Last Friday, Our Lady of the Holy Cross College hosted Our Wetlands Our Future: A Forum on Coastal Restoration. The content for this forum focused on the physical and biological aspects of coastal restoration as well as the tools that we have available in planning and making informed decisions with how best to restore Louisiana’s coast. Unlike most forums of this kind, however, this one included a panel focused on the sociological elements in coastal restoration planning.
Shirley Laska from UNO-CHART (Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology) presented on some research that is being conducted using the residential knowledge in the Grand Bayou community to prioritize impaired areas in need of restoration. This research was able to show that there is agreement between the scientific data and the residents about which areas of their communities are being impacted. What this research adds to the already established scientific data is the human element of just what’s a stake in these threatened communities. Laska stressed how important community knowledge is to the process of restoration planning. Acquiring and utilizing this knowledge helps to build trust in these impacted communities.
Guest Blogger, Alex Zhu, is a Robertson scholar from New Zealand who is interning with GRN this summer.
This past week, I was lucky enough to go with six other GRN staff and volunteers to the tenth annual Bonnaroo Music Festival, a four day music, comedy and craziness extravaganza held in Manchester, Tennessee. With over 90,000 people in attendance and headliners such as Eminem, Arcade Fire, Widespread Panic, Buffalo Springfield and many more, the ten year anniversary of this acclaimed music festival was not to be missed. Braving the sweltering heat and dust, the GRN team worked in Planet-Roo, the non-profit section of the festival, to educate and inform their fellow Bonnarooers about the deadly effects that the BP oil spill has had on the Gulf Coast over one year from the disaster. With a photo gallery showing the damage that the oil is doing to the Coast and a group of dedicated staff and volunteers, we met people from all over who shared our interest in protecting and restoring the Gulf of Mexico. This year, we collected petition signatures to recuperate the 20 billion dollars of Clean Water Act fines that BP paid last year for the Gulf, as well as to push for the creation of a Regional Citizens Advisory Council, which would give local, impacted communities a voice in future energy industry decisions. Visitors were also invited to participate in our “Congress, You’ve Got Oil on Your Hands” petition, where they were able to contribute their own “oily” handprints to send to congress. Almost everyone we met was extremely positive about the issue and more than willing to get their hands a little dirty. With the help of our incredible supporters My Morning Jacket and DeVotchKa, who gave us Twitter shoutouts during the event, and Galactic, who gave us an on-stage shout out during their concert, we managed to smash our goal and collect a whopping 2,158 petition signatures for the Gulf. We also drew three lucky raffle winners in our Voodoo Music Festival Raffle, who won free double passes to Voodoo in New Orleans later this year. So if you signed one of our petitions, make sure to check your emails as we may be sending a double pass your way!
The prediction of the largest ever Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico for this summer, released by LUMCON and LSU, is another harsh reminder that our country must work aggressively to clean up the Mississippi River. The solely voluntary mechanisms currently promoted to reduce the nitrogen and phosphorous pollution that cause the Dead Zone will not alone solve the problem. The EPA must use all of its available tools to reduce Dead Zone-causing pollution, which include setting numeric limits on the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution allowed in the Mississippi Basin, and developing a clean-up plan that includes solid goals and deadlines.
Gulf Restoration Network, as a member of the Mississippi River Collaborative, petitioned EPA to do what it is required to do to under the Clean Water Act to address the Dead Zone in 2008. Almost three years later, the EPA still hasn’t responded to this petition, and the Dead Zone continues to plague the Gulf impacting wildlife and coastal communities. The EPA must stop dragging its feet in addressing the Dead Zone.
A couple of days ago, I was contacted by Caroline Douglas of the organization Southwings, a conservation and public benefit aviation non-profit that provides skilled pilots and aerial education to enhance conservation efforts across the Southeast. Caroline was offering to arrange a flyover for me to document a recent oil sighting near Venice, Louisiana. You may recall reports last week that a fisherman discovered a several miles long slick and that efforts were underway to find whether it was BP oil resurfacing from last year’s blowout. By week’s end, our friends at the National Wildlife Federation had already determined that the oil near Venice was not from the BP disaster. They were able to retrieve a sample from the fisherman and have it tested at a lab at LSU, which concluded it was not oil from BP’s Macondo well. You can see NWF’s report here.
I was also given last week several coordinates in and around the Delta National Wildlife Refuge and Breton Island where fishermen had recently reported seeing an oil sheen. When my pilot, Lance Rydberg, contacted the FAA Friday morning to register our flight plan, we were notified that a TFR or Temporary Flight Restriction was in place over an area encompassing one of these coordinates near Breton Island. When asked why the need for a TFR, the FAA referred us to the Coast Guard. We contacted the Coast Guard and were informed that there were UAV’s flying in the area. UAV’s are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, commonly known as drones. Well, this seemed very intriguing so, with special clearance to enter the TFR in hand, we decided to bypass the Venice location and to make our way to Breton Sound. While no oil was spotted (or UAV’s) at the coordinates we had been given, I was able to spot a definite oil leak stretching for a couple of miles from a well-head in Breton Sound at N 29 31.49; W089 20.0. Check out these photos to see the leak:
In addition to the leaking well-head, I was able to see sheen in other parts of Breton Island but could not isolate the precise location. Upon returning to my office that afternoon, I filed a report with the National Response Center, the sole federal point of contact for reporting oil and chemical spills. A little later that day I was contacted by a Petty Officer from the Coast Guard whom I supplied with photos and coordinates to assist in their investigation. I also contacted several media outlets, including Fox8 New Orleans who came to the office to cover the story. You can check out Fox8’s reort here.
Friday’s discovery was one of several leaks unrelated to the BP disaster that I have found since I began conducting monitoring trips from the air last April, shortly after the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank, leaking at least 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf ecosystem. I have also documented leaks coming from oil waste storage facilities that are in the path of the Mississippi River flood. These frequent discoveries from the air beg the question: how many incidents are out there, how many actually get reported, and how many simply go unnoticed, allowing responsible parties to get away with it? That is why GRN is helping to lead the fight in Congress for a Regional Citizen’s Advisory Council to promote environmental safety amongst the oil industry as well as inform the public. People with the most to lose from oil pollution must have a voice in the decisions that put their livelihoods and communities at risk. Please take a moment to help in that fight by sending your member of Congress this letter.
Jonathan Henderson is the Coastal Resiliency Organizer for GRN.
For the 5th year in a row, GRN will be at Bonnaroo, collecting signatures to defend the Gulf Coast! In Planet-Roo, the non-profit section of the festival, we’ll also be asking for “oily” handprints to add to our “Congress, You’ve Got Oil on Your Hands” petition calling for congressional action in response to the BP Drilling Disaster. Do you believe it's been a year since the BP disaster first started and Congress hasn't passed a single bill to protect or restore the Gulf??!?!
Signing the petition will enter you into a raffle to win a pair of WEEKEND PASSES TO VOODOO EXPERIENCE, in New Orleans! Our photo gallery will bring you up to speed on the latest effects of BP's crude and corexit and what we’re doing about it.
In addition to petitioning and reveling in the music, we will also be speaking at Bonnaroo. I will be answering questions with director Jon Bowermaster after the screening of his film SoLA: Louisiana Water Stories on Friday at 5:45pm in the air-conditioned Cinema Tent. Sunday afternoon at 1pm, Ayn Pivonka will speak at the “Social Change Through Music” Panel at the Solar Stage. Both of these events have been organized by Rock the Earth, a great group that's been helping green Bonnaroo for 6 years now. Stop by our booth in between the amazing sets to take action for the Gulf and maybe win yourself free passes to this October's Voodoo Experience.
Natasha Noordhoff is GRN's Administrative Assistant
Yesterday, I took another Mississippi River Flood flyover. With me on board were Anna Hrybyk, Program Manager for the Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LABB) and Robin Walker, a local photographer. Two cameras are always better than one! We embarked from Southern Seaplanes at about 8:30am and flew for about two and a half hours. You can see our flightpath here.
You may recall from a previous blog that LABB posted a map showing sensitive oil and gas infrastructure in the path of the flood. You also may have seen a recent article in the Times Picayune that discusses some of the environmental problems that have surfaced (pun intended) since the flooding began. Well, we flew over some of those sites to see if we could connect the dots and, not surprisingly, some of what we saw showed poorly stored waste that has become displaced thanks to the flood waters and poor containment efforts by irresponsible businesses. Oil sheen and other contaminants such as diesel fuel are visible emanating from subsurface structures and flooded well-heads, as well as from businesses on the river side of the flood wall in Morgan City. Check out these photos to see for yourself:
Runoff from the waste pits, which on average are about the size of a large swimming pool can contain oil, diesel, drilling mud and other chemicals. Government data compiled by LABB estimates that the flood waters in Louisiana threaten 13,000 oil and gas wells; 3,600 petroleum extraction operations; 4,000 oil waste pits; four oil storage terminals; and the Alon Refinery in Krotz Springs, La.
Furthermore, in 1997, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) estimated that 2 million migratory birds were lost each year to oil pits throughout the United States. According to FWS, currently nearly 1 million birds are lost annually in oil field production skim pits and centralized oilfield wastewater disposal facilities. Sounds to me like these pits are not for the birds, again pun intended.
Finally, authorities in North Dakota say some oil companies may have ignored their warnings to protect oil waste pits from recent flooding and failed to take action that could have prevented spills. At least 19 companies in ND have been fined several million dollars. It will be interesting to see what LDEQ does to punish violators in Louisiana, if anything.
Jonathan Henderson is the Coastal Resiliency Organizer for GRN
Thank you to Josephine Billups of the band Sassafrass for making this flight possible.
It starts with a little queasiness as the early storm predictionsrollin, then a tinge of distracted apprehension when the Corps of Engineers give their update on the state of the 'risk reduction system.' Tax-free shopping for supplies on Memorial Day dries out my mouth a bit, but June 1st is when I really start to sweat. Now it's official, we're in hurricane season. And it's predicted to be active. Likely this season won't be as devastating as 2005, or 2008, but it's hard to envision coastal communities getting as lucky as they did last year, when storm after storm formed, but never really threatened land. As a NOLA resident, the Corps' assurances about the levees certainly help reduce the symptoms of 'hurricane season stress syndrome' or whatever you want to call this white-knuckle ride we've embarked on, but they aren't enough. The system they built, with $8 billion spent so far, and another $6 billion in the bank to finish the job, only provides protection for 1 in 100 year storm events. As author and levee expert John Barry points out in today's Times-Picayune, 100 year storm protection is far from adequate.
One step that must be taken to make our city and our entire region more protected and resilient in the face of strong storms, global-warming fueled sea level rise, and BP-aided destruction of our wetlands, is to reverse the loss of our natural storm protection.
From Left to Right: Rachel Cohen, Steve Bradberry, Jeffrey Buchanan, Michele Roberts, Johanna Polsenberg, Vaness Hamilton, Casi Callaway, Cyn Sarthou, Terese Collins, Brenda Dardar Robichaux, Josh Pelletier, Angel TroungMay 23-24, thirteen Gulf residents descended upon Washington, DC to press national lawmakers to help restore and protect the Gulf of Mexico region in the aftermath of the BP oil drilling disaster. It has been over a year since BP's disaster began and, while several bills have been introduced in both houses, Congress has yet to pass legislation responding to the nation's largest oil disaster in history. As part of the Blue Vision Summit on ocean policy, members of the Gulf citizen group, representing a diverse cross-section of business, cultural, social and conservation interests, were promoting Gulf Future: A Unified Action Plan for a Healthy Gulf. Gulf Future advocates focused on pushing Congress to enact two particular recommendations:
• Legislation to ensure that fines levied against BP and other responsible parties under the Clean Water Act are used for ecosystem restoration in the Gulf, and • Creation of a Gulf of Mexico Regional Citizens Advisory Council that will give local, impacted communities a voice in oversight of oil and gas activity and disaster response plans.
Even as the Senate grilled oil company CEO’s earlier this month about the uber-profitable industry’s $4 billion-a-year taxpayer subsidies, Obama promised to bring more oil and gas reserves online and the House quietly passed HR1231, a bill otherwise known as “Reversing President Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act”.
On Thursday, May 12th, the House passed HR1231 to literally force oil drilling off most of America’s coasts. An amendment by Representative Corinne Brown of Florida which would make permanent the current moratorium on drilling, which protects the eastern Gulf of Mexico until 2022, was voted down twice. Republican Representative Bill Young of Florida, a longtime proponent of protecting the eastern Gulf of Mexico voted for the final bill even though it did not include language protecting the Gulf.
And, what about over in the Senate? On May 16th the bill was sent to the Senate with no further action taken. The eastern Gulf and America’s pristine coasts need folks in the Senate to push back. Senator Mary Landrieu may look to insert language equivalent to HR1231 into her bill, S861, which could decide the use and destination of BP’s Clean Water Act fines and penalties. Regarding the CWA fines and penalties, competing Senate bills have been filed by Senators Landrieu/Vitter and Senator Bill Nelson of Florida.
While both bills direct money from BP’s fines to the Gulf, there are some important distinctions. The language in Senator Nelson’s bill very pointedly does not create a flow of funds via the governors’ of the Gulf states as Senator Landrieu’s bill does. This is especially important language for Florida, where serious doubt exists that the Governor would accept the funds, or at the very least, use funds for appropriate environmental restoration.
Senator Nelson has strongly supported protection of Florida’s precious coastline against drilling. Please contact Senator Nelson today at (202) 224-5274 to ask him to:
1. keep the eastern Gulf moratorium in place,
2. require that BP’s Clean Water Act fines and penalties go toward restoration,
3. require creation and funding of the Regional Citizens Advisory Council (RCAC). This watchdog group will provide a layer of transparency and accountability that will force oil industry and regulatory agencies to respond to this body when drilling is proposed.
We need a champion in the Senate to help protect the Gulf. Let’s make sure Senator Nelson is that champion.
Cathy Norman, Secretary Treasurer of the Edward Wisner Donation, speaks to me about the presence and persistence of oil on Fourchon Beach and throughout the Wisner donation.The sandstone Cathy holds are mottled with brown, degraded oil from the BP disaster.
On Tuesday Jonathan and I traveled to Fourchon Beach, on the Wisner Donation Property, to meet with Cathy Norman and Forrest Travirca of Wisner and discuss the trials and tribulations of maintaining this important front line of defense against storms, despite the impact of BP’s oil and the clean-up response.Much oil from the Macondo blowout remains on the beach, turning one of Louisiana’s treasures into a solid waste disposal site.Some of the mechanical processing of oil has accelerated erosion of the beach to the point of no return.BP’s disaster has halted the ongoing restoration efforts necessary to sustain the island, in a critical time when the island is disappearing before our eyes.
At many locations along Fourchon Beach, amid nesting least terns and feeding sandpipers, clumps of oil wrapped in sand clumps like “oil geodes” litter the beach every few feet.Additional oil can be found by scraping down only inches into the sand.Although from a glance, this may look like a lump of clay, the telltale smell of fresh asphalt confirms that this black and brown goo is degraded oil.
Although the island has been rapidly degrading, losing an average of 46 feet of shoreline a year (more than 20 times the national average), and has lost many of its historic Oak ridges and much of its dune elevation, the beaten barrier beach continues to protect the marshes and population behind it.It remains a critical feature in the protection of Port Fourchon, the nation’s gateway to offshore oil production, and the LOOP pipeline, a 3-foot pipe carrying only about half of the United States’ domestic refinery capacity.
Although oil rigs and shrimp vessels dominate the horizon, the beach provides a critical refuge for birds--resting areas for those migrating on the Mississippi Flyway, and nesting areas for many Least Terns, and the threatened Wilson’s Plover.Gulf Sturgeon overwinter in Caminada and Belle passes on either end of the island, and the protected marshes beyond shelter the shrimp, crab, and fish species we know and eat.
Restoration of Fourchon Beach was delayed by BP’s disaster, and every year of delay will increase the project costs exponentially.
In this location, heavily eroded from wave action, storms, and from truck and heavy machine activity from BP’s clean up, the alluvial mud underneath the sand is exposed to the Gulf of Mexico. In this spot, Fourchon Beach is a beach no more.
Oiled, heavily oiled
The oil that remains is very telling of our misunderstanding of the growth and life of the islands and how that misunderstanding can destroy them.Much of the oil washed ashore during tropical and subtropical events, immediately followed by the large amounts of re-suspended sand that accompany such events.The sand mixed with and covered the oil and the oil was layered into the ground very rapidly, during a time period when clean up crews were evacuated from the site for safety reasons.
Even the small storm Alex was enough to inundate the weakened beach. Resuspended oil and sand is mixed and over-layered so that oil can be found several feet below the top of the beach. (PHOTO CREDIT: NOAA)
Site Investigator Forrest Travirca scrapes away only inches of sand to find layers of oil.The Roseau cane patch growing over the oil patch has few new sprouts this spring.
close up of roseau cane growing through layers of oil and sand, exposed by the tide
A Haunting Reminder (note: disturbing images)
Although we traveled to the beach to talk to the landowners and managers about the oil itself, and its impacts upon the beach, we were met with a haunting reminder of the oil’s toxic effects, and the immense weight of the task that lies before us.Restoring the Gulf from this one event will take the rest of our fleeting lifetimes.As if to show us this, an eight-foot dolphin washed ashore just as we returned from the western edge of the beach.
At first, we thought the animal could be alive.But after several harrowing minutes, we relented our search for signs of life.The LDWF station on Grand Isle was called, and a rare truck was allowed to scour more sand from the beach so that our fellow mammal could be transported to the wildlife station and autopsied.
.
Moments like this fill one with rage, but also a profound humility.We wish those who push for more and unregulated drilling offshore could witness this beach and this lost animal, that they might know that their greed has deathly consequences for us all.
At the very least, our presence on the beach Tuesday will result in an autopsy to determine whether BP’s oil, or an effect of BP’s changing the very biogeochemical nature of the Gulf, is to blame for the animal’s death.On the eastern part of the property, a couple of other dolphin carcasses showed us the fate of most dolphin strandings:if not detected early enough, their bodies are too rotted for autopsy, merely sampled and left for the crabs.
a large dolphin carcass, one of a pair left to decompose on the eastern portion of the beach. According to Forrest, this crime scene is seven months old.
Despite the carnage, despite the remnant oil, the Unified Command response is pushing Wisner to certify that this beach is “NFT,” no further treatment.We beg to differ.
