BP Employees attempt to expose coverup.

This letter is being submitted to make it known that several key factors of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command Structure (ICS) are not being met in the Unified Command process of the BP Deepwater Horizon Incident. Specifically regarding the treatment of Geographic Information System (GIS) data, current configuration and process limit, or exclude completely, the flow of information about the extent and status of the disaster to government entities, emergency responders, and the public.

GIS is essential to the oil spill response effort and to the recovery of public resources. Almost every map and geographic display representing the Deepwater Horizon Incident is sourced by GIS data. Current GIS management processes indicate that BP is treating GIS data as proprietary information, and these data are currently being stored behind the BP corporate firewall. It is our understanding that public agencies, for example, The US Fish and Wildlife Service and The Louisiana National Guard, are literally submitting the only copy of agency field data, via wireless-enabled mobile GPS devices, directly to a BP GIS server behind the corporate firewall in Houston. Examples of these data are; dead bird and fish locations with photos, boom placement, engineered construction barriers, including dates, and other descriptive information and photos.

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Above the line is a quote from an orginal blog post by two BP employees about the BP's censoring of information released to the public.

It seems these two gentlemen wanted to everything correctly and BP did not. They were fired. In response one of the gentlemen published the letter on his blog, which was then removed or he removed it.

The letter has been referred to on other blogs, since it has vanished.

A friend of mine has somehow reposted the letter on his blog here
www.scientificblogging.com...

It is very long and very detailed. It is legit.

It is a rather damning condemnation of BP's attempts to keep the truth from the public.

Check it out.

There ARE multiple leaks.
There is, for instance, a wellhead that has been leaking since Hurricane Katrina.
There are all kinds of things going on under those waves that BP is not telling us.

The author of this secondary blog, (the link I provided) has an "in."

If and when he lets me know relevant info, I will post it here.

I'm sure it's of no surprise to anyone here that BP (and everyone else involved) is not telling us everything.

reply to post by briantaylor


Good find. Thanks for posting. S & F

I find it interesting and depressing and angering all at the same time to read this particular excerpt from Week 6:

1) The current configuration and process allow BP to limit or slow down the flow of information about the extent of the disaster to the government, the public and law enforcement, which I believe is against the spirit and letter of NIMS.

Combine that with how the BP IT group denied additional server access for data storage and that it took weeks to get the GPS system online for the GIS experts in the field and you get a good picture of how hard they are working to cover up and hide information rather than do everything possible to clean up and inform the populace.

Oops. Double post.

[edit on 14-6-2010 by wheresthetruth]

Hello,

Sorry, off topic post.

[edit on (6/14/1010 by loveguy]

Im sorry but i never believe in "open letters" that are published by anyone but the writter. I thought this was kind of funny though.

There ARE multiple leaks.
There is, for instance, a wellhead that has been leaking since Hurricane Katrina.

Yeah that is no secret look it up fpr yourself the Taylor energy spill has been ongoing, amoung others. You do not have to have secret knowledge to use a search engine.

Update:


The 404 error message has gone.

Drew Stephens has posted a new page. Here is an abstract:

It is the core mission of The GIS Institute to understand the geotechnical challenges around a mission, and then move into the creative process of understanding and sharing solutions, even when the challenges appear constant and compelling. I am now working on the proposal to create supplemental architecture and workflow, which will provide GIS data access to all who need it; responders, EOC staff, state and local government officials, researchers, and the general public. This proposal will be available in a draft context by Monday evening, June 14. BP is hosting a viewer at www.gulfofmexicoresponsemap.com/dwhi/
We hope to see more data and tools on this viewer, with the ability to download data to any local GIS unit for further research and analysis.


thegisinstitute.org...


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Here is a letter from Stevens that seems to be written with a similar style:

indigenousmapping.net...

a colleague confirming he was headed to Houma:

beta.rpls.com...

Stevens corroborates some of this letter in a blog on June 4:

gisandscience.com...

And outright confirms here?

thegisinstitute.org...

If this turns out true you deserve a Pulitzer.

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It is true that the letter quoted verbatim in my article was posted and was then removed.

I can confirm that the letter was written by Andrew Stephens and Devon Humphrey.

I have been led to understand that the open letter was taken down because the responses it attracted imposed to great a workload on the GIS Institute team.

I can assure my readers that there was no pressure placed on the site by any person or organisation to remove the letter.

There is no conspiracy surrounding the unpublishing of the open letter. Period.

I am not at liberty to divulge my source without a specific authority which I do not yet have.


As is my habit, I will post updates as and when I obtain new information.


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