Iraq Reporter floored by discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico

If you read only one reporters experience about the Gulf of Mexico I urge you to read this Iraq war reporters exposure of the truth. This is the most touching and concerning article I have yet to find on the BP disaster.
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"I guarantee you they'll come pick that up," Craig says angrily, mocking BP. Given that there is boom washed ashore and oiled PVC pipes around much of the island, it's clear that BP is aware of the island being hit by oil. It is also clear that nobody has been back to check on it for a very long time.
We offload from the boat and step ashore. Oil-soaked marsh abounds, and the island smells like a gas station. Noxious fumes infiltrate my nose, causing me to cough. Piles of oiled oysters rest on the tide line.

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Everywhere I step near the water, sheen bubbles up out of the soil. Hermit crabs scuttle over dead, oiled marsh grass. Inland, we find tide pools filled with brown oil and sheen. The horrible smell makes me dizzy and nauseous. Each of us walks around on our own, trying to take in the devastating scene. Anger and a deep sadness comingle inside me. Rage at BP melds into a broader anger at all of us for having let it come to this.

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I watch a bird looking for food among the blackened stubs of marsh grass. I think of how the oil brings death to everything it touches, sooner or later.
We get back in Craig's boat and move on toward another island, but skirt the coast of this one whilst en route. Around the south side we find the entire coast oiled. Contaminated sorbent boom litters the coast above tide line.
"So when are they gonna come pick this up?" Craig asks angrily to no one. "In 10 years? So did they just not care about this island?"

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These are the saddest pictures and commentary I have seen on the post BP disaster to date.

I am floored by the truth which I have sensed and fought to keep at the forefront of peoples minds and hearts, but this is just a huge article to consider, I hope that for those of you sitting on the fence you now take action against this catastrophy and not remain silent any longer.
www.truth-out.org...

[edit on 24-8-2010 by antar]

there are no words to describe this

deeply saddening

S&F

A little further, we pass dozens of large shrimp boats laden with boom and skimming gear. They’ve been converted into response vessels for BP's fading Vessels of Opportunity (VOO) program that has created a false economy for the now out of work fishermen. "BP is buying out a way of life," Craig says when he sees me eyeing the boats, all of which are tied to the dock. "Generations of shrimping … done."

Boom contaminated with oil is abundant. Craig turns the boat out towards the bay, which is empty. "Right now, there should be 50 or 60 shrimp boats in here, but now it's like this … closed, and most folks are afraid to fish. We need good testing of the seafood, and it needs to be done right. We only have one shot at this."

Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
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Out in Devil's Bay we encounter a boat pulling a closed-off harbor skimmer: equipment used to skim up oil slicks. The boat is accompanied by an unmarked Carolina Skiff, driven by a man wearing desert camouflage pants and a tan shirt. Our captain will not let us get close enough to the boat pulling the skimmer to talk to its captain, nor will the boat's captain even look at us.
"These boats don't even have their Louisiana numbers," Craig says, annoyed. "Somebody brought these boats down here and threw them in the water, and they are not even from this state. It's another part of the scam."
I've written recently about how private contractors are being brought in from out of state to use these boats to spray dispersant on oil located by fisherman working in the VOO program in the four most heavily affected states.

We need to make sure that people outside of the Gulf region don't soon forget what happened/ is happening. It appears as if the Media has already moved on, while BP didn't do anything but move the oil from view, in turn making it much harder to clean.

It's more important than ever, that we don't allow this to slip the minds of the public. The Media will too soon start to ignore that there is even a problem and the people will go back to watching their favorite celebrity complain about the color of their dress, shoes or $100k car.

I am not in the region but if I was, I would be constantly making videos, blogs and all-around noise about the tragedy that is just beginning.

S&F

--airspoon

reply to post by airspoon


Your post was all it took to send me into a nose stinging eye wattering mess! Right on, right on.

And for every big headline-grabbing spill in the media, there's a hundred small spills no one reports.

BP should be made to forfeit all it's assets until this is cleaned up but we know that will never happen, just as BP will never clean this up. They'd rather spend their money buying good PR than in a clean-up effort.

Where is the MSM coverage of this lack of effort by BP? Sad.

reply to post by antar


Absolutely disgusting. IMO, BP should be barred from doing any business anywhere in the U.S. ever again and that should include any new company formed or headed by any ex-BP officials or board members. No amount of money can fix what they have destroyed or bring back the workers they have killed.

Wake up America, with friends like BP, we certainly don't need any enemies.

reply to post by antar


It will be years until the effects of this disaster are truly known unless some BP official finds his/her conscience and whistleblows the truth. The devistation is so enormous that eventually it will have to be addressed by the rest of the country despite the msm ignoring the problem.

Eventually this spill will cause many more deaths than 911.



[edit on 24-8-2010 by whaaa]

reply to post by whaaa


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Least we not forget...

BP whistleblower found dead

Matthew Simmons, an energy investment banker who espoused the peak oil theory, became an advocate for alternative energy and served as energy adviser to President George W. Bush, died at his North Haven island home. He was 67.

hollyonthehill.wordpress.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by whaaa


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Also to note an older piece but still quite valid in its questioning of how this could be allowed to continue at the level it is.

Ex-EPA Officials: Why Isn't BP Under Criminal Investigation?

Why hasn't the government launched a criminal investigation into BP?
That's the question several former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials have been asking in the aftermath of the catastrophic explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig last month that killed 11 employees and ruptured a newly drilled well 5,000 feet below the surface and has spewed tens of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf if Mexico, which now stands as the largest spill in US history.
Like previous BP-related disasters in Alaska and Texas, evidence has emerged that appears to show BP knowingly cut corners on maintenance and safety on Deepwater Horizon's operations, which, according to blogger bmaz, who writes about legal issues at Emptywheel, could amount to criminal violations of the Clean Water Act. Additionally, because people were killed, BP and company officials could also face prosecution for negligent and reckless homicide.
Scott West, the former special agent-in-charge at the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, who spent more than a year probing allegations that BP committed crimes in connection with a massive oil spill on Alaska's North Slope in 2006, said the company's prior felony and misdemeanor convictions should have immediately "raised red flags" and resulted in a federal criminal investigation.
"If the company behind this disaster was Texaco or Chevron I would have likely waited a couple of days before I started to talking to people," West said. "And the reason for that is those corporations do not enjoy the current criminal history that BP does."

www.truth-out.org...


[edit on 24-8-2010 by antar]

Look at this mess BP did, AND still I see people everyday at their gas stations.....

What keeps echoing in my mind while reading that article is "Drill Baby Drill" I for a moment while the gulf disaster was pumping all that oil thought maybe we would use this to turn things around.

What will it take to get us to go cold turkey on Petroleum products?

We have to find another way...somehow. Its so horrible the thought of all that wildlife dealing with those chemicals 24/7 until they die from it.

I live in Australia and i ask many people everyday the question... "Have you heard anything about the BP Gulf oil spill or updates" What i get in return is... O yeh thats all over isnt it ! I cant believe how ignorant fellow humans are ! What i mean is if its not on commercial television news at 6pm it doesnt exist anymore. I am disgusted with BP and with the pathetic self centered humans on this planet. I still believe "we" havnt seen the end to this disaster and wont see an end for a long time. I will spend every day reminding people of the situation you folk in the Gulf are dealing with.

It is shocking and disgusting and now there's nothing more on the local news in my country about this oil spill. Quite interesting seeing as this is a catastrophe which will take years to fix, but the damage has been done they can only try and fix it and they aren't even really doing that it seems.

Originally posted by boondock-saint
there are no words to describe this

Sure there are words to describe it: Business as usual.

Who didn't see this coming? From the minute it was apparent how bad this leak was, I just had a sinking feeling that it would just end up like all the others - covered up, ignored and litigated for decades, while the entire ecosystem breaks down.

The fact that the EPA, MMS, NOAA, Dept. of Justice and the White House are all downplaying it and towing BP's line is, perhaps, the most disgusting and disturbing thing about this entire mess. As usual, the ONLY thing that matters to the government is the health and well-being of the big corporations, IE: money.

Makes me sick.

What can be done about this? Is anything being done? Are there any cleanup efforts underway? Is there any way to clean this horrible mess up? And what can a normal person such as myself do to support such cleanup efforts? Or am I damned to just watch and lament as it remains this way for who knows how long?

There's no need to worry ...

Microbes consumed oil plume, study says

www.washingtonpost.com...

The species dominating the digestion of the oil is a newly discovered one, Hazen said.

Some of the spill's 206 million gallons of oil has come ashore, some has sunk into bottom sediments, and a little is still a floating froth. But the mile-wide, 650-foot-high oil cloud of oil that drifted for months drifted 4,000 feet underwater seems to have disappeared in the six weeks since the well was plugged.

God bless the microbes

For this alone Obama should be put on trial. Yes, BP is criminally at fault too, bit everybody knows that...what is hardly ever being addressed is the government corruption behind this.

The Government is totally complicit in allowing this to happen, in allowing BP to flaunt the advice and use Corexit, in allowing BP total control, in enforcing and sustaining the media ban, in failing to protect the people, in giving false news about the state of things.

I totally agree that BP should be held accountable, but there is a greater authority in the land whose duty it is to take action on this kind of thing.

Where are the Senators and Congressmen? Why aren't they creating a stink about this? Where is the President?

If anything was needed to illustrate the utter corruption of the WHOLE government, and their TOTAL disdain for the well being of the American people, this has to be it.

I feel angry beyond belief that they are allowing this to happen, and angry at the American people who do nothing.

they'll never put them on trail, we get like 80% of our petroleum from BP. You really think we could give that up? Theres a war machine that needs constant feeding...

reply to post by antar

I watch a bird looking for food among the blackened stubs of marsh grass. I think of how the oil brings death to everything it touches, sooner or later.

Including man.

All in the name of greed.

This incident isn't over yet folks.

Will mankind ever learn and put the greedy ones in their place?


Another very good opening post Antar!

I applaud you.


[edit on 25-8-2010 by ofhumandescent]