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THE POLITICS of OIL - THE STATE COLUMN
When 80,000 gallons of oil spilled in South Baltimore, Bob Ehrlich was the lobbyist representing the oil company, a females voice says in the ad, referring to a 2008 spill. READ MORE HERE
Cajun Indians fear oil slick will destroy way of life
By Mira Oberman (AFP) 2 days ago
ISLE DE JEAN CHARLES, Louisiana With oil now coating their coastal salt marshes, the Cajun Indians who have lived off the Louisiana bayou for generations fear the black tide will destroy their homes, their livelihood and their very culture.
It is a simple life, but a good one, they say.
People work hard and come home to big pots of spicy gumbo or boiled crab. They share what they catch and cook with the cousins, and aunts and uncles, and children and friends who are never far away.
Anesie Verdin, 63, has built a strong business over the years, earning enough fishing shrimp and crabs to buy 412 acres of oyster beds. That was the first place he saw the oil, a thick sludge that clung to his son's hand when he reached into the water.
"I wanted to give them something I didn't have," he said of the legacy he had been building for his children. "I won't be able to pass it. I build just to pass some oil in the water. Nothing else."
Oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico more than 50 days after a deadly explosion that sank a BP-leased drilling rig 52 miles offshore and sparked the worst environmental disaster in US history.
A containment cap is now capturing about 15,000 barrels of oil a day, but at least 30 million barrels have already been released and have spread across the Gulf, sullying shores in four states.
Verdin's boats are now being used to lay out boom to soak up the oil and protect as much marsh as possible. But they are powerless against high waves or the storm surges which push seawater deep into the bayou.
The oil can kill the delicate grasses which keep the wetlands from being washed out to sea and provide critical breeding grounds for shrimp, crab, oysters and fish. If it contaminates the land, there's no telling when -- or if -- people will be able to come back.
"We have strong ties to the land and the water," said Brenda Dardar Robichaux, chief of the Houma Nation.
"This is our way of life. To think that may be gone for generations... the unknown is agonizing."
Decades of coastal erosion and a series of devastating hurricanes have already spurred many here to seek higher ground. Tribal leaders have been doing their best to help people relocate without losing ties to family, friends, and heritage.
Robichaux's voice caught when asked where people would go if the oil sweeps through the bayous and contaminates their land.
"I have no idea. I don't know that anybody knows that answer," Robichaux said in a telephone interview from Washington where she had gone to plead for help for her tribe.
People who live on the bayou are resilient folk, used to cleaning mud out of their homes after a bad storm.
But it will be hard to recover from this, said Diane Austin, an anthropologist with the University of Arizona who has spent years studying the impact of the oil and gas industry on the region.
"It's not just about money. It's who they are," said Austin. "You can't compensate people for losing their livelihood and identity."
The stress of dislocation can lead to a host of social problems, Austin warned.
And people are already fighting over the few cleanup jobs available.
Clarice Friloux has been battling for 16 years to clean-up an oil waste treatment facility in her town of Grand Bois.
Every time she had to evacuate for a hurricane, she was worried she'd come home to a road block because the hazardous waste had been washed out of their open pools and contaminated the land.
With the amount of oil in the gulf -- and the huge storm surges which sweep across the bayou -- she thinks contamination is a certainty. And this time it won't just be Grand Bois. It'll be the entire region.
"It's enough they killed our shrimp industry. Now it can come into our homes and destroy our homes. The oil can come into our homes," she told AFP.
"How do you cope with that?"
COVINGTON, La.BP CEO Tony Hayward says the process of pumping heavy mud into the leaking Gulf of Mexico well is going according to plan and it will be at least a day before the company knows if it has been successful.
Its ongoing, and itll be ongoing for many hours through today, and itll be 24 to 48 hours before we know whether weve been successful, he said. The next plan, if the top kill is not successful is to use a containment cap above the b.o.p. that is on the sea bed, and wed be in a position to deploy that in 3 to 4 days.
This is companys boldest attempt yet to plug the gusher that has spewed millions of gallons of oil over the last five weeks. Hayward says the plume of gushing oil that is being shown live online and on TV isnt an indicator of whether the process is working. He says if it increases or decreases, it doesnt indicate whats going on.
BP hoped the mud being pumped in Wednesday could overpower the steady stream of oil. The company wants to eventually inject cement into the well to permanently seal it.
We are gonna fix it, i am devastated, absolutely, that the shoreline defenses have been breached, said Hayward. We are absolutely committed to clean every drop of oil up.
WASHINGTON POST....Wednesday, May 26, 2010
BP's internal investigation of the Gulf Coast oil spill points to a series of equipment failures, mistakes and missed warning signs that led to the blowout and fire on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, according to lawmakers briefed by the company. .....READ MORE.....HERE
5/26/10
FROM NPR.COM
The Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars performed at the Acura Stage last Sunday during the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, just two days following the Earth Day sinking of British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The problem had not yet reached its current magnitude, but even the threat of coastal erosion will deal a potentially devastating blow to South Louisiana.
The VOW All-Stars included Dr. John, percussionist Cyril Neville, accordion player Johnny Sansone, guitarist Anders Osborne, bassist George Porter, and drummer Johnny Vidacovich, all joining Benoit for a set of swamp-based Louisiana music. Guests included Allen Toussaint, drummer Stanton Moore from Galactic and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux of the Golden Eagles. There were audience members who came simply to trawl for the starpower on that stage, but there were also messages in the music. Johnny Sansone, bending his accordion and belting an original, "Poor Man's Paradise," made a statement of post-Katrina angst that rings a little louder today, when he described a place where "little people suffer and big shots don't compromise."
Look on old Louisiana license plates and you'll see "Sportsman's Paradise." It's my paradise too, and it's worth saving.
5/25/10
"With oil from the BP underwater gusher now reaching the Louisiana shore and invading its wetlands, and the livelihoods of the people of the Gulf Coast once again in peril, Tuesday night's broadcast of S. Leo Chiang's "A Village Called Versailles," about the Vietnamese Catholic community of East New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, seems especially well-timed.
By Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times--READ MORE HERE
History repeats itself: BP had key role in Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska---Associated Press
"Since a busted oil well began spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico a month ago, the catastrophe has constantly been measured against the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster"....
--READ MORE HERE
May 25, 2010
"Its Day 36, and the unpluggable gusher on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico still vomits unmeasured possibly incalculable amounts of crude oil. And as the big, black blob, now the size of Pennsylvania, stalks the nations coastline, smothering species and economies in its path, the evidence seems clear:
British Petroleum hasnt been honest"-
The Star-Ledger Editorial Page
NJ Voices: Opinions from New Jersey
May 22, 2010
The Houston Cron.
GRAND ISLE, La. Frustration is growing among coastal officials who say the federal government should take a stronger role in fighting the massive oil spill that is threatening the state's wetlands and recreation on this barrier island resort community....... read more here
The Enviromental News Service .......read here
May 21, 2010 --- Huffington Post
Cyril Neville Joins Voices Crying From the Louisiana Delta By Georgianne Nienaber
Cyril Neville has long been a powerful, outspoken voice for the dispossessed peoples of Louisiana. In a phone conversation today, Neville explained how he has personally witnessed the poverty and injustice--Native Americans shoved aside.......read more here
May 12, 2010
LA TIMES- GREEN PEACE-
Kravitz Every disaster requires a splashy celeb-heavy music bash. So why not the big gusher in the gulf? Rocker Lenny Kravitz, who owns a house in the French Quarter, was the first to sign up for a Gulf Aid concert in New Orleans. Rain or shine, the music and food fest will be held Sunday, May 16, at Mardi Gras World's scenic River City, with panoramic views of the Mississippi. ....... read more here
