http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/01/1607537/gulf-spill-can-kill-our-tourist.html

special thanks to Richard Charter

By Carl Hiaasen
chiaasen@MiamiHerald.com

Oops.

That’s the official position of British Petroleum.

It turns out that oil is gushing from that blown-out rig off the Louisiana coast at a flow of at least 5,000 barrels a day, five times more than BP first estimated.

Oh, and if you’re keeping count, by Friday there were three leaks — not two — in the mile-long pipe that connected the platform to the wellhead.

The slick is larger than Rhode Island, and a shift of wind is pushing it into the wetlands of bayou country, imperiling birds, marine life and commercial fishing. Tourist beaches in Alabama and northwest Florida are also at risk.

Barely a month ago, President Obama announced plans to expand offshore oil operations in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic coast as far south as central Florida.

Fabulous idea!

It won’t bring down the price of gasoline one penny at the pump, and it won’t yield enough crude oil to light up America for even a year — but, hey, what harm could it do?

Oops.

The oil companies know how to find oil, and they sure know how to drill. The only part of the underwater operation that they haven’t really nailed down is how to clean up their spills.

Soon after the Deepwater Horizon rig caught fire and sank, killing 11 workers, BP sent remote-controlled submarines to shut a master valve near the source of the outflow. It didn’t work.

Plan B is to dig a relief well in the hopes of intercepting the oil before it reaches the fractured pipe. Plan C is to plug up the spewing hole with mud, concrete or a heavy liquid.

At a depth of 5,000 feet, either project will take weeks or months, during which time the oil would continue leaking.

Meanwhile, as this column is being written, BP is lighting parts of the Gulf of Mexico on fire, to burn off some of the slick. So much for high-tech.

The company is also assembling an extremely large dome — I swear — that engineers could lower to the ocean floor and place over the leak in an attempt to capture the oil.

Maybe when they’re done, they can give it to Wile E. Coyote so he can use it to trap the roadrunner.

BP says everything possible is being done to stop the leak and contain the spill. That’s probably true, which is sobering.

Despite all the assurances from Big Oil and the politicians who are in its pocket, the technology of undersea drilling is dangerously lagging when it comes to protecting the coastal communities whose economies depend on clean water, clean beaches and healthy fisheries.

Last week, BP’s chief executive, Tony Hayward, tried to ease the fears of Gulf residents by saying that the approaching layer of oil was as light as “iced tea.”

Good luck trying to sell that line: “Hey, folks, that brown stuff all over the beach? Don’t think of it as tar. Think of it as Snapple.”

On Friday, with the spill blooming into a disaster, the White House announced that no new offshore drilling will be authorized until the Louisiana incident is fully investigated.

Under the plan announced in March by Obama, drilling in Florida’s eastern Gulf would expand, but remain at least 125 miles offshore. On the Atlantic side, rigs could be erected within sight of the coast.

In Tallahassee, where Big Oil’s lobbyists have been spreading gobs of money, several geniuses in the Legislature will next year continue their push to permit drilling within five miles of some prime Florida beaches.

Perfectly safe, they say. Ya’ll just relax.

Two days after exploding, the Deepwater Horizon went down on April 22 about 50 miles from mainland Louisiana. It took only a week after that for the first streaks of oil to reach the shore.

Miles of protective booms have been laid along the marshes. Officials are considering cannon fire to scare away birds, so they don’t land in the goo. Another idea is to recruit local shrimp boats as oil skimmers.
Because BP hasn’t been able to cap the leak, the Obama administration is sending U.S. military assistance. In other words, the Louisiana spill is an official emergency.

If it had happened near Jacksonville or Daytona Beach, Naples, Sarasota, Key West . . .

Oops.

By all means, let’s surround Florida — a virtual hurricane magnet — with drill rigs. According to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, hurricanes Rita and Katrina destroyed 113 gulf platforms, damaged 457 pipelines and caused 146 spills that dumped 17,652 barrels of petroleum.

One medium-sized blowout could trash miles of shoreline and kill a tourist season. Nothing sells seaside hotel rooms like YouTube videos of gunk-covered turtles and dead pelicans.

This is a no-brainer. Florida can’t afford offshore drilling. The risk to the economy is ludicrous, compared to the relatively small amounts of oil to be found.

With the crud from the Louisiana accident slopping ashore, Obama should fly down to experience the scene first-hand. I’m sure someone will help scrape the “iced tea” off his flip-flops. 
more:  http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/01/1607537/gulf-spill-can-kill-our-tourist.html#ixzz0mjWemqbE

http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/
Mother Nature Network
May 1, 2010

special thanks to Richard Charter

 http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/computers/blogs/epa-launches-website-on-oil-spill

The Deepwater Horizon incident is set to surpass the Exxon Valdez spill as the worst oil disaster in U.S. history. The EPA, the Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security are providing breaking updates and resources online.

The entire world is now looking to the EPA for guidance, explanations and emergency resources for Gulf residents who are bracing for what experts predict will be the worst oil spill in U.S. history. In hasty response, the EPA just put up a “damage control” web page which provides breaking updates and resources for those living in the affected areas.
 
Lisa Jackson, the EPA administrator, just flew over the area a few hours ago (you can follow her updates on Twitter @lisapjackson) and has dispatched two Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzers or TAGA’s to test the impacts on air quality as toxic vapors threaten several densely populated areas, including New Orleans. Here’s what Lisa Jackson has to say:

We are taking every possible step to protect the health of the residents and mitigate the environmental impacts of this spill. For several days, EPA has been on the ground evaluating air and water concerns and coordinating with other responding agencies. We are also here to address community members  the people who know these waters and wetlands best. They will be essential to the work ahead.

The EPA site casts a little light on information about water testing and what is being done to curtail the oil slick as it impacts protected wildlife reserves and coastal towns on the Gulf, but an adjunct website called DeepwaterHorizonRepsonse.com
 http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/
has a great photo gallery of tactics being used to capture oil before it hits land  like oil-absorbent pads and underwater booms. It provides recent reports from the Coast Guard, NOAA, the Department of Homeland Security and BP.
 
The Deepwater website also has some great video, but unfortunately the U.S. government doesn’t do YouTube, so video can only be viewed if you have a special plugin which doesn’t work on a Mac. Still a great resource though … check it out

From: Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation [mailto:CTURTLE@LISTS.UFL.EDU] On Behalf Of Christopher Pincetich
Special thanks to Richard Charter

Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 6:16 PM
To: CTURTLE@LISTS.UFL.EDU
Subject: Read until the end for full scientist statement Re: Oil Spill
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 20,2010
 
Contact:                        Dr. Chris Pincetich, Sea Turtle Restoration Project
                                    (415) 663-8590 x102; cell (530) 220-3687; chris@tirn.net
 
                                    Carole Allen, Sea Turtle Restoration Project
                                    (281) 444-6204; carole@seaturtles.org
 
 
Peak Nesting of Endangered Sea Turtles Threatened by Oil Spill
 
Peak migration and nesting season could be devastated
 
April 30, 2010 – Galveston Texas
 
The recovery of endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico faces a dramatic set-back as oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill impacts coastal areas during their peak migration to nesting beaches. Scientists and conservation workers that have invested decades of work towards the sea turtles’ recovery are concerned about the growing impacts the oil slick and oiled beaches will have on these imperiled creatures.
 
“I have great concern for the environmental impact the spill will have on our fragile coast.” says Dr. Andre Landry, Jr. of Texas A&M University’s Sea Turtle and Fisheries Ecology Research Lab. “We are entering the prime time within the ridley nesting season in which adult females will be in nearshore waters nesting 3 to 4 times every 14 to 21 days.”
 
There are five species of endangered and threatened sea turtles in the Gulf, but this area represents one of the Kemp’s ridley’s only foraging and migration routes to their last remaining nesting beaches in Texas and Mexico.  At least 33 dead or dying Kemp’s ridleys have recently washed up on Texas beaches, but these causalities are more likely linked to shrimp trawl activities along the coast.
 
“My satellite tracking data for both juvenile and adult ridleys reveal a strong loyalty to the Texas coast and eastward to the mouth of the Mississippi River,” says Dr. Landry. Oil from the spill has landed on Lousiana shores already, and wildlife managers are scrambling to respond.
 
While berms and booms to deflect and catch oil are installed in the Brenton National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, the majority of coastal areas remain unprotected from the impending environmental devastation. As oil moves east toward Florida beaches, the oil spill could impact nesting of loggerhead and green sea turtles. The west coast of Florida is the largest nesting area for loggerheads, currently proposed to be reclassified as endangered from threatened in the Endangered Species Act because of continued threats and population declines. Green sea turtles are already listed as endangered and take up to 20 years to reach sexual maturity and begin nesting. But the current concern is focused on the endangered Kemp’s ridley, which is the smallest of the sea turtles and the only species to regularly nest during the day.
 
“This spill could not have come at a worse time for migrating and nesting Kemp’s ridleys. I am outraged that shrimp trawling has increased in Louisiana in anticipation of an oil closure, their careless actions kill hundreds of endangered turtles each year.” says Carole Allen, Gulf Director of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project and founder of HEART (Help Endangered Animals Ridley Turtles).
 
Ironically, the oils spill has occurred during the review of the NOAA Recovery Plan for the Kemp’s Ridley Sa Turtle, which states that at the current rate of recovery this endangered sea turtle may be reclassified down to threatened status by 2015. Carol Allen and Dr. Landry both have expressed concern that the current draft Plan fails to prioritize the importance of increased protections to assist the sea turtle recovery along Gulf and Texas migration, foraging, and nesting habitats. While the majority of these turtles nest in Mexico, the expansion of the population into Texas is already occurring.
 
The recent deaths of these endangered sea turtles on Texas shores and the impending devastation of the oil spill will likely highlight the importance of the Gulf waters to their continued survival.
 
**************************
 
Statement of Dr. Andre M. Landry, Jr. of Texas A&M University’s Sea Turtle and Fisheries Ecology Research Lab on April 30, 2010.
 
“I have great concern for the environmental impact the spill will have on our fragile coast. I am particularly concerned about potential damage to sea turtle assemblages that forage and nest along the Louisiana coast, especially within Breton Sound, the Chandeleur Islands and eastward toward other barrier island beaches and their wetland fringes that extend to the Florida Panhandle and areas such as Cedar Key. This is particularly an acute concern for the endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle whose ongoing recovery is putting increasingly larger abundances of juveniles in our nearshore waters adjacent to tidal passes, beachfronts and within our bays in search of their preferred prey, the blue crab. At the same time, we have adult female ridleys using nearshore waters as a migratory corridor through which they are traveling to nest along the Texas and Mexico coasts. We are entering the prime time within the ridley nesting season (1 April through 15 July) in which adult females will be in nearshore waters nesting 3 to 4 times every 14 to 21 days. My satellite tracking data for both juvenile and adult ridleys reveal a strong loyalty to these habitats, especially along the Texas coast and eastward to the mouth of the Mississippi River. I regret that we have not had an opportunity (i.e., financial support) to characterize sea turtle use of waters east of the Delta but see no reason why they too are not important foraging grounds (especially) and, in the case of barrier island beaches, potential nesting areas.”
 
 
 
Christopher Pincetich, Ph.D.
Campaigner & Marine Biologist, Sea Turtle Restoration Project
(415) 663-8590, ext. 102
P.O. Box 370, Forest Knolls, CA 94933 USA
Location: 9255 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Olema, CA 94950
Viisit the STRP Action Center to help with all current campaigns.
Join the Sea Turtle Restoration Project on Facebook Causes

The thoughts of a storm stirring up the Gulf, hampering any cleanup or remediation drilling effort and creating a huge 10,000 square mile black stew is frightening to every professional in the business. … We expect to see the deterioration of the economic statistics for the US to reveal the onset of this oil-slick crisis in May … A ‘double-dip’ recession probably has been made more likely by this tragedy.’   see below.  Special thanks to  Richard Charter
Politico Playbook:  Monday May 03, 2010 Presented by University of Phoenix
By: MIKE ALLEN
May 03, 2010 08:21 AM EST
 
GULF RESPONSE: Secretary Napolitano did all six morning shows. … PRESIDENT OBAMA, in Louisiana yesterday: ‘We’re dealing with a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster.’ … BEHIND THE SCENES: ‘President Barack Obama talks with U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen, who is serving as the National Incident Commander, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, aboard Marine One as they fly along the coastline from Venice to New Orleans, La., May 2, 2010. John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, is in the background. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza).’
BP IN ‘CRISIS GRINDER’ — ROBERT GIBBS, gaggling on Air Force One on the way BACK from Louisiana yesterday, on President Obama’s approach to BP: ‘I point you to what [Interior] Secretary Salazar said about — I think the phrase was — at least the phrase I heard earlier in the week with him was to keep the boot on their throat. So I think that kind of sums up in that Western Colorado way how — what we’re trying to convey.’ … WSJ A1, ‘BP’s Worsening Spill Crisis Undermines CEO’s Reforms,’ by Guy Chazan: ‘Tony Hayward thought he had finally slain all of BP PLC’s demons. Now a new one has reared up, and it’s the size of Puerto Rico. BP’s chief executive is coming under mounting pressure over the vast spill spreading in the Gulf of Mexico … From the moment Mr. Hayward learned of the disaster-in a 7:24 a.m. phone call over breakfast on April 21-he has been faced with the reality that this incident could erase his rehabilitation of the British oil giant. … BP heads into the crisis grinder that has chewed up big names like Toyota and Goldman Sachs.’
WORST CASE SCENARIO, via POLITICO’s Morning Money – David Kotok of Cumberland Advisors, in BusinessInsider: ‘This spew stoppage takes longer to reach a full closure; the subsequent cleanup may take a decade. The Gulf becomes a damaged sea for a generation. The oil slick leaks beyond the western Florida coast, enters the Gulfstream and reaches the eastern coast of the United States and beyond. … Monetary cost is now measured in the many hundreds of billions of dollars. … Soon we are entering the hurricane season. The thoughts of a storm stirring up the Gulf, hampering any cleanup or remediation drilling effort and creating a huge 10,000 square mile black stew is frightening to every professional in the business. … We expect to see the deterioration of the economic statistics for the US to reveal the onset of this oil-slick crisis in May … A ‘double-dip’ recession probably has been made more likely by this tragedy.’
WHITE HOUSE MESSAGE DU JOUR – President Obama, speaking yesterday in Venice, La.: ‘[T]he federal government has launched and coordinated an all-hands-on-deck, relentless response to this crisis from day one. … [W]e’ve made preparations from day one to stage equipment for a worse-case scenario. … I want to emphasize, from day one we have prepared and planned for the worst, even as we hoped for the best.’ Transcript
Cabinet members had used ‘day one’ 16 times during four Sunday-show appearances:
–Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’: ‘From day one, there has been the assumption here on the worst-case scenario. … We have to prepare for the worst, as we have from day one.’
–Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on CNN: ‘From day one, they were already pre-deploying vessels and booms and getting ready in case the scenario continued to worsen. … The Navy has been on-site since day one. There is kind of a myth out there that somehow the Department of Defense is now coming in. They actually have been there since day one.’
–Napolitano on ‘Fox News Sunday’: ‘The administration responded with all hands on deck from day one … The integrated command center … was already stood up, with the states involved, from day one.’
–Salazar on Fox: ‘We’re not sugarcoating this thing, and we need to make sure that we are prepared for the worst-case scenario, and we have been doing that since day one. … From day one the president has been involved in, informed, and has been directing us to do everything that we can and not to spare any effort. … So from day one we’ve been on top of this, every minute, 24 hours a day, trying to get this situation under control.’
–Napolitano, on ‘This Week’: ‘From day one, we were pre-positioning more than 70 vessels.’
–Salazar, on ‘Meet the Press’: ‘From day one we’ve been preparing for the worst-case scenario … The president has directed from day one that we spare nothing at all in terms of the effort to prevent damage onshore.’
–Napolitano on ‘Meet’: ‘We had DOD resources there from day one. This was a situation that was treated as a possible catastrophic failure from day one. … The physical response on the ground has been from day one as if this could be a catastrophic failure.’

http://www.keysnet.com/2010/05/01/215195/keys-have-all-eyes-on-spreading.html

By KEVIN WADLOW

kwadlow@keynoter.com

Posted – Saturday, May 01, 2010 11:00 AM EDT

Gulf of Mexico waters stained by a major oil spill reached the Louisiana coast Friday, causing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to declare a state of emergency for six Panhandle counties.

Crist called the scene in the northern Gulf — the oil is already lapping Louisiana’s shore — “horrific.”

In the Florida Keys, residents and officials could only watch with alarm and apprehension as an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil continue to gush into the Gulf.

“We are all very concerned,” said Sean Morton, superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. “We’re downstream from the spill. Anyone familiar with oceanography and the currents in the Gulf knows that if the spill gets into the Loop Current, it will come down through the Keys and into the Florida Straits.”

Sanctuary staff, local responders with the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies were coordinating efforts “to see where best to put our resources” if the oil cannot be contained before reaching South Florida.

“A major concern to me is the coral reef ecosystem on the tip of Florida,” Jerry Ault, a University of Miami marine biologist, told the Miami Herald.

Ault, an expert on Keys fish populations and an advisor to the National Marine Sanctuary, said, “Technically it’s the only living coral system in the continental U.S., and it’s a really sensitive system.”

Morton said at this point, officials have no idea whether the thick spill could reach the Keys, or the oil could be dispersed throughout the water column. He noted the Coast Guard hosted a practice drill for an oil-spill response only weeks ago.

“That’s good in terms of getting folks together to know each other’s faces and roles in this kind of situation,” he said. “That helps with the kind of coordination that has take place.”

Paul Johnson, a policy advisor for Reef Relief, was in Alaska in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil-spill disaster — which could be eclipsed by the Gulf spill in terms of ecological damage.

“People literally were cleaning rocks one at a time,” Johnson said. “That was the extent of spill-response technology then, and not much has changed. That won’t work in the mangroves.”

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig, about 50 miles off Louisiana, sank after an April 20 explosion and fire that apparently killed 11 platform workers.

Hopes that the oil was not leaking from a damaged pipe one mile below the surface were dashed. Not only was the oil leaking, but leaking far worse than believed possible.

Attempts to cap the spill this week failed. President Obama ordered all available Coast Guard units to assist with the spill. A solution could be weeks away.

Engineers were trying to design a massive metal dome and that would essentially catch the oil and funnel it so it could be pumped from the water. But nothing of the necessary scale has ever been attempted in waters so deep.

Attempts to light a controlled fire to burn off surface oil took place Thursday, with initial reports of some success in limited areas.

Gulf Coast commercial fishermen have already filed federal lawsuits against BP, the company leasing the Deepwater rig and legally responsible for the spill.

“This whole zone is a highly populated area with such fish as tuna, dolphin, wahoo, marlin, snapper, grouper and sharks, as well as turtles and birds,” says a report from Roffer’s Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service. “We are currently in the peak spawning season for Atlantic bluefin tuna, a threatened species, that are in this area now.”

Obama recently announced that he intends to approve expanded oil drilling in the Gulf, possibly as close as 30 miles to the sanctuary’s Tortugas Ecological Reserve around the Dry Tortugas. But White House officials said no action would be undertaken to advance the proposal until all aspects of the Deepwater Horizon sinking were analyzed.