This morning I set out on a long flight to investigate reports of oil sightings near BP’s Macondo well, the site where the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank into the Gulf killing 11 workers and spewing at least 4.9 million barrels of oil. Whenever I here reports like this I tend to get antsy and want to fly out to see for myself so I can document and report back. So, thanks to the generous support of Lamar Billups, I was lucky enough to fly again with Bonny Schumaker of the nonprofit On Wings of Care and GRN’s Canvass Director, Tarik Zawia. You can read Bonny's report from the flyover here. It was a long and productive flight so there are lots of things that I could write about. Nevertheless, I will cut to the chase and just highlight the most important things.
First, we spotted oil on the surface above the exact location where the Deepwater Horizon and Macondo well are located, in Mississippi Canyon Block 252. Take a look at the captions in the photos for coordinates. Obviously, from the air I cannot confirm that the oil is BP’s and from their Macondo well. I can only report that I spotted oil above that location. I reported this to the National Response Center and had a lengthy conversation with a Coast Guard official. Notice that the oil seems to be clustered in round formations. I have no idea why or how this could happen and neither could the USGC official. I can only speculate. The formations are clearly rainbow in color and in some cases have also a brownish tint. Take a look:
Second, we spotted an oil slick near the Taylor energy leak that has been leaking since 2004. The last time I visited this site was in the spring (with Bonny) and there were no boats or rigs nearby. I posted a blog about the leak then, but if you missed it please have a look here. I also filed a report with the National Response Center and filed a Freedom of Information Act Request with the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement seeking any and all information on the leak, particularly what was being done to stop it and enforce the Clean Water Act fines and penalties that should be levied. Today there was, once again, activity at the location. Go figure. It looks as if there is a submersible deployed from the vessel just above where the leak is emanating from.
Third, we spotted two or three leaks in and around Breton Sound. I say maybe two or three because two of the leaks may be connected. With at least two of the leaks there are clear sources of the oil. Again, check the photo captions for coordinates.
Finally, the best news of the day was that we spotted 4 Whale Sharks and three Sperm Whales! It was nice to see something spectacular and happy. We also saw Bottlenose dolphins, Hammerhead sharks, sting rays and lots of schools of fish! By far, that was the highlight of the day.
I have a feeling this is not the last we will be hearing about what all was documented today and I am sure lots of questions will be coming my way once this blog gets posted and reposted (please share!). In the meantime, take a moment to help protect the Gulf and those amazing creatures we spotted today by taking action on our action page, Bpdrillingdisaster.org. If anything, today’s multiple oil sightings just screams for the need for a Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council to watchdog what is going on out there.
Jonathan Henderson is the Coastal Resiliency Organizer for GRN.
This morning, I had the opportunity, courtesy of South Wings, to fly up the Pearl River to get an aerial view of any remaining dead aquatic life, and of the plant that admitted fault for the fish kill, Temple-Inland. The good news is that we didn’t see a ton of dead fish from the air (GRN’s Coastal Wetland Specialist is on a boat today to see what he can see from the surface of the Pearl). There were clean-up crews collecting dead fish as we flew over them.
The most disgusting thing that we saw on the flight was the “treatment” pond that Temple-Inland uses for their waste. Check out the slide show, some of the pics of their pond and disgusting, and it is unbelievable how the State of Louisiana allows this waste to be so close to a river as beautiful as the Pearl.
The Times-Picayune also has some compelling pictures which were taken when they accompanied us on our flight.
Also, if you haven’t done so yet, check out our other blogs on this disaster:
People of the Pearl River are feeling their stomachs drop at news of the latest “fish kill” which seems more of a “River Kill.”Temple-Inland’s “slug” of “black liquor” –an untreated mash of tannins, lye, soaps, sulfuric and other unknown compounds that is the regular waste of the pulping process—Temple-Inland pumped their noxious slug of extra-awful chemical waste into our Pearl from around this past Tuesday to about Sunday noon, creating an acute decrease in oxygen as it passed downstream, suffocating much life in the water.The long term effects have yet to be projected.
When Blue Water turns all the colors of the Rainbow
A while back, Jonathan Henderson and I were graciously invited to fly with Bonny Schumaker and On Wings of Care, in order to scope for whale sharks, to document an ongoingoilrelease from one of the 27,000 abandoned wells in the Gulf, and to check on the land built by the West Bay Diversion. The flight was an amazing experience, a reminder of what beauty the Gulf holds, the vast and multitudinous threat that beauty faces, and the immediate need for an RCAC, a citizen’s group to fly the Gulf and witness for it.
Taylor Energy’s 30 mile long oil slick, off of the Birdfoot delta.
What we saw on the flight was as important as what we didn't see.
Last Saturday, I joined a group of local citizens, along with GRN’s Scott Eustis, on a canoe trip down the Bowie River near Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The Bowie River, which is also sometimes known as the Bouie, is popular spot for fishing and canoeing, but portions of the river have also been severely damaged by a polluting sewage treatment plant and historic mining activities which have turned parts of the river into mined-out lakebeds. Besides enjoying a beautiful stretch of river, we were interested in seeing first-hand how the Hattiesburg North sewage lagoon is impacting the health of the river.
Our trip began along a relatively pristine stretch of the river, with little riverside development, clear water that allowed us to spot the shiners and other fish below the surface, and beautiful cypress trees and other foliage along the riverside. I even managed to take an unintentional dip in the cool water when our canoe tipped over along the way!
Hanging out by Bowie Upstream of the Sewage OutfallAfter several members of our group took a break on a sandbar right before the sewage outfall, we preceded onward to the not-so-pleasant part of the journey. Once we reached the area where the sewage lagoon dumps into the river, a strong odor was immediately apparent. Scott, who had been testing the clarity of the water with a tool called a secchi disk throughout the trip, quickly began to notice brown “biosolid” flakes in the water which formed a disgusting bath tub ring around his kayak. The pools of slack water immediately downstream, populated with bottom feeders like gar and mullet, were essentially acting as extensions of the sewage lagoon – continuing to process the human waste that the lagoon had failed to. As you can imagine, we rushed to put as much distance as possible between us and the sewage lagoon!
Over the weekend, there were many reports regarding a massive fish kill on the Pearl River, with the pollution causing this die-off emanating from Bogalusa. Check out some pics here…they aren’t pretty. While an official cause of the death of thousands of fish, turtles, and other critters that live in the river has not been determined, pollution from the Temple-Inland paper mill in Bogalusa is a prime suspect.
This paper plant spewed “black liquor”, a by-product of the papermaking process, in to the Pearl. While one of the impacts of this nasty stuff can be reducing oxygen levels in the water making it impossible for fish and other creatures to survive, it also contains other potentially nasty stuff. For example, components of black liquor are used to make turpentine.
While the agencies investigate this disaster unfolding on the Pearl, I am afraid that that they will not look into the acute and chronic impacts of pollution that was released into the river. It is obvious that low/no dissolved oxygen is not the only cause of the fish kill. For example, turtles breathe air, just like you and me, and yet they have been documented dead in the River.
LDEQ claims that if Temple-Inland is found responsible, there will be hefty fines…I would hope so.
This year's MS River flooding was another missed opportunity for land building that would protect Louisiana's CoastLast week, I joined policymakers and scientists at a meeting to discuss reducing Dead Zone pollution in the Gulf and environmental restoration issues. The Gulf of Mexico Alliance and the Hypoxia Task Force held a three day meeting in New Orleans aiming to convince policymakers in the Gulf and in the Midwest to work together to reduce the amount of urban and agricultural runoff that travels to the Gulf each year by way of the Mississippi River.
This focus on the Dead Zone (the “hypoxic zone” in tech-speak), was timely as this year’s Dead Zone measurement was just released. The panels and working groups discussed the myriad of challenges and solutions to addressing this problem and proposed creating a coordinated framework of action to better understand how priorities overlap. One reoccurring theme in many of these discussions was the need for better funding of programs and projects aimed at implementing solutions as well as the need for improvement in outreach and public education.
New Orleans, LA—EPA has denied a petition to implement a clean-up plan for an aquatic Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, despite heavy economic losses to the U.S. fishing industry and continued research that shows the Dead Zone has doubled in size since 1985. This week, scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium completed their annual measurement of the Gulf Dead Zone, which measured 6,765 square miles and is larger than the state of Connecticut. Members of The Mississippi River Collaborative had petitioned the EPA to set numeric limits on the discharge of pollutants that feed the Dead Zone. However, last week EPA declined to take responsibility for setting regulations that would address the problem of lackluster and hodge-podge individual states’ water pollution regulation.
The Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico is an area where there is not enough oxygen in the water to support marine life. It forms every summer, caused by high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution draining from the Mississippi River watershed. The pollution stimulates excessive growth of algae, or blooms. When the dying algae decays it uses up most of the oxygen in the water, which chokes marine life. The pollution comes from chemical fertilizer escaping farm fields, sewage treatment plant discharges, and polluted runoff from cities. These sources of pollution are along the entire length of the Mississippi River.
“Just days before the announcement that the measured size of the Dead Zone is larger-than-average, the EPA declined to take actions to limit Dead Zone-causing pollution and to implement a clean-up plan,” said Matt Rota, Science and Water Policy Director for the Gulf Restoration Network. “The Dead Zone is detrimental to Gulf sea life and the coastal residents’ way of life, and yet EPA continues to rely on the states to do things they have failed to do for well over a decade.”
Despite the fact that the Dead Zone has ballooned over the past thirty years, EPA denied the petition, filed in 2008 by members of the Mississippi River Collaborative, which asked for immediate action to set numeric limits on Dead Zone-causing pollution in the Mississippi River and Gulf, as well as create an enforceable clean-up plan for the Dead Zone.
Tomorrow evening, a very important meeting will be held in Chalmette, Louisiana concerning the 2012 Louisiana State Master Plan (the Plan). The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority has announced a series of regional community meetings, beginning in Chalmette, to share information about the Plan. Over the next few months, they will be developing a draft to submit to the 2012 State Legislature. Now is the time for the public to offer ideas and learn about the Plan. There are nine meetings being held in different locations throughout south Louisiana. However, none of the meetings is scheduled for New Orleans so GRN recommends that people in the New Orleans are attend one or more of the other meetings and to become as informed as possible. While some may consider New Orleans not to be a coastal community, we all know that so goes the coast, so goes the future of the Crescent City.
Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan Regional Community Meeting St. Bernard Parish Council Chambers 8201 W Judge Perez Dr. Chalmette, LA
The 2012 Master Plan will be an expansion of the 2007 Master Plan and will present a new approach for considering the future of coastal Louisiana. According to the Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration, the 2012 Plan will provide answers to two critical questions: how bad is the coastal crisis going to get, and what is Louisiana going to do about it? The Plan will describe Louisiana’s erosion problem and how flooding will affect people, businesses, and the coastal environment. The hope is to inform communities and their leaders so they will know what to expect and can better prepare for the future. The Plan will propose projects that will mitigate against flooding risks using a range of methods, from levees to elevation of homes. The Plan will propose projects that are designed to restore the coast and to help support communities, industries, and commercial operations. The projects under consideration generally fall into one of these categories:
But, where are these projects going to be located? Which areas of marsh will be selected for plantings? Which communities will be impacted by fresh water or sediment diversions? What flood control projects will or will not be funded? Which communities will get levee protection? Which ones will be left to defend themselves from rising sea levels and more powerful storms? The State admittedly cannot entirely fix the coast and the Plan will present the legislature with a suite of investment options that are the most cost effective and sound investments from the State’s perspective. Clearly, there will be winners and losers which makes these meetings that much more important for residents of coastal Louisiana. Knowledge is power and those who are aware of what is being planned for the future of their communities will be better poised to adapt where necessary. So, for a complete listing of the upcoming meetings and more information about the 2012 Master Plan, please visit here.
Jonathan Henderson is the Coastal Resiliency Organizer For GRN.
