What?! Another Massive BP Oil Spill Cover-Up? | Interview with Greg Palast

Breaking the Set | Sep 10, 2014

Abby Martin speaks with investigative journalist, Greg Palast discussing the most recent penalties against BP, and aspects of the company’s criminality that have been largely overlooked by the rest of the media including a massive oil spill cover-up in the Caspian Sea.

Sick Gulf Oil Spill Victim Speaks Out Against BP’s Lies

Breaking the Set | Sep 5, 2014

BTS producer Cody Snell goes down to the Gulf to investigate the case of Jorey Danos, a BP oil spill cleanup worker who has been sick for the last five years due to his exposure to a toxic chemical oil dispersant known as Corexit.

Oil industry, US government woefully unprepared for spill in Arctic – study

Reuters / U.S. Coast Guard / Petty Officer
3rd Class Grant DeVuyst / Handout

RT | May 3, 2014

A new study says there is a lack of both scientific data and preparedness on the part of private and public entities to properly address an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean, which global powers and industry expect to exploit for energy exploration.

Climate change is thawing sea ice in the Arctic, opening up new opportunities for energy development. Approximately 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered natural gas and about 15 percent of its untapped oil lie in the Arctic. But the majority, 84 percent, of the estimated 90 billion barrels of oil and 47.3 trillion cubic meters of gas remain offshore.

Waiting for eager energy developers are some of the world’s most extreme weather conditions “and environmental settings, limited operations and communications infrastructure, a vast geographic area, and vulnerable species, ecosystems, and cultures,” the National Research Council wrote.

The five countries with territorial claims in the Arctic – Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States – have stated intentions to develop these reserves, if they haven’t begun already.

Yet the National Research Council’s new study – funded by US federal agencies and the leading trade group for the oil industry, the American Petroleum Institute – found that energy companies currently lack Arctic oil spill response plans, as it is their responsibility to address such an event. That said, public entities often take the lead in spill response actions, yet the US government does not have infrastructure capabilities in place despite its rush to establish dominance in the region.

“The lack of infrastructure and oil spill response equipment in the U.S. Arctic is a significant liability in the event of a large oil spill,” the report states. “Building U.S. capabilities to support oil spill response will require significant investment in physical infrastructure and human capabilities, from communications and personnel to transportation systems and traffic monitoring.”

The “significant investment” on infrastructure could come from public-private partnerships, the report suggests, though the politics of offering industry further subsidies may be problematic.

Adequate research into what awaits industry in the extreme cold of Arctic waters is also lacking, the report said. There is little understanding of how the low temperatures would affect both spilled oil and commonly-used techniques to reverse the effects of a spill, such as the spread of chemical dispersants. The report goes as far as suggesting that the only way to know is to conduct a controlled oil spill.

“Laboratory experiments, field research, and practical experience gained from responding to past oil spills have built a strong body of knowledge on the properties of spilled oil and response techniques. However, much of this work has been done for temperate regions,” the report reads.

“There is…a need to validate current and emerging oil spill response technologies in Arctic environmental conditions on operational scales. Carefully planned and controlled field releases of oil in the U.S. Arctic would improve the understanding of oil behavior [the Arctic] and allow for the evaluation of new response strategies specific to the region.”

Three oil and gas companies – ConocoPhillips, Norwegian multinational Statoil, and Shell Oil – have received approval to explore the US Arctic territory.

Shell has spent $6 billion so far in ultimately unsuccessful Arctic drilling operations, Mint Press News reported. It was an incident in 2012, involving a Shell oil-drilling rig, that has provided the starkest indication of what lies ahead for companies in the region.

In a rush to avoid an upcoming tax liability about to go into effect, Shell decided to drag its top rig, the Kulluk, around 1,700 miles through frigid Arctic waters despite warnings from the tow ship’s captain.

The Kulluk, reportedly carrying 150,000 gallons of fuel, eventually broke free from the towing ship floating off into an ecologically-sensitive area. The rig and its crew had to be rescued by the US Coast Guard, which recently released a report on the incident that slams Shell for “inadequate assessment and management of risks.”

“Vessels and the operations they conduct are growing more complex, and the risks that accompany these operations increase, whether in Alaskan waters or not,” wrote Joseph A. Servidio, a Coast Guard rear admiral, in the report. “The failure to adequately understand, respect, and not complacently assume past practice will address new risks, is critical both in practice and in company culture.”

According to the United Nations' sea convention, any country has sovereign rights to resources within 200 nautical miles of its territorial waterways.

The five countries with territorial claims have long preached cooperation in the region, going as far as setting up an Arctic Council that the nations take turns leading. In 2015, the US will assume the leadership role as a warming planet has opened up new opportunities. These commercial interests worry advocates of ecologically-intelligent approaches to the Arctic.

“The Arctic Council should be a forum focused on protecting the Arctic environment, yet we see it more and more talking about protecting economic interests in the region,” John Deans, an Arctic campaigner with Greenpeace USA, told Mint Press.

Deans said that for his organization, which has environmental interests in mind, the lack of scientific information about Arctic drilling consequences is a red flag, yet governments and industry are highly unlikely to slow their pace.

“In our view, if you don’t know enough about a place – in this case, what either an oil spill or a response would look like – then you really shouldn’t be up there to drill in the first place,” he said.

BP Says Gulf Cleanup Over. Not by a Long Shot, say Others

Jonathan Henderson of the Gulf Restoration Network
is seen on Louisiana's Grande Isle next to a dead dolphin.
(Photo: Gulf Restoration Network)

Common Dreams | Apr 17, 2014 | Andrea Germanos

Oil giant's rosy view of coast recovery from Deepwater Horizon met with pushback from Coast Guard, environmental group 

BP announced on Tuesday it was ending "active shoreline cleanup" from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 people, spewed millions of gallons of oil, contaminated beaches and ecosystems, and unleashed ongoing threats to marine life.

"Immediately following the Deepwater Horizon accident, BP committed to cleaning the shoreline and supporting the Gulf’s economic and environmental recovery. Completing active cleanup is further indication that we are keeping that commitment," the oil giant said in a statement.

Yet the response from the U.S. Cocast Guard paints quite a different picture, indicating the response to the disaster is far from over.

Coast Guard Captain Thomas Sparks, the Federal On-Scene Commander for the Deepwater Horizon Response, issued a statement saying, "Our response posture has evolved to target re-oiling events on coastline segments that were previously cleaned."

"But let me be absolutely clear: This response is not over — not by a long shot. The transition to the Middle Response process does not end clean-up operations, and we continue to hold the responsible party accountable for Deepwater Horizon cleanup costs," Sparks stated.

At an event, Sparks voiced his displeasure with the announcement from BP.

Speaking to Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) on Wednesday, an "irritated" Sparks said he "was really disappointed and I was shocked when I read some of the stuff in the press yesterday evening," according to reporting by NOLA.com.

"I had significant problems with some of the facts, a lot of the language, but most of all the overall tone and theme of the responsible party press release," Sparks continued. "I found it to be very misleading."

Sparks says the response now involves a more "nimble" tool of focused response equipment and personnel that can provide targeted attention.

"Oil will continue to wash onto our shores," CPRA Executive Director Kyle Graham said Wednesday at the same event. "We’re going to be seeing oiling from this Deepwater Horizon event for a long, long time."

This sentiment is echoed by the Gulf Restoration Network, which stresses that nearly four years after Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe erupted, the impacts are ongoing.  It's too soon to be letting BP skirt responsibility for the disaster, and this end to the "active cleanup" phase does just that, the group says.

Jonathan Henderson, the New Orleans-based group's Coastal Resiliency Organizer and manager of the group's BP drilling disaster field monitoring operations, told Common Dreams that "anytime there is a storm, you'll see re-oiling in the form of tar balls."

The oil gets stuck in the surf line, he explained, and the wave activity breaks it apart and sends it onto the beaches.

Last week during a visit to Grande Isle, for example, Henderson said he saw "thousands of tar balls that are presumed to be BP's." He said pending lab results will likely show them to have the same fingerprint as oil from the Macondo well.

In an op-ed this week touting the Gulf's resiliency and recovery, chairman and president of BP America, Inc., John Mingé, wrote that "some advocacy groups refuse to acknowledge evidence of the Gulf's recovery."

Henderson shot back, saying it is BP that is "refusing to ... acknowledge the science that the Gulf is hurting and the long-term damage is unknown. The only science that they pay attention to is the science they have control over."

"BP has figured out a way to have themselves removed," Henderson said, as the responsibility is "now on states to prove the tar balls belong to BP before BP is made to clean them up."

"There are no longer any cleanup crews on a regular basis looking for oil and cleaning it up," thanks to the Deepwater Horizon Response team's new status for the cleanup.

If, for example, a person sees tar balls on Grand Isle, Elmer's Island or Orange Beach, Alabama, that person now needs to file with the National Response Center (NRC), and then the NRC decides which agency has jurisdiction, though it would primarily be the Coast Guard.

But what happens then? "It's a question mark whether the Coast Guard or anyone at all will investigate," he said. There's no transparency about what happens next and the only way you can find out the status is if you submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, he said.

And, of course, the Gulf coast covers a huge area. If someone finds a tar ball along any of the massive stretch and doesn't file a report, it could stay there, Henderson explained, with no investigation to see if BP is responsible and then made to clean it up.

"It's pretty ridiculous," Henderson said.

In addition to the thousands of tar balls Henderson saw on his latest trip to Grande Isle, he saw a dead dolphin, another sign of the Gulf in distress.

As for the impacts of the BP disaster, "I don't think this is going to end anytime soon," he said.

Fourth Anniversary of Gulf Oil Spill: Wildlife Is Still Suffering from Toxic Cover Up

© Daily Bail

Washington's Blog | Apr 13, 2014 |

BP and the Government Decided to Temporarily Hide the Oil by Sinking It with Toxic Chemicals … The Gulf Ecosystem Is Now Paying the Price 

As we noted at the time, and on the first (and here), second and third anniversaries of BP’s Gulf oil spill, BP and the government made the spill much worse by dumping toxic dispersant in the water in an attempt to to sink – and so temporarily hide – the oil.

In addition, adding dispersant makes oil 52 times more toxic than it would normally be.

EPA whistleblowers tried to warn us…

Gulf toxicologist Susan Shaw told us last year:

Covering up the [Gulf] oil spill with Corexit was a deadly action … what happened in the Gulf was a political act, an act of cowardice and greed.

(60 Minutes did a fantastic exposé on the whole shenanigan.)

And the cover up went beyond adding toxic dispersant.  BP and the government went so far as hiding dead animals and keeping scientists and reporters away from the spill so they couldn’t document what was really happening.

As the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) notes in a new report, the wildlife is still suffering from this toxic cover up.

NWF reports:

Some 900 bottlenose dolphins of all ages—the vast majority of them dead—have been reported stranded in the northern Gulf between April 2010 and March 2014. In 2013, bottlenose dolphins were found dead or stranded at more than three times average rates before the spill. In 2011, dead infant or stillborn dolphins were found at nearly seven times the historical average and these strandings have remained higher than normal in subsequent years. NOAA has been investigating this ongoing wave of bottlenose dolphin strandings across the northern Gulf of Mexico since February 2010, before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. This is the longest period of above-average strandings in the past two decades and it includes the greatest number of stranded dolphins ever found in the Gulf of Mexico. In December 2013, NOAA published results of a study looking at the health of dolphins in a heavily-oiled section of the Louisiana coast. This researchers found strong evidence that the ill health of the dolphins in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay was related to oil exposure.

***

Dolphins in Barataria Bay showed evidence of adrenal problems, as has been previously reported in mammals exposed to oil.4 Barataria Bay dolphins also were five times more likely than dolphins from unoiled areas to have moderate-to-severe lung disease. Nearly half the dolphins studied were very ill; 17% of the dolphins were not expected to survive. The study concludes that health effects seen in Barataria Bay dolphins are significant and likely will lead to reduced survival and ability to reproduce.

NWF found many other species have also been harmed by the dispersant-oil mixture:

Roughly 500 stranded sea turtles have been found in the area affected by the spill every year from 2011 to 2013. This is a dramatic increase over the numbers found before the disaster. Other teams of scientists have reported negative impacts of oil on a number of species of fish, including tuna red snapper and mahi-mahi. As we have learned from previous spills far smaller than the 2010 event, it has taken years to understand the full effects on the environment. In some cases, recovery is not complete even decades later. Twenty-five years after the Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound, clams, mussels, and killer whales are still considered “recovering,” and the Pacific herring population, commercially harvested before the spill, is showing few signs of recovery. [One of the main ingredients in Corexit - 2-butoxyethanol - was also used in the Valdez spill] … the full scope of the Deepwater Horizon disaster on the Gulf ecosystem will likely unfold for years or even decades to come.

***

The Atlantic bluefin tuna is one of the largest fish in the Gulf, reaching average lengths of 6.5 feet and weighing about 550 lbs. A single fish can sell for tens of thousands of dollars.… The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded while the April-May breeding season in the northern Gulf was underway. In 2011, NOAA researchers estimated that as many as 20% of larval fish could have been exposed to oil, with a potential reduction in future populations of about 4%.

***

A more recent study shows that a chemical in oil from the spill can cause irregular heartbeats in bluefin and yellowfin tuna that can lead to heart attacks, or even death. The effects are believed to be particularly problematic for fish embryos and larvae, as heartbeat changes could affect development of other organs. The researchers suggest that other vertebrate species in the Gulf of Mexico could have been similarly affected. Scientists found that four additional species of large predatory fish—blackfin tuna, blue marlin, mahi-mahi and sailfish—all had fewer larvae in the year of the oil spill than any of the three previous years.

***

The Deepwater Horizon spill occurred during the blue crab spawning season, when female crabs were migrating out of estuaries into deeper waters of the Gulf to release their eggs.
***

[Reports indicate problems with crabs.] Blue crabs provide evidence of oil tainting Gulf food web. 2. Alabama Local News. 2013. Blue crab stock declines are concern for Gulf Coast fishermen. 3. Houma Today. 2013. Locals say blue crab catches plummeting. 4. Louisiana Seafood News. 2013. Lack of Crabs in Pontchartrain Basin Leads to Unanswered Questions. 5. Tampa Bay Times. 2013. Gulf oil spill’s effects still have seafood industry nervous. 6. Presentation at the 2014 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill & Ecosystem Science Conference. The Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Blue Crab Megalopal Settlement: A Field Study.

***

Marine life associated with the deep sea corals also showed visible signs of impact from the oil. In a laboratory study, coral larvae that had been exposed to oil, a chemical dispersant, and an oil/ dispersant mixture all had lower survival rates than the control larvae in clean seawater.

***

According to a recently published federal report, oyster eggs, sperm and larvae were exposed to oil and dispersants during the 2010 oil spill. Oil compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can be lethal to oyster

***

In the fall of 2010, even after the Macondo well was capped, oyster larvae were rare or absent in many of the water samples collected across the northern Gulf of Mexico.

***

There are nearly 1000 known species of foraminifera in the Gulf of Mexico. These small marine creatures form part of the base of the marine food web, serving as a food source for marine snails, sand dollars and fish. Previous research has shown that these sediment-dwelling microorganisms are sensitive to oil damage. Rapid accumulation of oiled sediment on parts of the Gulf floor between late 2010 and early 2011 contributed to a dramatic die-off of foraminifera. Researchers found a significant difference in community structure and abundance during and after the Deepwater Horizon event at sites located from 100-1200 meters deep in the Desoto Canyon, nearly 100 kilometers south-southwest of Pensacola, Florida. Deep sea foraminifera had not recovered in diversity a year and a half after the spill.

***

Killifish, also known as bull minnows or cockahoe, are prized bait fish and play an important role in the Gulf food web..…This species has been extensively studied in the aftermath of the disaster because of its abundance and its sensitivity to pollution. Oil exposure can alter the killifish’s cellular function in ways that are predictive of developmental abnormalities, decreased hatching success and decreased embryo and larval survival. In 2011, Louisiana State University researchers compared the gill tissue of killifish in an oiled marsh to those in an oil-free marsh. Killifish residing in oiled marshes showed evidence of effects even at low levels of oil exposure which could be significant enough to have an impact at a population level. Additional research has found that four common species of marsh fish, including the Gulf killifish, seem to be avoiding oiled areas. These behaviors, even at small scales, could be significant within marsh communities, leading to changes in food web dynamics.

***

In the aftermath of the spill, a number of fish, including red snapper, caught in Gulf waters between eastern Louisiana and western Florida had unusual lesions or rotting fins. University of South Florida researchers examined red snapper and other fish and determined that their livers contained oil compounds that had a strong “pattern coherence” to oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill.… An analysis of snapper populations in the Gulf that was done between 2011 and 2013 showed an unusual lack of younger snapper. Further research found a significant decline in snapper and other reef fish after the spill. Small plankton-eating fish, such as damselfishes and cardinalfishes, declined most dramatically but red snapper and other larger reef fish also declined.

***

Seaside sparrows live only in coastal marshes, where they are common year-round residents. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill remains in some marshes, putting seaside sparrows at continued risk from direct oiling, contaminated or reduced food supplies, and continued habitat loss. In 2012 and 2013, seaside sparrows in Louisiana salt marshes were found to have reductions in both overall abundance and likelihood to fledge from the nest. Because these birds are not aquatic, exposure to oil would likely come from incidental contact on the shore or from eating oil or bugs and other creatures that have oil in their systems. Other studies have shown a significant decrease in the insect population in oiled marshes, which could be reducing prey availability for seaside sparrows.

***

Roughly 700 sperm whales live year-round in the Gulf’s deep waters off the continental shelf…. A researcher at the University of Southern Maine has found higher levels of DNA-damaging metals such as chromium and nickel in sperm whales in the Gulf of Mexico compared to sperm whales elsewhere in the world. These metals are present in oil from the spill. Whales closest to the well’s blowout showed the highest levels.

Nothing has changed … indeed, the U.S. has let BP back into the Gulf.  And BP is going to drill even deeper … with an even greater potential for disaster.

It’s not just BP … or the Gulf.  Giant banking and energy companies and the government have a habit of covering up disasters – including not only oil spills, but everything from nuclear accidents to  financial problems – instead of actually fixing the problems so that they won’t happen again.

“Covering Up The [Gulf] Oil Spill With Corexit Was a Deadly Action … What Happened In the Gulf Was a Political Act, an Act of Cowardice and Greed”

image

“Covering Up The [Gulf] Oil Spill With Corexit Was a Deadly Action … What Happened In the Gulf Was a Political Act, an Act of Cowardice and Greed”
Sept 24, 2013 | Washington's Blog

A Tragedy Our Society Should Never Repeat  

Preface: Additional interviews of leading government-affiliated experts concerning the Gulf oil spill here and here.

As we reported at the time, the EPA allowed BP to dump mass quantities of a highly-toxic chemical into the Gulf of Mexico in order to help BP hide the amount of oil in the Gulf … and to help to cover up what was really going on.

Last month, 60 Minutes made a fantastic exposé on the whole shenanigan.

We contacted Gulf toxicologist Dr. Susan Shaw – Founder and Director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute – for comment.  Background on Dr. Shaw’s involvement with the BP oil spill here and  here.

Dr. Shaw told Washington’s Blog:

It was refreshing to see such a strong public statement about what really happened in the Gulf of Mexico.

I was the first scientist to dive in the oil slick after the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010. As a member of DOI’s [the U.S. Department of the Interior's] Strategic Sciences Working Group (SSWG) and a TEDx speaker, I alerted federal agency heads and the public about the combined toxicity of Corexit and oil, and predicted much of the terrible human suffering and environmental damage we are seeing in the Gulf today. The Australian 60 Minutes report takes the viewer up close to the victims, Gulf residents and cleanup workers whose health problems are overwhelming and who will not recover, ever. As a public health professional, I interviewed residents of Grand Isle LA (“ground zero”) and experienced first hand what we now call the “Gulf syndrome” –  they had blinding headaches, memory loss, heart palpitations, internal bleeding, swollen livers, and skin lesions. Some had been sprayed directly with Corexit, often by planes flying at night. One was a 14 year old school girl who had periodic bleeding from her ears. As a scientist, I was stunned at the depth of suffering, the bewilderment, the loss.

Covering up the oil spill with Corexit was a deadly action that resulted in a tragedy our society should never repeat. For the federal government to make Corexit’s application the standard operating procedure for offshore oil spills is unacceptable. It is outrageous.

Below are links to my previous public statements about the danger and the duplicity of using Corexit to contain oil spills. Scientists know very well how toxic the mixture is. What happened in the Gulf was a political act, an act of cowardice and greed. It is time for Americans to know the truth.

Unfortunately, the government has a habit of covering up disasters – including not only oil spills, but everything from nuclear accidents to  financial problems – instead of actually fixing the problems so that they won’t happen again.

Documenting BP's Gulf Oil Spill "All we could do was move away, it destroyed everyone"

You Won’t BELIEVE the Upshot of BP’s Gulf Oil Spill
Aug 21, 2013 | Washington's Blog


Background here, here and here.

'People's History' of Gulf Oil Disaster Reveals Deadly Truth Behind Dispersant Corexit

A dispersant plane passed over an oil
skimmer in the Gulf of Mexico ten
days after Deepwater Horizon explosion
(Patrick Semansky / AP)

'People's History' of Gulf Oil Disaster Reveals Deadly Truth Behind Dispersant Corexit
Apr 19, 2013 | Jacob Chamberlain / Common Dreams

Report released on eve of Deepwater Horizon anniversary tells of BP lies and government collusion in oil 'clean-up'

Not only is the chemical dispersant that was used to "clean up" the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster of 2010 extremely dangerous, it was knowingly used to make the gushing oil merely "appear invisible" all the while exacerbating levels of toxicity in the Gulf waters, according to a report released Friday, the eve of the third anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, by the Government Accountability Project.

According to the report, Deadly Dispersants in the Gulf: Are Public Health and Environmental Tragedies the New Norm for Oil Spill Cleanups?, Corexit—the dispersant chemical dumped into the Gulf of Mexico by oil giant BP and the U.S. government in the spill's aftermath—was widely applied "because it caused the false impression that the oil disappeared."

 As GAP states: "In reality, the oil/Corexit mixture became less visible, yet much more toxic than the oil alone. Nonetheless, indications are that both BP and the government were pleased with what Corexit accomplished."

The Corexit/oil combination is highly toxic and will continue to cause "devastating long-term effects on human health and the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem" for a long time into the future, the report warns.

GAP spent 20 months collecting evidence from "over two dozen employee and citizen whistleblowers who experienced the cleanup's effects firsthand," and from extensive Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

"This report is a people's history to rebut a false advertising blitz by BP, enabled by government collusion," stated GAP Legal Director Tom Devine, co-author of the report.  "Gulf workers and residents who are still suffering deserve justice, and the public deserves the truth."

"The price for making the spill appear invisible has been deadly," he said. "It is time to stop covering up the truth about the deadly effects of the chemical cover-up Corexit."

"Taken together, the documents and the witnesses' testimony belie repeated corporate and government rhetoric that Corexit is not dangerous. Worse than this, evidence suggests that the cleanup effort has been more destructive to human health and the environment than the spill itself," the group stated Friday.

The report includes first hand accounts from cleanup workers, divers, local doctors, and residents.

The findings also include "higher than normal frequency of seafood mutations," and "pockets of 'dead' ocean areas where life was previously abundant."

"Through their testimony and emerging science, the truth about the spill response's toxic legacy is beginning to surface as the third anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion approaches," GAP stated.
Below is a small selection of some of the voices included in the report:

As an environmental scientist, I look at the way the government and BP are handling, describing and discussing the spill … [T]he government did not account for the increased toxicity of the combined oil and Corexit.
– Scott Porter, Diver, Marine Biologist

[W]hen a BP representative came up on the speedboat and asked if we need anything, I again explained my concerns about breathing in the Corexit and asked him for a respirator … He explained 'If you wear a respirator, it is bringing attention to yourself because no one else is wearing respirators, and you can get fired for that.'
– Jorey Danos, Cleanup Worker

What brought all of these individuals into the same pool was the fact that their symptoms were almost identical, and were different from anything that I had ever observed in my 40 plus years as a physician … However, until people are educated about the symptoms associated with exposure to toxic waste from the spill, we cannot assume they will make the connection. I continue to witness this disconnect and these symptoms on a daily basis.
– Dr. Michael Robichaux, Physician

They hired people from all over who didn't know about the conditions and real safety hazards, but you did what you had to do; you had to take the job and deal with it because you didn't have money to go home … There was a safety culture of, 'hush hush, it didn’t happen.'
– Anonymous Cleanup Worker

EPA and BP knew of the health impacts associated with [Corexit and oil] … The issue was responding to an oil spill of this magnitude, with unprecedented quantities of Corexit, including novel subsurface application. Gulf coastal communities, and individuals who consume gulf seafood or recreate in the gulf, are the guinea pigs left to deal with the consequences and will be feeling the full effect in years to come.
– Dr. Wilma Subra, Chemist, MacArthur Genius Award Recipient

Read the full report here.

Voices From the Gulf: “Do Not Eat Our Food”

Voices From the Gulf: “Do Not Eat Our Food”
Mar 13, 2013 | CommonSenseShow | David Hodges

Nobody, and I mean nobody can validate the safety of the seafood in the Gulf. As a result, not only are the 40 million people in the Gulf at risk, the safety of our seafood is at risk as well. And when one adds the Fukashima disaster on top of the Gulf oil spill, I cannot think of one reason why any reasonable person would eat seafood in today’s toxic global environment.

The Government Will Not Protect You

 The measures that the government is taking to ensure Gulf food safety would be laughable and provide the fodder for a Saturday Night Live skit, if it were not for the growing number of victims resulting from the BP event coupled with the impotent governmental response. The current method for detecting oil  and Corexit contamination in Gulf seafood is a simple sniff test, in which FDA inspectors hold a bag of fish up to their nose and if the inspector does not detect any “strange odors, the fish passes the food safety inspection test and is eligible to be processed and subsequently sold to the public. The FDA says smell tests are the only way to detect chemical dispersants, as scientists have yet to develop an effective tissue test. The sniff test doesn’t satisfy food industry workers and the obvious lack of scientific rigor is a de facto admission that the government cannot protect you.

“Don’t Eat Our Seafood” 

If any group would have a motive to lie and misrepresent the safety of the food supply in the Gulf, it would be the very people who make their living from fishing the waters. Yet, even these people are stating in no uncertain terms that there are very serious dangers associated with ingesting the Gulf’s food supply.

Read more..

The Ongoing Great Gulf Coast Holocaust

The Ongoing Great Gulf Coast Holocaust
Mar 9, 2013 | Common Sense Show | Dave Hodges

It’s been labeled the worst environmental disaster in world history, and rightfully so, because the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is like the nightmarish gift that keeps on giving. BP and the United States government would have the public believe that all is well in the Gulf. Nothing could be further from the truth. The crisis is not only ongoing, it is worsening in its effects.

The April 20, 2010 explosion of the Deep Water Horizon Explosion will soon be back in the news again. The explosion of this oil rig represents the biggest false flag even in history, the devastation of this false flag event is still being felt and the worst is yet to come.  You may have heard about the explosions near the New Madrid Fault and the thousands of generators being shipped to Louisiana by FEMA.  Soon all readers of this series will connect the BP oil spill to these recent current events.

Over 34 months later, the oil spill has destroyed the welfare, livelihoods, health and futures of tens of millions of Gulf Coast residents, not to mention the destruction of the fragile ecology in the Gulf of Mexico.
Originally, BP was ordered to initiate $20 billion in restitution to the Gulf Coast victims.  In retrospect, BP has never made full restitution to the victims. The overall physical health of the region has been decimated and the mainstream media and government officials reaching as high as President Obama have been complicit in covering up the geological and medical magnitude of the event. Even to this day, BP is still covertly carpet bombing Corexit in the Gulf and the much of the environmental catastrophe remains untouched by the BP cleanup crews.

Read more..

BP Spill Resurfaces on Louisiana Beaches as Gulf Depopulation Agenda Looms in the Distance

BP Spill Resurfaces on Louisiana Beaches as Gulf Depopulation Agenda Looms in the Distance
Sept 6, 2012 | Susanne Posel

In Louisiana, remnants of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is washing up on shore in the form of tarballs that are heavily laced with Corexit.

A representative from the Louisiana state Wildlife and Fisheries Department remarked that a “large mat of tar on one beach and concentrations of tar balls on adjacent beaches.”

Researchers from the UN-sponsored Greenpeace have taken samples along the affected beaches in the Bin Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama. It is estimated that 1 million barrels of oil remain at the seabed in the Gulf of Mexico, left behind by the BPDH oil spill.

This re-emergence of the prior disaster has prompted officials in Washington, DC to request federal agencies reassess the Gulf region’s safety as residents are continuously being exposed to Corexit and remnants of the oil spill.

Garret Graves, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s top adviser on coastal issues, asserts that “there’s a smoking gun” and demands that tests be conducted on the origin of the oil.

State officials have restricted fishing, keeping commercial and recreational fishing out of the areas affected. Tar mats have been identified on multiple beaches and surveys are finding more. Graves is concerned that the preliminary studies are not through.

BP said in a public statement regarding the allegations that the 2010 oil spill is the cause of this new phenomenon: “With many of the southern parishes of Louisiana still inundated with flood waters and not accessible at this time, it is premature to make any claims about possible oiling there — whether it is from the Deepwater Horizon accident or any other source.”

BP is choosing to wait for the “Coast Guard’s federal on-scene coordinator” before admitting that the residual oil is from the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Coast Guard Capt. Peter Gautier confirmed that there are concurrent investigations of pollution caused by negligence due to leaks and oil sheens from tank batteries and wellheads as well as storage tanks that were situated at a closed railroad terminal. These tank cars contained hazardous chemicals that were compromised and contaminated neighboring areas.

Before Tropical Storm Isaac hit the shores of Louisiana, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu stated publicly: “Isaac has finally formed into a hurricane, so we are officially in the fight and the city of New Orleans is on the front lines.”

A state of emergency had been declared in three Gulf Coast states with mandatory evacuations of residents living on the coastline. Jean Lafitte Mayor Tim Kerner said that tidal surge is the concern.

Four thousand of the Louisiana National Guard were preemptively deployed to New Orleans, have “taken up strategic positions around” the city. Their purpose is to assist with disaster relief, emergency preparations, and crowd control.

Landrieu has kept the city under a dusk-to-dawn curfew to be enforced by the Army National Guard who has been deployed in the city to control the citizens. Invoking Katrina, Landrieu is using the example from 2005 to justify the military on the streets in New Orleans.

The Army Corps of Engineers closed the newly built floodgate along the storm-surge barrier of New Orleans at Lake Borgne. This system includes a flood defense system of walls, floodgates, levees and pumps costing $14.5 billion to stave off potential tidal surges based on the destruction during Katrina.

Anticipating problems in production, oil speculation based on future production in the Gulf of Mexico, because of Isaac’s threat has fallen 24%, says the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

Eighty percent of oil production has come to a halt off shore in the Gulf of Mexico as refineries brace for impact and will remain closed throughout the incident which will force a great reduction of fuel supplies. The White House has released a statement confirming that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) will be tapped into in the coming weeks.

The US Energy Department announced that the Obama administration is “loaning 1 million barrels of oil to Marathon Petroleum” due to Isaac. Steven Chu, former BP executive and current Energy Secretary, said : “Today’s announcement is part of the broader federal effort to respond to those impacted by Hurricane Isaac. This emergency loan from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will help ensure Marathon’s refining operations have the crude oil they need to continue operating.”

This “loan” will be extracted from the SPR.

Due to anticipation of this action, oil speculation fell just ahead of Isaac in consuming nations with the fear of having to release emergency reserves to stimulate the global economy.

In 2010, Deepwater Horizon, which drilled into the Macondo Prospect operated by British Petroleum (BP) was responsible for the release of more than 4.9 million barrels of crude oil that dispersed into the Gulf of Mexico.

To aid in the cleaning of the spill, BP authorized the use of Corexit . The chemical is touted as being a dispersant that breaks up the oil into bio-degradable droplets that will “immediately sink below the surface” reducing the oil’s exposure to surrounding wildlife and exposure to humans.

Corexit was found to be deadly and its use in the Gulf was directly causational to the plankton, fish, birds and wildlife. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated Corexit’s use in oil spill clean-up is a “trade-off to lessen the overall environmental impact.”

This trade-off infiltrated beaches and coastlines from Louisiana to Florida and made the regions completely toxic. After some time, and contamination of Corexit in the natural environment, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered BP to use an alternative asserting that corexit was too poisonous.

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, in 2007 the US government allocated 40 billion for a project to depopulate the Gulf Coast region. The purpose of depopulating residents from this area was touted as the creation of a natural barrier to save the coastline from future hurricanes.

Comment: Instead of rebuilding these communities which depend on the Gulf as their means of survival, billions are wasted trying to cover up additional criminal activity.

Susan Rees, project director, said: “The whole concept of trying to remove people and properties from the coast is very, very challenging. The desire to live by the water is strong.”

With the new threat of Corexit laced tarballs strewn across beaches in Louisiana, there may be a resurrection of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the depopulation agenda to reserve the area for multi-national corporations to create an area designated for oil drilling that would be void of environmental concerns with the removal of the residential population.

Most recently, in Louisiana, a giant sinkhole in Grand Bayou is expelling gas that has been shown to contain cancer-causing chemicals, according to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network.

The area is estimated to be 3 football fields long and radioactive.

Combining the Corexit laced tarballs and the radioactive material emanating from the sinkholes, residents are being requested to evacuate in record numbers. Isaac is expected to bring down oil production by 40% while the Red Cross is preparing shelters for displaced residents.

Considering the activity in the Gulf region, the many depopulation efforts and the strange radioactive gas emanating from a sinkhole in Louisiana, the strange path Isaac is taking which mirrors Katrina’s could be more than just a coincidence. HAARP has been used in the past to cause massive damage by seemingly natural means. This may just be another instance of the global Elite using weather control and modification to achieve their agenda.

How Bain Capital helped BP blow up the Deepwater Horizon

© salon.com

June 9, 2012: How Bain Capital helped BP blow up the Deepwater Horizon by Greg Palast

A Book Review by Greg Palast, for FireDogLake.com
on Poisoned Legacy: the Human Cost of BP's Rise to Power (St. Martin's Press) by Mike Magner.

Here's my bead on Magner's book....

I almost fell off the barstool when I read that it was Bain Capital (Mitt Romney, former CEO), that told oil giant BP it was a good idea to cut costs. The cuts would lead to death, mayhem and the destruction of the Gulf Coast (not to mention BP’s poisoning of Alaska, Africa, Central Asia and Colombia).

In 2007, after BP's criminal negligence and penny-pinching led to the explosion at the BP oil refinery on the Gulf Coast, in Texas City, Texas, the company brought in industry pooh-bah James Baker, their lawyer and former Secretary of State, to write a report. Baker is Big Oil's BFF, but in this case, he was horrified, and told BP to get its act together and spend some real money on operating safety.

BP didn't like Baker's recommendation nor did it like another report by its own consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton which advised the company to ...get its act together and spend money on safety.

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When two respected industry voices agree that you'd better start spending and thinking while you're operating in a deadly business, a corporation's CEO has only one choice: find a consulting house of ill repute to contradict the others and tell you what you want to hear.

That's what BP's CEO Tony Hayward did. In 2008, he hired Bain Capital to say the company would be better managed if it spent less money. Bain used consulting BS terms like reducing "complexity," but it all meant the same thing: cut, cut, cut.

After all, Bain's motto is, "We like to fire people." The oil company then fired 5,000 employees in response to the Bain report.

To hell with safety.

BP read Bain's recommendations as the green light to chop funding. Of course, it was all done with Hayward's PR pronouncement that the company would now "focus like a laser on safety". (A laser, I'd note, is a thin beam surrounded by darkness.)

BP's Bain-blessed, deadly, insouciant cost-cutting was the deadly habit that federal regulators identified as a cause of the Deepwater Horizon blow-out.

That's just one of the ill-making stories in Magner's book which takes you through BP's poisonous history before, during and after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blow-out.

Much of Magner's opus centers on the Texas City refinery explosion that was a loud, flaming warning about allowing BP to play with matches and oilrigs. He begins and ends with the story of another refinery, Amoco's long-closed plant at Neodesha, Kansas.

At first, that sounds weird for a book about BP––but it's an exceptionally important tale, explaining how the industry hits and runs. Amoco closed its refinery decades ago, took off and left the toxins there. It takes years for toxins to kill, and Amoco's poisons killed Lucille Campbell's baby in 1963. And it takes more years to figure that out, which Lucille did in 1999, after BP bought Amoco.

Lucille continues to this day to fight to stop the rash of cancers and poisonings still caused by BP's dump. The oil company has done the honorable thing: it's gone after Lucille and her little township, attempting to smear, discredit and bankrupt her and the company's victims.

Lucille's fight against the petro-saur corporation is the big story of the book that you should read––in fact, that you should memorize.

Greg Palast is the author of Vultures' Picnic, centering on Palast's own undercover investigation of BP and Big Oil around the planet. www.VulturesPicnic.org.
 
Palast's, reports can be seen on BBC-TV and Britain’s Channel 4.

You can read Vultures' Picnic, "Chapter 1: Goldfinger," or download it, at no charge: click here.

Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter and podcasts.
Follow Palast on Facebook and Twitter.

GregPalast.com

Local: EPA Grossly Misrepresents The Toxicity Of Corexit Used In Gulf Of Mexico

© Apalachicola Bay Corexit Poisoning

EPA Grossly Misrepresents The Toxicity Of Corexit Used In Gulf Of Mexico by Susan Aarde

Quite incredibly, the EPA issued a positive report on May 1, 2012 regarding the safety and toxicity of various dispersants used in the BP Gulf Oil Spill. Included in this assessment was the use of Corexit.

This report "indicated that all eight dispersants had roughly the same toxicity," and all fell into the "practically non-toxic" or "slightly toxic" category. Scientists found that none of the eight dispersants displayed endocrine-disrupting activity of "biological significance."

The same report went on to say that "dispersant-oil mixtures were generally no more toxic to the aquatic test species than oil alone."

The first question that jumps out for those who have researched this subject with any degree of thoroughness is how this recent report fails to reconcile with previous studies performed by the EPA.

Here is some test data retrieved from the EPA website that was posted previous to the BP Gulf Oil Spill.

The dispersant (Corexit 9500) and dispersed oil have demonstrated the following levels of toxicity per the EPA website link that follows:

(1) 10.72 parts per million (ppm) of oil alone will kill 50% of the fish test species in a normal aquatic environment within 96 hours.

(2) 25.20 parts per million of dispersant (Corexit 9500) alone will kill 50% of the fish test species in a normal aquatic environment within 96 hours.

(3) 2.61 parts per million of dispersed oil (Corexit-laden) alone will kill 50% of the fish test species in a normal aquatic environment within 96 hours.

This data diverges from the recent report to such a significant degree that the results which were just posted at the EPA.gov website under the title of "The BP Oil Spill: Responsive Science Supports Emergency Response" must be seriously scrutinized.

What is the buying public to make of such conflicting data? Those who have medical conditions which require complete avoidance of toxic seafood need to know with certainty what they are eating.

Likewise, the fishermen in the Gulf need to know the true condition of their catch. Swimmers and beachgoers need to know the state of the water, as well as the beaches. Boaters ought to be informed of the relevant risk factors when out in the areas of recently sprayed waters, whether surface or deep sea.

The most serious questions to emerge from this report revolve around the issue of credibility. Can the EPA ever be trusted again to conduct the necessary research regarding anything having to do with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused by BP?

Issuing such blanket statements about the relatively low toxicity associated with this spill, irrespective of location on the beach, in the waters, in the wetlands or estuaries, seems to be quite disingenuous.

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Furthermore, the federal government's declaration that the "clean up phase" of the Deepwater Horizon spill is over begs for review, especially in light of the large quantities of submerged oil unaccounted for residing in the water column, DOJ's discovery of false flow rate numbers reported by BP and new sightings of oil slicks all over the Gulf.

In light of all that, the clean up phase is not over and further use of Corexit dispersant isn't an effective solution.

Moreover, the fact that the EPA has approved for use a very safe bioremediation agent known as Oil Spill Eater II, but has yet to allow its use in the Gulf raises many additional questions.

From our investigation, it has become clear that Corexit has been given preferential treatment over other much safer alternatives. The Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference (GOSRC) was quoted as follows in this regard:

When we heard about Oil Spill Eater II, and the fact that it is EPA-approved (NCP listed) and has demonstrated its effectiveness at least 14 times for the BP Gulf Oil Spill, we wondered why it wasn't being used 24/7.

The GOSRC went on to issue a press release entitled: Coalition Of Enviro, Citizens And Political Groups Demand COREXIT Use Be Stopped which pointed out the deliberate false image which has been created around the use of this toxic dispersant - Corexit 9500.

The Gulf Rescue Alliance (GRA) also made the recent observations in their press release entitled: BP Gulf Oil Spill Revisited.

Many of these studies point out the obvious; that when you mix a tremendous volume of released oil with methane gas and further mix it with a toxic dispersant like Corexit, as they have done throughout this oil spill, a chemical cocktail is created that will have as far-reaching ecological ramifications as it will profound environmental consequences.

The Earth Orgainization (TEO) has also weighed in on this issue through their release of an excellent documentary entitled: Hidden Crisis in the GULF. Barbara Wiseman, TEO President, has been an ardent advocate for safer oil remediation measures since the very beginning of this oil spill. She has said that:

At the beginning of the disaster, TEO investigated to find effective, non-toxic technologies currently available in adequate supply to clean up an oil spill of this size. Once we isolated the best solutions, we then investigated to find what the barriers to getting them implemented were. The barriers have all come down to specific people in the EPA. They are, in effect, holding the Gulf hostage and, for some unexplained reason, won't let it be cleaned up.

Lastly, perhaps the words of Steven Pedigo reflect the voice of reason more than any other in this ongoing oil spill when he was quoted in A 2nd Anniversary Report on the BP Gulf Oil Spill as follows:

The toxic dispersants add absolutely nothing to EFFECTIVE RESPONSE. There is no scientific basis for it, and their use violates The Clean Water Act, EPA's charter and common sense.

Corexit's label clearly states it can cause kidney failure and death and the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) specifically warns, 'Do not contaminate surface water with it. Additionally, toxicity testing in regards to marine species shows little tolerance by all forms of sea life; thus, applying it on spills as a preferred response method increases the toxicity of the spilled oil on which it is used.

Local: Corexit chemical dispersant used by BP during Gulf oil disaster linked to horrific human injuries

Corexit chemical dispersant used by BP during Gulf oil disaster linked to horrific human injuries by Ethan A. Huff

 (NaturalNews) A man who is now a paraplegic and who is also going blind has filed a lawsuit against British Petroleum (BP) and its related companies; Halliburton; Transocean; NALCO; ConocoPhilips and several other companies involved with the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster that began on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico. According to the suit, BP officials lied about the safety of Corexit, an oil dispersant sprayed throughout the Gulf, which resulted in serious and permanent injuries for a dive team that helped with cleanup efforts.

David Hogan first began helping with Gulf cleanup efforts on June 1, 2010. But almost immediately, he noticed that something was off with the way oil was sinking below the surface, and how it was sticking to his and his team's wetsuits. But after bringing this anomaly to the attention of a BP "health and safety" officer, he was reassured that everything was just fine, and that there was absolutely no health risk from exposure to the oil and any related chemicals that might accompany it.

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But it turns out that this was completely false information, as the Corexit dispersant chemicals sprayed in the Gulf after the disaster began -- reports says more than 1.8 million gallons of Corexit were dumped into the Gulf -- are known to be severely neurotoxic. But this information was deliberately withheld from Hogan and his team upon inquiry, which reassured them that their several months of diving work was going to be problem-free.

In the end, Hogan and his team ended up with permanent injuries that left several of them, including Hogan, completely unable to walk. They also developed neurological problems, as well as vision problems that gradually resulted in permanent blindness. Several members of the team became so injured and hopeless that they actually committed suicide.

Hogan and his wife are now seeking damages for this heinous crime against humanity, which has left at least two men dead and one permanently debilitated. According to the lawsuit, Hogan, who had previously been in optimal shape and of good health, has lost 60 pounds, is bound to a wheelchair, and suffers from cognitive problems, seizures, and vertigo as a result of repeated exposure to Corexit.

Federal government complicit in Corexit coverup

For a while after the Gulf disaster began, federal authorities, including those at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), had refused to require full disclosure of the chemicals used in Corexit. But after being repeatedly pressed on the issue, they finally caved, which ended up exposing several highly toxic chemical ingredients known to cause serious health damage similar to what Hogan and his now-dead colleagues have endured (http://www.naturalnews.com/028974_Corexit_dispersants.html).

So not only is BP and its cohort of multinational oil industry barons at fault for the damage caused by Corexit, but so are the government officials and agencies that have been complicit all along in this massive coverup. Further investigation into this matter is needed not only to expose the truth about Corexit, but also to bring justice to those that have suffered or died as a result of exposure to it.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/05/04/46224.htm

http://blog.sfgate.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035819_corexit_chemicals_injuries.html#ixzz1uTcog7WF