Check out this USA Today produced video, featuring GRN's Cynthia Sarthou (around the 3 minute mark), on the impacts of the BP oil drilling disaster on recreational and commercial fishing and the health of the Gulf of Mexico.
Our friends at the Louisiana Bucket Brigade have just released an interactive Oil Spill Crisis map. This great tool allows concerned citizens on the ground throughout the Gulf to quickly and easily submit short reports on what is going on in their communities. As BP's oil drilling disaster continues to unfold, it's more and more important that those of us in affected communities monitor what's going on, and how officials are responding in order to make sure that resources get to the places that need them the most. Click on the image below to check out the Crisis map.
As the BP drilling disaster continues to spew oil into the Gulf, it has become pretty apparent that British Petroleum and government officials had little to no plan for dealing with a catastrophe of this magnitude. Instead, blind faith in the impossibility of a major blowout in deepwater, coupled with efforts to push for less restrictive environmental and safety controls on offshore rigs, seems to have been the order of the day.
The toolkit of options for dealing with the BP oil drilling disaster is remarkably small, and none of them are good for the health of Gulf of Mexico and its residents. Unfortunately, we are left choosing which of these bad options is the least harmful. One of these “least worst” options is the use of “in-situ burns” to literally burn the oil off the surface water. There are grave concerns with how this method affects air quality, marine mammals and other marine life, but in theory it could help prevent a large amount of oil from reaching fragile coastal ecosystems.
In practice, there has been little success using this method to deal with the BP oil drilling disaster. Part of the problem is related to choppy waters and the wide dispersal of the oil. Another big part of the problem is that government and BP clean-up teams did not actually own a single fire boom – essential equipment for burning off the oil. According to a recent article in the Mobile Press-Register, the government had long-standing plans to utilize this method for Gulf coast oil spills, yet never bothered to purchase any fire booms! So, what's Plan D?Read the article here.
Both addressed this slow-motion nightmare this weekend, with Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder taking a moment from a blistering set at Jazz Fest to offer a similar thought for BP execs, "Send your sons and daughters to clean up your fu@#ing mess."
And this afternoon, President Barack Obama visited Venice Louisiana, where most of the work is being done to direct and implement the containment efforts. He made the following remarks:
"Now, we just finished a meeting with Admiral Thad Allen, our National Incident Commander for this spill, as well as Coast Guard personnel who are leading the response to this crisis. And they gave me an update on our efforts to stop the BP oil spill and mitigate the damage.
"By the way, I just want to point out, I was told there was drizzling out here -- (laughter) -- is this Louisiana drizzle right here? (Laughter.)
"They gave me a sense of how this spill is moving. It is now about nine miles off the coast of southeastern Louisiana. And by the way, we had the Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, as well as parish presidents who were taking part in this meeting, because we want to emphasize the importance of coordinating between local, state, and federal officials throughout this process.
"Now, I think the American people are now aware, certainly the folks down in the Gulf are aware, that we're dealing with a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster. The oil that is still leaking from the well could seriously damage the economy and the environment of our Gulf states and it could extend for a long time. It could jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who call this place home.
GRN's board member, and coastal Mississippi-based environmental attorney Robert Wiygul, pointed out to us, that BP's federally registered plan for the development of this oil field included, and required, no plan to deal with the worst-case scenerio (such as the one currently threatening the North Central Gulf's coast and communities). An AP article inspired by this information reports:
BP's plan filed with the federal Minerals Management Service for the Deepwater Horizon well, dated February 2009, says repeatedly that it was "unlikely that an accidental surface or subsurface oil spill would occur from the proposed activities."
And while the company conceded that a spill would "cause impacts" to beaches, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas, it argued that "due to the distance to shore (48 miles) and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts are expected."
No significant impacts? With a state of emergency declared in Louisiana, the Feds calling it "of National significance," it's hard to argue that now. Of course, this development plan was submitted under a Bush-administration led Minerals Management Service which belived in a collaborative approach with industry, and has led directly to this Gulf Coast crisis.
It has been eight days since the deep Water Horizon sank into the Gulf of Mexico. Today, the GRN continued to monitor the situation on the front lines. Early this morning I went out on a boat with Captain Raymond Schmitt, activists Jo Billups and Karen Harvill, and Reuters/Greenpeace photographer Sean Gardner from New Orleans. We spent most of the day in the Delta National Wildlife Refuge assessing the area for impacts and monitoring what efforts were underway to protect the birds and wildlife in this area.
We were SHOCKED at what we found. Virtually nothing had been done to protect the estuary from the impending disaster. We saw countless beautiful flocks of birds nesting, feeding, and carrying on like a normal day in paradise. Where were the booms? Where were the boats? Where were the thousands of people and 50+ vessels that BP and the Coast Guard are doing everything they can to protect this vital habitat?
Our cameras tell a much different story than what we’ve been hearing in the media. We saw miles and miles and miles of federally recognized refuge habitat that is simply on its own to face the oil sheen that had already begun creeping in. Basically, we saw birds in the bulls eye.
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When we finally made it out to the end of South East Pass, we did come across some booms that had been set up to protect another area. Yet, as the pictures we took clearly show, if these booms are all those birds have standing between them and millions of gallons of oil, they're in trouble, and so are we. Just as these birds will be no match for this BP Oil drilling disaster, these booms are no match for the breaking waves and high seas that occur whenever the wind blows. This is a man made disaster and tragedy and today only made that all the more clear.
Jonathan Henderson is GRN's resilient communities organizer
Ben Raines at the Mobile Press-Register is reporting on a confidential government report which reveals new concerns that BP's drilling disaster could become “an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.” According to the report, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials are afraid that additional new leaks from the underground riser pipe are a sign that the pipe is eroding from within and the Coast Guard is now “preparing for the worst case scenario.”
This worst case scenario could involve upwards of 2.1 million gallons of oil a day. The largest oil spill in US waters, Exxon-Valdez, released around 11 million gallons of oil. Some independent analysts are suggesting that BP's oil drilling disaster has already released 6 million gallons of crude into the waters of the Gulf. Any further increase could spell even more significant consequences for the health of the Gulf of Mexico and all of us who call this region home. Read the article in the Press-Register here.
As we speak, GRN’s Jonathan Henderson is on the water touring the Delta National Wildlife Refuge in coastal Louisiana near the mouth of the Mississippi River. The first reports of oil from the BP drilling disaster making landfall occurred near this area last night.
According to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Delta NWR’s “lush vegetation is the food source for a multitude of fish, waterfowl and animals.” In fact, tens of thousands of waterfowl winter on the refuge, and large numbers of other bird species can also be found, with their numbers “peaking during the spring and fall migrations.” Jonathan and his companions saw hundreds of individual birds and several different species today in the refuge.
There was something missing though. They didn’t see a single boom, or a single clean-up boat, or any kind of protection whatsoever, for this pristine estuary and the wildlife that inhabit it. Thankfully, the oil has not yet reached this area, but it is likely just a matter of time.
Members of our staff have taken several plane rides and trips since last weekend and a pattern is beginning to emerge. BP officials continue to insist that herculean efforts are being employed on the ground and in the air to contain the spill and protect communities and wildlife. Yet, when we flew over the site of BP’s oil drilling disaster on Monday, we saw only a few boats employed for clean-up. Now, the miles upon miles of booms supposedly being deployed are nowhere to be found around one of the most pristine and ecologically important coastal marshes.
Stay tuned for pictures from Jonathan’s boat ride, and check out a map of the Delta NWR here. Some of the areas on the map that Jonathan visited include Dead Women Bend, Buoy Pond, and Goose Island Inside Pass.
Gulf Oil Spill Rate Must be Much Higher Than Stated - 6 million gallons so far?
"Based on SkyTruth's latest satellite observations today of the size of the oil slick and published data on the thickness of floating oil at sea that produces a visible sheen (1 micron, or 0.000001 meters) we think the official estimate of the spill rate from the damaged well has been significantly too low.
Immediately after the Deepwater Horizon rig sank on April 22, the Coast Guard estimated that the well was leaking 336,000 gallons (8,000 barrels) of oil per day. But for the past few days they've estimated the rate at 42,000 gallons (1,000 barrels) per day. We think it's actually a lot closer to their original estimate..."
(Laughter.)
