Are GULF FISHERMAN And Cleanup Workers Getting Sick From BP Disaster?

 People are being made sick in the Gulf because of the unprecedented release of oil and toxic chemicals from this past summer in response to BP's disaster, according to the article below. Apparently, they can have headaches, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pains, chest pains and many other problems. These health issues sound like a potential long-term problem for BP.
    . . . June

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BP being blamed for fisherman and cleanup workers getting sick
New Orleans Environmental Health | Examiner.com:

James Miller, a commercial shrimper, lifelong fisherman in Mississippi and former BP oil response worker, is horribly sick.

'I've been vomiting, my head feels like it's going to explode, diarrhoea, and I keep passing out,' Miller, who worked in BP's so-called Vessels of Opportunity (VOO) oil response programme, said from his bed at Biloxi Regional Hospital on November 5.

A couple days before he got sick, James, his wife, and their dog was boating in the Gulf of Mexico, and all three of them got ill. They started showing symptoms of illness that evening.

It is not only the oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico but also the dispersant used in the cleanup that is causing people to become ill.

"The dispersants used in BP's draconian experiment contain solvents such as petroleum distillates and 2-butoxyethanol," Dr. Riki Ott, a toxicologist, marine biologist and Exxon Valdez survivor, said. "People are being made sick in the Gulf because of the unprecedented release of oil and toxic chemicals from this past summer in response to BP's disaster."

Pathways of exposure to the dispersants are inhalation, ingestion, skin and eye contact. Health impacts include headaches, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pains, chest pains, respiratory system damage, skin sensitisation, hypertension, central nervous system (CNS) depression, neurotoxic effects, cardiac arrhythmia and cardiovascular damage. The chemicals are also teratogenic, mutagenic and carcinogenic.

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BP may have almost finished some of the required cleanups, but apparently they still have some very serious ongoing responsibilities. Please comment.


June


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BP Oil Spill Produces First FRAUD CASE

It was almost inevitable that fraud would emerge from this process and it has. According to the article below, federal prosecutors filed the first spill-related criminal charges this week. Claims Administrator Kenneth Feinberg says, "If eligible claimants or the public believe that the program is ripe for fraud, we'll receive claims without merit that tie up the system, that divert badly needed funds from worthy victims to criminals, and the entire program will suffer
     June

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First fraud case emerges from BP oil spill
- USATODAY.com:

After fielding hundreds of fraud complaints from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, federal prosecutors filed the first spill-related criminal charges this week against a North Carolina woman whom they allege pretended to be an unemployed oyster shucker to claim lost wages.

The National Center for Disaster Fraud in Baton Rouge has logged about 1,000 complaints since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20 in the Gulf of Mexico, says U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, who oversees the center.

The complaints have led to hundreds of investigations into businesses demanding advance fees to help oil spill victims file claims or train for oil spill cleanup jobs, and into dubious charities soliciting donations to rescue wildlife or restore Gulf Coast habitat, Letten says.

"With the increasing number of cases under investigation, there will be charges coming down the road," he says. "We know there are viable investigations out there."

Fraud hurts the credibility of the Gulf Coast claims process, claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg says.

"If eligible claimants or the public believe that the program is ripe for fraud, we'll receive claims without merit that tie up the system, that divert badly needed funds from worthy victims to criminals, and the entire program will suffer," Feinberg says. "There are scores of suspicious claims that we have sent or are sending to the Department of Justice."

Read entire article

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Gulf Oil Drilling OPEN FOR BUSINESS As Region Suffers

The Obama administration announced last week that the deep waters of the Gulf are again open for drilling, according to the following article. Obviously, the BP oil disaster is continuing and will have lasting effects on the environment and the people of the Gulf region. People in the fishing industry are still out of work, the effects on wildlife have not been fully assessed, the safety of our seafood is still in question. There will be questions for generations and more expenses for BP.
     . . . .  June

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Gulf reopen for drilling as region suffers
CNN.com:

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- Last week, the Obama administration announced that the deep waters of the Gulf are again open for drilling. That the BP oil disaster is continuing and will have lasting effects is unacknowledged.

The BP disaster was the largest oil catastrophe the country has ever seen, and the Gulf of Mexico and our communities have a long road to recovery.

Our friends in the fishing industry are still out of work, the effects of the spill on wildlife have not been fully assessed, the safety of our seafood is still in question and entire cultures are barely hanging on.

The administration says new rules and regulations will make deepwater oil drilling safer.

Although we welcome the new rules, we believe that they do not go far enough. There is little assurance that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, charged with enforcement, has the resources to hold the industry accountable.
 
Gulf Restoration Network believes further steps must be taken immediately to ensure the safety of oil drilling in deep off-shore waters. The government and the public need to stay focused on the disaster and environmental impacts that are just beginning to play out, continue to hold BP accountable and act to make sure this never happens again.

We hope the Obama administration approaches continued cleanup, regulatory reform and damage mitigation, none of which is even close to being accomplished, with the same urgency it has shown in efforts to reopen the Gulf to deepwater drilling.


BP's spill is only the latest and most visible evidence of the oil and gas industry's ongoing environmental destruction in the Gulf.

Read entire article

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Slow Payout of BP claims blamed on FRAUD!

 Apparently, there's a reason why compensation for DP claims is so slow. According to the following article, many of the claims are poorly documented, not documented at all or outright fraud. I can see how a documentation problem could  happen with small fishermen and shrimpers who probably make a minimum income anyway and don't keep much paperwork. What a mess!
    . . . June


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Leader on BP claims blames fraud for slow payouts
Yahoo! News: "By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer Brian Skoloff,

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – BP's $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the Gulf oil spill has been inundated with inflated or unsupported claims and in some cases, outright fraud — all slowing down the process of getting money to people who need and deserve it, the administrator of the program says.

Kenneth Feinberg said more than a third of the roughly 104,000 applicants need to do more to back up their claims, and thousands of claims have no documentation at all. He added that the amount sought in some cases bears no resemblance to actual losses, such as a fisherman's claim for $10 million 'on what was obviously a legitimate claim of a few thousand dollars.'

"People can put down on a claims form all sorts of numbers," he said.

At the same time, hundreds of claims that were initially denied have been accepted as Feinberg adjusts rules for compensation, such as whether people need to be physically close to the spill to get paid.

"At the beginning, it's always rough," said Feinberg, an attorney who previously oversaw claims for 9/11 victims. "Hopefully, by the end of this program, people will feel that the fund treated them fairly."

Many claimants are still waiting for checks from the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, which is doling out BP's money to oil spill victims. The Associated Press interviewed dozens who say they have received small fractions of the compensation they requested. Claims have been bogged down by the sheer volume of requests for money as livelihoods have crumbled since the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers and spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil over about three months.

Read entire article

Deep Water Horizon Sealed Shut but BP Still On The Hook

The five month long ordeal that leaked close to five million barrels of oil into the gulf may be officially over, but not for the rig’s owner. The deep water horizon oil well is sealed shut for good now but the cleanup and the expense still go on. Lawsuits will abound and according to the article below, ultimately the court of public opinion may determine more of the company's forward success than a court of law.
   . . . June


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Oil spill cleanup: After digging deep to kill well, BP faces long climb
CSMonitor.com:

The final relief well 'kill' – performed 18,000 feet below the sea floor – provided little more than a symbolic end to a summer-long disaster that put the Gulf oil industry, resort towns, and fishing communities in the grip of a crude-infused calamity that reopened wounds from hurricane Katrina five years earlier.

To be sure, troubling questions remain about the amount of oil left in Gulf waters, its impact on the complex coastal biology of the region, and the long-term economic effects of a six-month drilling ban and the 20 percent premium that explorers now expect to have to pay to drill new wells in the Gulf because of drilling delays and insurance rate hikes.

Despite a loss of nearly one-third of its stock value (or $70 billion) since the spill began, BP will endure in the Gulf, where untapped deep-water deposits shape its future as an oil company. But given the overall hit to its corporate reputation and stock price, and after a series of PR blunders under former chief Tony Hayward, BP knows it must build a new image, much as Exxon did after the Valdez disaster in 1989. And with deeds, not words.

"This is ultimately a story about corporate reputation and corporate liability," says James O'Rourke, a management professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. "Clearly, the litigators want everybody to shut up and say nothing and then fight the battle in court. But ultimately the court of public opinion may determine more of the company's forward success than a court of law."
Read More . .

Thick Layer Of Oil On Seafloor in Gulf Of Mexico

According to the article below, they are finding oily sediment stretching for dozens of miles.This discovery suggests that a lot of oil from the Deepwater Horizon didn't simply evaporate or dissipate into the water — it has settled to the seafloor. It's very clearly a fresh layer. Oh My!

    . . . June


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Scientists Find Thick Layer Of Oil On Seafloor


NPR:   September 10, 2010

Scientists on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico are finding a substantial layer of oily sediment stretching for dozens of miles in all directions. Their discovery suggests that a lot of oil from the Deepwater Horizon didn't simply evaporate or dissipate into the water — it has settled to the seafloor.

The Research Vessel Oceanus sailed on Aug. 21 on a mission to figure out what happened to the more than 4 million barrels of oil that gushed into the water. Onboard, Samantha Joye, a professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, says she suddenly has a pretty good idea about where a lot of it ended up. It's showing up in samples of the seafloor, between the well site and the coast.

"I've collected literally hundreds of sediment cores from the Gulf of Mexico, including around this area. And I've never seen anything like this," she said in an interview via satellite phone from the boat.

Joye describes seeing layers of oily material — in some places more than 2 inches thick — covering the bottom of the seafloor.

"It's very fluffy and porous. And there are little tar balls in there you can see that look like microscopic cauliflower heads," she says.

It's very clearly a fresh layer. Right below it she finds much more typical seafloor mud. And in that layer, she finds recently dead shrimp, worms and other invertebrates.

Read More . . .

$10 million for Study of Oil Spill Health Issues - BP

 BP are getting hit with more expenses again. This time to study health-related issues with regard to the gulf coast oil spill. I guess they have so many long-term commitments there that it'll be many many years before they can put it behind them.
   . . . June


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BP provides $10 million for a study of health issues related to Gulf oil spill

WireUpdate Local | Local Breaking News | Local Breaking Wire

HOUSTON, TEXAS (BNO NEWS) – BP on Tuesday announced that it will provide $10 million to support a study of public health issues related to the Gulf oil spill and other related health research.

The fund will be awarded to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under its Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI), a 10-year, $500 million independent research program established by BP to better understand and mitigate the environmental and potential health effects of the Gulf oil spill.

BP provided the funds to expedite work in support of the research priorities identified at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) workshop commissioned by the Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and included in the IOM report "Assessing the Effects of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill on Human Health," released last August 10.

With the funding, NIH will be able to build on efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Unified Command. It is also intended to support the immediate needs of researchers in understanding potential acute and long-term health impacts of exposures to oil, dispersed oil and dispersants

Read on . . .

Safety Board Starts BP Spill Probe

 Now that oil is no longer spilling into the gulf, it's time to delve into the broader issues, such as safety and regulations. According to this article in the Houston Chronicle, investigators from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board start their investigation of the Deepwater Horizon accident. It is essential that safety is assured for future platforms if off-shore drilling is to continue.
   . . . June

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Safety board ventures offshore for BP spill probe
Energy | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: 

As emergency crews responded to the fire on a Mariner Energy platform Thursday, investigators from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board stood on the deck of a drilling rig 200 miles to the east, starting their investigation of the Deepwater Horizon accident.

Investigators with the federal agency, better known for looking at the causes of accidents at chemical plants and refineries, will be based in Texas for the next month, looking into the April 20 drilling rig blowout that killed 11 and spilled almost 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Earlier this week the team attended an offshore safety conference at Texas A&M University and on Thursday flew out to Transocean's Development Driller III, the rig drilling the relief well that soon should intercept BP's Macondo well and seal it for good.

No oil has spilled from the well since workers put a cap on the wellhead July 15.

Don Holmstrom, CSB's lead investigator, said his team isn't looking at emergency response issues or spill cleanup, but causes behind the blowout itself.

This includes meeting with the internal investigation teams from BP, which held the federal lease where the well was drilled; Transocean, which owned and operated the rig; and other companies involved, looking at documents filed in ongoing investigations and interviewing witnesses.

"We will also be looking at broader issues like regulatory enforcement safety metrics, the focus on preventing catastrophic accidents versus focusing on issues such as personal safety, and BP's safety culture," Holmstrom said.

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More Trouble For Oil Industry? Gulf oil platform explodes and burning

 According to the article below, there's more trouble for the oil industry - thankfully not BP this time. Still, it's just another warning that catastrophic things can happen aboard an oil rig and that the coast is constantly in peril.
   . . . June


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Gulf oil platform explodes, burning off La. coast
By ALAN SAYRE, Associated Press Writer
 
"NEW ORLEANS, La. – An offshore petroleum platform exploded and was burning Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast, west of the site where BP's undersea well spilled after a rig explosion.

The Coast Guard said no one was killed in the explosion, which was spotted by a commercial helicopter flying over the site Thursday morning. All 13 people aboard the rig have been accounted for, with one injury. The extent of the injury was not known.

They were rescued from the water by an offshore service vessel, the Crystal Clear, said Coast Guard Cmdr. She said they were taken to a nearby platform. All were being flown to the Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma to be checked over.

"Thirteen people were seen huddled together in the water wearing gumby suits or immersion suits, water protection suits, so we were able to confirm that all people were accounted for," Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer John Edwards said.

Seven Coast Guard helicopters, two airplanes and three cutters were dispatched to the scene from New Orleans, Houston and Mobile, Ala., Ben-Iesau said. She said authorities do not know whether oil was leaking from the site.

The platform, known as Vermilion Oil Platform 380, was owned by Mariner Energy of Houston, according to a homeland security operations update obtained by The Associated Press. The platform was not producing oil and gas, according to the operations report.

Read More Of The Article . . .

Boat Captains and Deckhands No Longer Needed For Cleanup!

 It's great news that oil is no longer spilling into the Gulf, but many of the boat captains and deckhands hired now find themselves out of work and are as badly off as ever. How are BP going to compensate them now?  The article below enlarges on this problem.
   . . . June 


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Gulf Oil Spill Hits Workers Hard, Aid Groups Out Of Money
KEVIN McGILL and TOM BREEN | 08/23/10 05:40 PM

NEW ORLEANS — The oil has stopped flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, and that should be a relief. But with fewer cleanup jobs to be had, many of the people hit hardest by the huge spill are struggling as badly as ever.

Boat captains and deckhands who managed to put food on the table over the summer because they got hired by BP to skim the oil are being dropped from the payroll while huge swaths of the Gulf remain off-limits to those who haul in shrimp, oysters and other seafood

Now, just when with the environmental and engineering crisis is easing, large charities providing food to coastal communities have run out of money, homeless shelters are filling up with men thrown out of work by the spill, and demand for drug and alcohol counseling is up.

In yet another source of anxiety for fishermen and others, the federal government took over the handling of oil-spill damage claims from BP on Monday, and many people along the Gulf are waiting to see how Obama administration appointee Kenneth Feinberg administers the $20 billion victims compensation fund set up by the company.

Already, there are indications he intends to be stricter than BP in some cases when it comes to handing out checks to individuals and businesses.

Read More from the article . . 

Are There Any Natural Cures For The Gulf Oil Spill?

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is now about four months old and the news about it has quieted down a bit. What seems to be most reported, though, is that the oil disappeared and is not declared to be a major concern, but is that really the case?

Any natural cures for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill? August 18, 2010 at 9:19 PM Now that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is four months old, news about it has quieted down a bit. What seems to be most reported, though, is that the oil disappeared and is not declared to be a major concern. But if one were to use a modicum of common sense for a moment one would know that of the millions of barrels of raw oil that spewed from the ruptured reservoir a mile below the ocean surface much of it is still somewhere in the gulf. Certainly many gallons of the crude were retrieved but that oil captured is but a small percentage of what leaked. Know this that a large amount of the chemical Corexit was used even though it was banned from Europe; and for good reason. This dispersant is... Oil spilled. But hysteria did the real damage in the Gulf August 18, 2010 at 8:28 AM The saddest sight this week has been of America's first family taking a quick one-day holiday in Florida. Crashing visitor numbers and plummeting fish sales have devastated the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. There is talk of an 80% drop in revenues in some resorts. Yet figures show just 16 of the state's 180 holiday beaches are at all polluted, while the bulk of the spill appears to have dispersed, or be dispersing out at sea. Having hyped the disaster for political purposes, the president is now frantically trying to play it down. The spill has been another classic of state terror in which incident and response are wholly out of proportion to one another. As the oil... Scientists raise queries about Gulf oil left behind August 18, 2010 at 5:16 AM MIAMI - Two new scientific reports on Tuesday raised fresh fears about the environmental fallout from the world's worst offshore oil spill and questioned government assurances that most of the oil from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico was already gone. In one of the reports, researchers at the University of Georgia said about three-quarters of the oil from BP's blown-out Macondo well was still lurking below the surface of the Gulf and may pose a threat to the ecosystem. Charles Hopkinson, who helped lead the investigation, said up to 79 percent of the 4.1 million barrels of oil that gushed from the broken well and were not captured... This email was sent to dyna999399.bp99@blogger.com. Delivered by Feed My Inbox 230 Franklin Road Suite 814 Franklin, TN 37064 Account Login Unsubscribe Here

Environmental Studies Needed Before Deepwater Drilling

The Obama administration will no longer grant permits for deepwater drilling without environmental studies. The administration imposed a moratorium on most offshore drilling activities until November following the Deepwater Horizon disaster. See the article below


June

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No deepwater drilling without environmental studies, says Obama admin 

by Agence France-Presse  16 Aug 2010 10:44 PM

  "WASHINGTON - The Obama administration announced on Monday that it will grant no more permits for deepwater oil exploration without requiring studies on their impact on the environment.

The Interior Department said it would award offshore drilling permits only to projects 'involving limited environmental risk' while it undertakes a comprehensive review of its procedures under U.S. environmental protection laws.

The administration imposed a moratorium on most offshore drilling activities until November following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which released several million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from a ruptured BP well.

The Bureau of Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) said it has directed its staff not to grant 'categorical exclusions' for deepwater drilling activities even after the moratorium is lifted, the Interior Department said."

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BP Anounces Funding For Stress And Depression

The Gulf coast And BP's oil spill BP to donate $58m to fight depression, stress in oil spill states August 16, 2010 at 9:24 PM BP announced overnight $US52 million ($58 million) in funding for health groups dealing with stress and depression in four southern US states hit by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. "We appreciate that there is a great deal of stress and anxiety across the region," said Lamar McKay, president of BP America. "We are providing this assistance now to help make sure individuals who need help know where to... Responders to Gulf oil spill wrap up defining week August 16, 2010 at 6:47 PM NEW ORLEANS — BP PLC closed the books on a defining week in an epic battle to defeat its ruptured oil well, with exhausted engineers forcing the surging crude underground with a torrent of mud and cement, preparing to make a final push to plug it from the bottom. More than three months after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and triggered one of the world's worst oil spills, authorities weighed how to gather evidence from the mile-(1.6-kilometer)deep waters to help investigators determine what happened — and who could be at fault. Even retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who was brought in by the government to oversee the... BP pledges Angola, Azerbaijan oil as it builds US spill fund August 16, 2010 at 2:11 PM London: BP Plc is pledging oil sales from Angola and Azerbaijan to raise $5 billion (Dh18.3 billion) of loans as it builds a cleanup fund for the worst US environmental disaster. The larger of the two loans, for as much as $3 billion, is backed by oil sales from BP's interest in fields off Angola, lenders said. A second, $2... So much for an exit strategy August 16, 2010 at 9:03 AM      Aug 17, 2010 Page 1 of 3 CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN So much for an exit strategy Commentary and weekly watch by Doug Noland Ten-year Treasury yields dropped another 14 basis points (bps) last week to 2.68%. Yields on benchmark Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities (MBS) sank 13 bps to a record low 3.43%. Tuesday's announcement from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) further emboldened a highly speculative fixed-income marketplace.... This email was sent to dyna999399.bp99@blogger.com. Delivered by Feed My Inbox 230 Franklin Road Suite 814 Franklin, TN 37064 Account Login Unsubscribe Here