingering damage.

Roseau cane is growing again where it was cut away during early cleanup efforts, but Barham said the 3- to 4-foot-high stalks should be a lush green. Instead, they were pale green and brown.

"It's because of oil in the root system," Barham said. He put his hand into the dirt and pulled up mud saturated with oil. Tossing the sludge into nearby water, it released a rainbow-colored sheen.

Barham complained that BP had not done enough to clean the area. "What they've done thus far is not working."

In the remote Louisiana marsh, there's still yellow boom in places -- not to keep oil out but to keep the tides from carrying oil to untouched areas.

Confidence in Louisiana's seafood is eroding, too.

"Where I'm fishing it all looks pretty much the same," said Glen Swift, a 62-year-old fisherman in Buras. He's catching catfish and gar in the lower Mississippi River again. That's not the problem.

"I can't sell my fish," he said. "The market's no good."

But the BP spill has faded from the headlines, overtaken by the tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, unrest in the Middle East and political clashes in Washington.

"Nationally, BP seems like a dim and distant memory," said Douglas Brinkley, a Rice University historian. But the accident will have long-lasting influence on environmental history, he said.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Stories from the Gulf, one year on - CNN.com

2011-04-20T10:05:00.000-05:00

Stories from the Gulf, one year on - CNN.com

Last Of Gulf Closed By Spill Reopens To Fishing | Local News - Rush Radio 99.5 WRNO

2011-04-19T16:00:00.000-05:00

Last Of Gulf Closed By Spill Reopens To Fishing | Local News - Rush Radio 99.5 WRNO

Gulf Oil Spill Surprises: 6 Things Experts Got Wrong

2011-04-19T14:15:00.000-05:00

Gulf Oil Spill Surprises: 6 Things Experts Got Wrong

Sick fish suggest oil spill still affecting gulf - St. Petersburg Times

2011-04-19T12:34:00.000-05:00

Sick fish suggest oil spill still affecting gulf - St. Petersburg Times

A Year After the Spill, "Unusual" Rise in Health Problems More cases of nosebleeds, coughs could be due to oil exposure.

2011-04-19T12:30:00.000-05:00

A Year After the Spill, "Unusual" Rise in Health Problems

More cases of nosebleeds, coughs could be due to oil exposure.

Oil-spill cleanup workers are swamped by a wave in Orange Beach, Alabama, in 2010.

Photograph by Tyrone Turner, National Geographic

Anne Casselman for National Geographic News Published April19,2011

Health issues that continue to plague Gulf Coast communities may be connected to the Gulf oil spill, experts say.

A year after the BP disaster, more people are reporting medical and mental health problems to nonprofits and doctors working in coastal areas.

"We're seeing patients who will come in and say my nose is bleeding all the time, my cough gets worse," said James Diaz, director of the environmental and occupational health sciences program at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.

Itchy eyes, water eyes, nosebleeds, wheezing, sneezing, and coughing are all symptoms of exposure to crude oil, Diaz said. "We are seeing a lot of that.

(Explore a human-body interactive.)

"We know a lot about the acute health effects of the compounds in petroleum because it's a major industry here," he said.

And these problems have "been very very predictable."

Day and night, Marylee Orr fields calls from cleanup workers, fishers, and their wives as they connect the dots between their health and exposure to dispersants and crude oil. More than 1.8 million gallons (6.8 million liters) of dispersants—chemical agents used to break up oil—were dumped into the Gulf.

"If you look at the human health effects of the . . . dispersant, everything you read at the beginning [of] that factsheet is what I hear over the phone: chest pain, respiratory problems, dizziness, gastrointestinal problems," said Orr, executive director of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, based in Baton Rouge.

"I would love to be able to say everything's OK and everything's recovered—but it's not that way yet."

"Unusual" Spike in Health Troubles After Spill

In the early months of the Gulf oil spill, more than 376 people in Louisiana—the majority of whom were cleanup workers—reported acute health effects typical of exposure to crude oil: headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, cough, respiratory distress, and chest pain, according to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

By early September, more than 2,100 acute health complaints related to the spill across the Gulf and elsewhere had come in, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

A health survey of nearly a thousand coastal residents conducted by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, a health-justice nonprofit based in New Orleans, found that nearly three-quarters of those who believed they'd been exposed to crude oil experienced an "unusual increase in health symptoms."

In two other surveys of Gulf coast residents also conducted by university public health researchers and sociologists, between 35 to 60 percent of respondents reported experiencing mental stress and physical symptoms.

By August, 52,000 people were participating in the oil-spill cleanup, which was managed by a joint federal-industry response team. However the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences didn't secure funding to start a long-term study of cleanup workers' health until several months after the spill began.

"The hardest things to predict are going to be what's going to happen years and decades away," Diaz said.

"We should be looking for evidence that exposure to these chemicals is causing damage at the chemical level to enzymes and causing damage at the molecular level to DNA."

(Get a genetics overview.)

For instance, a study of cleanup workers from the 2002 Prestige oil spill in Spain found increased DNA damage, especially among those who worked along beaches. Such genetic changes can sometimes lead to cancer.

"We know the famous adage: The dose determines the poison," Diaz said.

He added he's most concerned for Gulf cleanup workers who worked offshore, where they were exposed to raining dispersant and fumes billowing off floating mats of burning crude.

(Also see "3 Surprising Ways Global Warming Could Make You Sick.")

Oil Spill Created Anxiety, Depression

Preliminary research has also found Gulf residents have suffered psychological trauma. Already, two spill-related suicides have occurred.

"What we're finding is that there are increases in symptoms of post-traumatic stress, generalized anxiety disorder, and of depression," said Howard Osofsky, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Louisiana State University in New Orleans.

Osofsky is currently leading a study of residents in Louisiana's four most heavily impacted parishes for the Louisiana Department of Social Services.

Calls to mental health and domestic violence hotlines in the Gulf area have increased since the spill began. Admissions to women's shelters also have risen, Osofsky noted.

The majority of people in Osofsky's surveillance area have reported tiredness; lack of energy; trouble sleeping; headaches; pain in their arms, legs, joints; stomach pain; and other gastrointestinal symptoms.

"These are the types of symptoms that can be related to anxiety and stress, but they can be medical symptoms that can be directly related to oil [exposure] as well," he said.

The same trend is appearing in Alabama and Florida, according to a February study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Researchers compared the mental health of two Gulf communities, one in Alabama where the oil reached, and another in Florida that stayed oil-free.

"People in both communities displayed a significant amount of both anxiety and depression," said study leader Lynn Grattan, a psychiatrist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in College Park.

"But it's economic impact—rather than oil reaching shores—which disrupted psychological adjustment and led to psychological health problems."

In other words, the mental health toll of the oil spill reached beyond the population living near oiled beaches, the study found.

Gulf Residents Already Resilient to Tragedy

However, Gulf residents' ability to cope in the face of past disasters—such as hurricanes—may help them weather this storm as well, Osofsky said.

(See "Gulf Wracked By Katrina's Latest Legacy—Disease, Poisons, Mold.")

"Individuals who've been able to cope may feel that they have greater strength, almost like they're being inoculated by their experiences to have inner strength."

University of Maryland's Grattan is currently studying how resilient people adapt and manage stresses associated with the spill.

"So perhaps in future we can learn from their adaptive behaviors and help build and facilitate the coping and adaption of everyone after spills," Grattan said.

Louisiana Environmental Action Network's Orr draws strength and hope from her community.

"It's not surprising that we're seeing what we are, because we've never had anything like this before," she said. "But we're resourceful people and we're very optimistic people.

After the double whammies of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and Gustav and Ike in 2008, "this is our third environmental disaster and, we hope, our last."

More than 1.8 million gallons of Corexit dumped into Gulf Waters

2011-04-19T12:19:00.000-05:00

An Oyster on the Seder Plate?

By PAUL GREENBERG

Published: April 18, 2011

LAST night I put an oyster on my Seder plate.

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Jason Logan

While I didn’t particularly want to put something traif atop that most kosher of dishes, this Passover falls on the first anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. And since BP, the leaseholder of the failed well, seems intent with its new television ads on making us forget about the spill, I felt that something drastic was in order to help us remember. Combining the memorial powers of the Seder plate with the canary-in-the-coal-mine nature of the oyster seemed a good way to keep the disaster — and BP’s promises to clean up its mess — in mind.
This past March I spent a week in Louisiana’s bays and bayous. All over the region I encountered oyster dredges full of dead, empty shells and broken oystermen with equally empty pockets. Many of the oystermen I interviewed reported that 80 percent of their beds had been killed.
Ecologically speaking, this is huge: a single oyster can filter 40 gallons of water a day, and the millions of oysters in Louisiana’s waters are one of the things that make the gulf work as an ecosystem.
True, many oysters died not from the oil directly, but rather from the consequences of a desperate attempt to counter the spill’s effects. As oil rushed shoreward last spring, Louisiana’s coastal coordinator opened gates along the Mississippi River and released millions of gallons of freshwater, hoping the surge would push the oil away. It’s hard to say whether this worked; what it definitely did do was make some coastal waters too fresh for oysters to survive. Many beds were decimated. It will take years for them to recover.
Freshwater wasn’t the only thing dumped into gulf waters to mitigate the spill: more than 1.8 million gallons of Corexit, a chemical used to break up oil slicks, transformed the floating, possibly recoverable oil into an invisible angel of death that sank and claimed not just the first born but perhaps the first million born of many gulf creatures — a considerable blow to what is arguably America’s most important fish nursery.
Indeed, oysters are just the beginning. The delayed effects of oil and Corexit will likely be seen for years. In 2012 the number of blue crabs — which many people associate with the Chesapeake Bay but in fact often come from the gulf — may significantly drop thanks to the spill. In 2013, the redfish that Paul Prudhomme famously blackened may not be there for fishermen and diners to enjoy. In 2017 we could see a considerable drop in the population of bluefin tuna, the missing adult fish having been killed as fragile larvae in 2010.
And even if by some miracle there is no significant decline in the gulf’s sea life, its harvest might still suffer from a sullied reputation. In a recent poll of 18 national restaurant chains released by Greater New Orleans Inc., an economic development organization, found that only 19 percent of those restaurants’ customers held a favorable view of gulf seafood in 2010, compared with 75 percent in 2004.
Oystermen weren’t the only ones affected by the spill, of course. But while BP has compensated waiters and hairdressers for work lost during last summer’s ruined tourist season, most oystermen told me that aside from an emergency payment last fall, they have yet to see compensation that approaches the value of their lost oysters.
Fortunately for BP, it can take decades for the aftereffects of an event of this scale to appear. And it will be a long time before the Natural Resources Damage Assessment, put in place to determine BP’s true liability, will be made fully public with any sort of conclusion about the company’s liability.
Although I put an oyster on the Seder plate, you might want to find a less controversial way to mark the disaster. If you’re having a second Seder tonight and want a non-traif symbol, consider putting a small dish of oil next to your glass of wine. After you’ve dipped your finger in your wine to count out the 10 plagues that brought down Egypt’s tyrannical pharaoh, dip your finger in the oil and dab out an 11th plague.
In so doing remember that in A.D. 2010, the Jewish year 5770, humanity damaged a valuable, nourishing ecosystem to maintain the tyranny of oil. Until we throw off that tyranny, we will mark many more plagues in the years to come.

Paul Greenberg is the author of “Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food.”

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An Oyster on the Seder Plate?

By PAUL GREENBERG

Published: April 18, 2011

Jason Logan