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The BP spill in the Gulf: One year later

Friday, April 29, 2011 by: J. D. Heyes




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(NaturalNews.com) - It's been called the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, and rightfully so, if for no other reason than because, one year later, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is like the nightmare gift that keeps on giving, some experts are saying.

The Deepwater Horizon exploration platform, which was drilling in the BP-operated Macando Prospect 40-odd miles off the coast of Louisiana, exploded in a ball of flame April 20, 2010. The explosion killed 11 people, injured 17 others and fractured the extraction pipe, gushing an estimated 200 million gallons of oil over the next 95 days in a region that has been called one of the most important ecosystems in all of North America. The well was finally capped on July 17. The relief well process was completed on Sept. 19, and the federal government officially declared the well "dead."

The spill caused an immediate impact on Gulf-related industry, as well as leveling severe damage to marine and wildlife habitats all up down the Gulf Coast. The spill impacted as much as 320 miles of Louisiana coastline at its peak. After being closed throughout much of the summer, the shrimping industry was suspended once again in November in about 4,200 square miles of Gulf when tar balls were discovered in shrimp nets.

In January Frances Beinecke, appointed to a special commission to examine the causes of the disaster and make recommendations to prevent future accidents, said "tar balls were continuing to wash up on shore, and that oil sheen trails were being seen in the wake of fishing boats. Wetlands and marshlands were still in decline and dying; crude oil lay offshore in deep water, as well as fine silts and sands onshore."

Though skimmer ships, floating containment booms, dispersants and other measures were employed to sop up the oil and prevent the bulk of it from reaching shore, oil still found its way there, and in great amounts. More of it, in fact, that many experts believe BP was willing to admit.

The Obama administration pointed the finger of blame squarely at BP, even holding the oil giant responsible for picking up the tab for deploying the National Guard in support of recovery efforts. The company, for its part, set up a $20 billion compensation fund, having approved more than 300,000 claims and paying out $3.8 billion by the spill's anniversary date. But the jury is still out on the spill's final costs and damage estimates.

In all, according to RestoreTheGulf.gov, a Web site established by the government to track progress in cleaning up the spill, 800,000-plus barrels of oily water were recovered and nearly 1.8 million gallons if dispersant was deployed in an attempt to clear the Gulf.

How have the efforts faired? You will get different responses to that question.

On the one hand, one report said this week, there are some good signs. Scientists found thriving schools of fish when they attempted late last year to gauge the effects of the spill.

"Trawling surveys done in the fall of 2010 caught triple the number of marine creatures as prior years," said a report in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. "With no one netting them, it seemed, the fish were surging."

But that bit of good news comes with caveats. For example, Blair Mase, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marine mammal stranding coordinator, says deaths of dolphins in the region this year is exceptionally high, and that the spill could be playing a major role.

"We're trying to determine what's causing this. It could be infectious related. Or it could be non-infection," she said, noting that her agency was examining a number of causes, including the spill, infectious disease and biotoxins.

In addition, some of the region's best sporting fish and species of seafood are turning up with heinous-looking, uncharacteristic lesions.

Perhaps more telling, scientists say there is a hefty amount of oil left - perhaps even more than what spilled during the Exxon-Valdez disaster off the coast of Alaska in 1989 (about 257,000 barrels of oil).

There are also reports that the spill is having effects on Gulf Coast residents as well. Darryl Malek-Wiley, environmental justice organizer with Sierra Club, said in an interview this week that the combination of oil and the dispersants used to clean it up are taking their toll.

"Some of the people who are sick, they're taking samples of their blood and they're finding the chemicals that make up the dispersants in their blood, as well as Louisiana sweet crude, and having serious health impacts," he said. "Loss of memory, rashes, sinus. Some folks we've talked with, they forget where they're going. They forget who you are. And these are men, all of them were fishermen in relatively good physical shape."

As for the seafood industry, the government says its tests have not turned up any safety concerns, noting that samples of swordfish, tuna and other fin fish have found "no detectable oil or dispersant odors or flavors," according to the Globe and Mail. But perhaps more telling is that a number of experts don't believe the spill has led to any meaningful reform.

"The BP oil spill is, potentially, a 'cultural anomaly' for institutional changes in environmental management and fossil fuel production," a study by P. Devereaux Jennings of the Alberta university and Andrew Hoffman of the University of Michigan concluded. They added that a "true change in our approach to handling issues related to oil drilling, oil consumption and environmental management have yet to occur."

Adds Beinecke: "Today Americans have the right to ask: are we any safer than we were last April? At the broadest level, the answer is no."

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032230_BP_sp ... z1KuvxDQrP



http://www.naturalnews.com/032230_BP_sp ... exico.html

Well oil company make own billonaire doing a big damage and in respond price oil go up,what king a goverment we have?

Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists



Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause.

by Dahr Jamail
Al Jazeera English

New Orleans, LA - "The fishermen have never seen anything like this," Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this either."

Dr Cowan, with Louisiana State University's Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences started hearing about fish with sores and lesions from fishermen in November 2010.

Cowan's findings replicate those of others living along vast areas of the Gulf Coast that have been impacted by BP's oil and dispersants.

Gulf of Mexico fishermen, scientists and seafood processors have told Al Jazeera they are finding disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP's 2010 oil disaster.

Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp - and interviewees' fingers point towards BP's oil pollution disaster as being the cause. (excerpt)

Eyeless shrimp

Tracy Kuhns and her husband Mike Roberts, commercial fishers from Barataria, Louisiana, are finding eyeless shrimp.

"At the height of the last white shrimp season, in September, one of our friends caught 400 pounds of these," Kuhns told Al Jazeera while showing a sample of the eyeless shrimp.

According to Kuhns, at least 50 per cent of the shrimp caught in that period in Barataria Bay, a popular shrimping area that was heavily impacted by BP's oil and dispersants, were eyeless. Kuhns added: "Disturbingly, not only do the shrimp lack eyes, they even lack eye sockets."

"Some shrimpers are catching these out in the open Gulf [of Mexico]," she added, "They are also catching them in Alabama and Mississippi. We are also finding eyeless crabs, crabs with their shells soft instead of hard, full grown crabs that are one-fifth their normal size, clawless crabs, and crabs with shells that don't have their usual spikes � they look like they've been burned off by chemicals." (excerpt)

BP's chemicals?

"The dispersants used in BP's draconian experiment contain solvents, such as petroleum distillates and 2-butoxyethanol. Solvents dissolve oil, grease, and rubber," Dr Riki Ott, a toxicologist, marine biologist and Exxon Valdez survivor told Al Jazeera. "It should be no surprise that solvents are also notoriously toxic to people, something the medical community has long known".

The dispersants are known to be mutagenic, a disturbing fact that could be evidenced in the seafood deformities. Shrimp, for example, have a life-cycle short enough that two to three generations have existed since BP's disaster began, giving the chemicals time to enter the genome.

Pathways of exposure to the dispersants are inhalation, ingestion, skin, and eye contact. Health impacts can include headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pains, chest pains, respiratory system damage, skin sensitisation, hypertension, central nervous system depression, neurotoxic effects, cardiac arrhythmia and cardiovascular damage. They are also teratogenic - able to disturb the growth and development of an embryo or fetus - and carcinogenic.

Cowan believes chemicals named polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), released from BP's submerged oil, are likely to blame for what he is finding, due to the fact that the fish with lesions he is finding are from "a wide spatial distribution that is spatially coordinated with oil from the Deepwater Horizon, both surface oil and subsurface oil. A lot of the oil that impacted Louisiana was also in subsurface plumes, and we think there is a lot of it remaining on the seafloor". (excerpt)


Please read the entire article, here

Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists - Features - Al Jazeera English

Now this truly is disgusting.

The Gulf of Mexico is producing horribly mutated and tumorous
shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking
claws, eyeless crustaceans, and worse.

I've seen TWO versions of this story, one from Associated Press and
another from Al Jazeera English. CNN, FOX, MSNBC, and others don't
appear to have much to say on the subject.

The Associated Press simply glossed over some of the illnesses
being found in seafood from the Gulf of Mexico and focused on the
BP funded researchers who claim the cause is --gasp-- a mystery.

The Al Jazeera story goes in-depth, interviews several independent
researchers and marine biologists, discusses the larger
implications for marine life in the Gulf, and details the levels of
which this is related to the BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Which version would you like to see?

Video:

New Orleans: Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists

Goodman Green
- Brasscheck

P.S. Please share Brasscheck TV e-mails and
videos with friends and colleagues.

That's how we grow. Thanks.

BP oil spill 2 years later



Politicians, scientists, environmental groups comment on BP oil spill anniversary

By Mark Schleifstein
The Times-Picayune / NOLA.com

A variety of individuals and organizations addressed the second anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which occurred on Friday:

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser:

"Early indications are that our oyster reefs are suffering, our fish and shrimp populations have decreased and there is still concern of ongoing diseases in mammals such as dolphins. The effects of the crude oil spilled onto our shores may be long and troubling.

"Countless members of our community were injured as a result of the spill and major economic consequences have been visited upon the citizens of Plaquemines Parish as a result of the spill, the fishing moratorium, the drilling moratorium and the overall affect on our fisheries. Those injuries continue as does the injury to our Parish.

"We intend to aggressively press forward to seek a fair and just resolution of this case. We have independent scientists assessing our fishing grounds, and our economic loss from the spill and will ensure that the health and welfare of our citizens is monitored and assessed.

"Plaquemines Parish is looking to BP to keep its promise to our citizens. We will not rest until our coastline is fully restored."

Scientists who co-authored "A Tale of Two Spills: Novel Science and Policy Implications of an Emerging New Oil Spill Model," in the journal Bioscience:

"The old model assumed that oil would simply float up to the surface and accumulate there and along the coastline. That model works well for pipeline breaks and tanker ruptures, but it is inadequate for this novel type of deep blowout" said co-author Sean Anderson, an associate professor at California State University Channel Islands.

"As the Deepwater Horizon spill unfolded, you would hear folks saying things like, 'We all know what happens when oil and water mix; the oil floats.' That wasn't the whole story, and that oversimplification initially sent us down an incorrect path full of assumptions and actions that were not the best possible use of our time and effort," Anderson said.

"We have generally hailed the use of [chemical] dispersants as helpful, but really are basing this on the fact we seemed to have kept oil from getting to the surface. The truth is, much of this oil probably was staying at depth, independent of the amount of surfactants we dumped into the ocean. And we dumped a lot of dispersants into the ocean -- all told, approximately one-third of the global supply," said co-author Gary Cherr, director of the University of California-Davis's Bodega Marine Lab.

Melanie Driscoll, ornithologist with the National Audubon Society:

"The brown pelican, poster child for the Deepwater Horizon disaster, represents all of the birds in the Gulf. We know that 826 of them were collected dead or alive. We do not yet know a multiplier to estimate how much of the population was acutely oiled.

"We do know that oil has accelerated the loss of the mangroves in which they breed, accelerated erosion of their beaches and the marshes that produce their food. We know that the developing offspring of birds are often the most affected by exposure to oil, subject to mutations, low birth weight, failure to thrive, cancers, failure to reproduce, and sometimes death. For long-lived species such as pelicans, the young do not normally begin to breed until their third or fourth breeding season. We will not begin to see the effect on their reproductive lives for at least two more breeding seasons. And, because they were delisted prior to the spill, money for regular surveys is gone, and so we have lost continuity in one of the most valuable bird datasets along the Gulf Coast.

"We know how oil affects any organism depends on many factors. These include the type of oil, how weathered it is, the route of transmission, what has consumed it, how much of it has been concentrated into the body tissues of the organism, and how long they have been exposed.

"The National Center for Ecological Assessment and Synthesis out of the University of California, Santa Barbara, has shown that in wetlands benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylenes continue to volatilize, damaging and killing insects, increasing prevalence of the Vibrio vulnificus bacteria, which causes problems for oysters and the organisms that eat them, reducing growth in mussels, and damaging coral reefs."

The Ocean Conservancy:

"A NOAA-commissioned study of 32 dolphins living in Barataria Bay, an area of the Gulf known to be heavily oiled, found that many of them were underweight, anemic and showing signs of lung and liver disease. Nearly half were also found to have adrenal insufficiency, a condition that interferes with basic life functions such as metabolism and the immune system.

"While most of the dolphins were still alive at the end of the study, researchers have indicated that survival prospects for the sick dolphins are grim. Their prognosis is troubling because the Gulf dolphin population has been facing what scientists call an unusual mortality event over the last two years. Since February 2010, more than 675 dolphins have stranded in the northern Gulf of Mexico - compared to the usual average of 74 dolphins per year - and the majority of those stranded have been found dead.

"But dolphins aren't the only Gulf animals in trouble. Researchers looking at deep ocean corals seven miles from the spill source found dead and dying corals coated in a brown substance that was later chemically linked to oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon spill.

"The deepwater corals are valuable as indicators of ecosystem health because they provide a unique habitat for other species. 'Think of them as an oasis in the middle of this cold, deep area of the ocean,' said Ocean Conservancy Conservation Biologist Alexis Baldera. "If the damaged corals don't recover quickly, it could have significant impacts on other species that depend on them.' "

Read more here
Politicians, scientists, environmental groups comment on BP oil spill anniversary | NOLA.com

Two years ago the worst maritime oil spill in history took place in
the Gulf of Mexico, but everything is just fine because BP cleaned
it all up. That is, if you ask BP or people paid by BP.

The truth of the matter is that the worst of what they have done is
still hidden from us.

Abby Martin reports on BP's public relations campaign and what it's
leaving out...

Video:

Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe: BP oil spill 2 years later

Goodman Green
- Brasscheck

P.S. Please share Brasscheck TV e-mails and
videos with friends and colleagues.

That's how we grow. Thanks.

Sunday, April 22, 2012
America's Gulf Disaster Revisited
Dees Illustration
Stephen Lendman, Contributor
Activist Post

April 20 marked the two year anniversary of BP's Gulf of Mexico disaster. Until Fukushima Daiichi's catastrophic nuclear meltdown, it was the largest ever environmental calamity.

It has devastated the lives of millions of area residents. It contaminated America's Gulf. Nothing in it is safe to eat.

The incident has been plagued by coverup, denial, and Obama administration complicity to assure nothing slows hazardous deep water drilling.

In 2010, as disastrous conditions unfolded, Dahr Jamail reported firsthand from the Gulf. He's now discussing the aftermath. On April 18, he headlined, "Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists," saying:

Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause.

He quoted Louisiana State University’s Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences Dr. Jim Cowan saying:

And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I’ve never seen anything like this either.


He's not alone. Gulf fishermen, seafood processors, and other scientists report "disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP’s 2010 oil disaster."

Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp – and interviewees’ fingers point towards BP’s oil pollution disaster as being the cause.

Jamail also cited concerns about continued Macondo well leakage. Overhead flights show large oil sheen covered areas. Evidence confirms it's from Macondo. What began two years ago didn't end. "Experts believe" seabed seepage is responsible.

Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) data confirm highly toxic BP oil still contaminates the Gulf. Affected residents experience it harmful effects.

Seepage is common wherever offshore drilling occurs. According to University of California's Ira Leifer, "From what I've seen, this new oil and sheen definitely seemed larger than typical natural (Gulf) seepages...."

BP, of course, denies it is from Macondo. Throughout 2010, the company misreported repeatedly. Initially it said 1,000 barrels a day were leaking, then 5,000, then larger volumes still well below actual amounts. Estimates ranged up to 100,000 or more daily barrels.

For months, company officials grossly downplayed the severity of the crisis. Coverup and denial continues. Contaminated areas are vast. America's Gulf may never fully recover. Neither will millions of area residents.

On April 20, the Institute for Southern Studies (ISS) headlined, "Troubled Waters: Gulf communities still reeling two years into BP disaster," saying:

BP claims recovery's on the way. Hard evidence proves otherwise. A new ISS report's titled, "Troubled Waters: Two Years After the BP Oil Disaster, a Struggling Gulf Coast Calls for National Leadership for Recovery," saying:

Area residents report oil still washing up on Gulf shores. Without help, affected people and communities face challenges likely too great to overcome.

Gulfport, MS community leader Derrick Evans addressed BP's April 2012 shareholders meeting. "The oil is not gone," he said. "The general perception is that BP made a mess and BP did a big cleanup and everything is all fine. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Two years later, the reality facing Gulf residents is sobering and disturbing. Their struggle to overcome what BP wrought continues. Economic hardships persist. So do serious health problems.

Some communities lost their way of life entirely. Others face uncertain futures. Many residents are sick and depressed. They've gotten precious little help. ISS produced its report cooperatively with Bridge the Gulf Project and the Gulf Coast Fund. They focused on three areas in particularly hard hit communities:

(1) Making a living

Thousands of fishing boats were idled. Many over-indebted fishermen shut down entirely. Local groups try helping best they can. They need federal and BP help not forthcoming.

(2) Restoring the coast

Every hour, Louisiana "loses a football-field sized chunk of coast land" from erosion and "energy industry activity." Residents need federal help restoring their fragile coastline.

(3) Protecting public health

Residents report alarming numbers and types of illnesses. Clearly they're toxic oil and dispersants related. Organizations like the Louisiana Environmental Action Network try to help. It's not enough. Much more is needed.

Overall, recovery is an unfulfilled dream. Achieving it's barely begun. BP turns a blind eye. Washington largely does the same. The suffering of millions persists.

The Government Accountability Project (GAP) "promote(s) government accountability....protect(s) whistleblowers, advanc(es) free speech, and empower(s) citizen activists."

Since 1977, it's been "the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization." It's also on the BP story. It's been investigating it since last summer. Whistleblowers report disastrous health tragedies.

Sometime this summer, GAP will release its report on how bad. Numerous ailments are known. Many thousands experience everything from skin irritation, vomiting, and rectal bleeding to kidney, liver, central nervous system and brain damage, hypertension, miscarriages, birth defects, and lesions.

Expect an eventual epidemic of cancers and other serious diseases. Expect pathetically little federal or BP help. The oil giant's settlement provides no healthcare. Accepting it means foregoing the right to sue.

Pursuing legal redress means years of delays, obstruction, appeals, and other ways clever lawyers use to deny just compensation.

BP's legacy will linger for decades. Peoples' lives were irreparably harmed. Environmental contamination is severe. Crude oil alone harms human health. Corexit dispersants contain hazardous carcinogens like 2-BTE (2-butoxyethanol).

Dangers they pose depend on length and amount of exposure. Children, pregnant women, the elderly and infirm are most vulnerable. No one's immune. Drinking toxic water or eating contaminated seafood assures any number of current and future health problems.

Blame it on America's rage to drill, and irresponsible oil giants like BP. They do it recklessly with no regard for worker safety, environmental protection, or human health.

The company's known for having the industry's worst safety and environmental record. It's responsible for numerous willful negligence incidents. Some cause deaths and injuries. All harm human health and are environmentally destructive.

Only profits matter, not social responsibility or legal obligations. BP's a serial scofflaw. Regulatory laxity and political Washington complicity let it pollute freely with impunity. Once a violator, always one, and it goes way beyond BP. America's a scofflaw's paradise.

On April 19, investigative journalist Greg Palast headlined, "BP Covered Up Blow-out Two Years Prior to Deadly Deepwater Horizon Spill," saying:

Eco-Watch.org "located an eyewitness with devastating new information" about BP covering up a Caspian Sea blowout. Rig workers back the account.

At issue was cutting corners irresponsibly. Coverup let BP replicate its shortcut in America's Gulf. In September 2008, BP's first blowout occurred off Baku, Azerbaijan's coast.

Witnesses told Palast they were evacuated from BP's platform as it filled with dangerous methane. They confirmed:

'(T)here was mud (drill-pipe cement) blown out all over the platform.' The cement cap couldn't hold high-pressure gases. They 'engulfed the entire platform in methane gas.

Palast learned that "BP failed to notify the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) about the failure of the cement....Notification would have alerted Gulf cement contractor Halliburton that the process of adding nitrogen to cement posed unforeseen dangers."

Cement casing cracked apart in the Caspian. BP promoted "Blow-Out Preventers (BOPs) as a last line of defense in case of a blow-out. But if the casing shatters, the BOPs could be useless."

BP went to "extraordinary lengths" to conceal the first incident. Revealing would show replicating it in the Gulf was "not an unexpected accident but could be considered negligent homicide."

BP buys politicians. It also intimidates employees. An atmosphere of fear prevails. Speaking out ends careers. Few dare.

EcoWatch editor, Stefanie Penn Spear, said BP negligence caused the "biggest oil spill in US history. It entirely turned the Gulf Coast economy upside down and threatened—and continues to threaten—the health and livelihoods of the people in the Gulf region."

How can something this major be concealed, asked Palast. He cites "pay-offs, threats, political muscle and the connivance of the Bush Administration’s State Department, Exxon and Chevron."

Obama officials bear equal guilt.

New York Times contributor Abrahm Lustgarten's op-ed calls BP's Gulf disaster "A Stain That Won't Wash Away," saying:

Accountability's been entirely lacking. Future incidents are assured. Minor fines at most are imposed. Criminal prosecutions don't happen. Warnings issued are toothless.

Scofflaws are free to pollute and harm human health. One disaster follows another. Only profits matter. Recidivism is commonplace. A culture of irresponsibility assures it. So doesn't bipartisan political complicity.

What the gulf spill has taught us is that no matter how bad the disaster (and the environmental impact), the potential consequences have never been large enough to dissuade BP (or giants in all industries) from placing profits ahead of prudence.

As long as Washington remains corporate occupied territory, nothing ahead will change. Big money runs America. What it says goes. Politicians and regulators salute and obey. It's the American way.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. Progressive Radio News Hour



Activist Post: America's Gulf Disaster Revisited

Rense & Steve Pedigo - How BP Killed The Gulf & Hid The Body
Friday, May 18, 2012 6:15




Before It's News

Oil Spill Timeline


These video clips are from Democrats & Republicans alike. Very interesting video.




View this and see our president in action!
You have to watch this -- click on "GULF"

Liberal or Conservative, this is the very definitions of incompetence, ineptness, and apathy!
Jon Stewart, Chris Matthews, and James Carville no less..
IF YOU DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE TODAY,,,,,,,,,, VIEW THIS VIDEO !!


Click onto this brilliant video regarding the oil spill. You will want to send it on.
Click here:
Oil Spill Timeline on Vimeo



Any one here whats going on down there now???? Of course not it is swept under the {rug} so to speak!!!