Cleaning oil-soaked wetlands may be impossible

By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press Writer Matthew Brown, Associated Press Writer – 53 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – The gooey oil washing into the maze of marshes along the Gulf Coast could prove impossible to remove, leaving a toxic stew lethal to fish and wildlife, government officials and independent scientists said.

Officials are considering some drastic and risky solutions: They could set the wetlands on fire or flood areas in hopes of floating out the oil.

But they warn an aggressive cleanup could ruin the marshes and do more harm than good. The only viable option for many impacted areas is to do nothing and let nature break down the spill.

More than 50 miles of Louisiana's delicate shoreline already have been soiled by the massive slick unleashed after BP's Deepwater Horizon burned and sank last month. Officials fear oil eventually could invade wetlands and beaches from Texas to Florida. Louisiana is expected to be hit hardest.

"Oil in the marshes is the worst-case scenario," said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the head of the federal effort to contain and clean up the spill.

Oil that has rolled into shoreline wetlands now coats the stalks and leaves of plants such as roseau cane — the fabric that holds together an ecosystem that is essential to the region's fishing industry and a much-needed buffer against Gulf hurricanes. Soon, oil will smother those plants and choke off their supply of air and nutrients.

In some eddies and protected inlets, the ochre-colored crude has pooled beneath the water's surface, forming clumps several inches deep.

With the seafloor leak still gushing hundreds of thousands of gallons a day, the damage is only getting worse. Millions of gallons already have leaked so far.

Coast Guard officials said Saturday the spill's impact now stretches across a 150-mile swath, from Dauphin Island, Ala. to Grand Isle, La.

Over time, experts say weather and natural microbes will break down most of the oil. However, the crude will surely poison plants and wildlife in the months — even years — it will take for the syrupy muck to dissipate.

Back in 1989, crews fighting the Exxon Valdez tanker spill — which unleashed almost 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound — used pressure hoses and rakes to clean the shores. The Gulf Coast is just too fragile for that: those tactics could blast apart the peat-like soils that hold the marshes together.

Hundreds of miles of bayous and man-made canals crisscross the coast's exterior, offering numerous entry points for the crude. Access is difficult and time-intensive, even in the best of circumstances.

"Just the compaction of humanity bringing equipment in, walking on them, will kill them," said David White, a wetlands ecologist from Loyola University in New Orleans.

Marshes offer a vital line of defense against Gulf storms, blunting their fury before they hit populated areas. Louisiana and the federal government have spent hundreds of millions rebuilding barriers that were wiped out by hurricanes, notably Katrina in 2005.

They also act as nursery grounds for shrimp, crabs, oysters — the backbone of the region's fishing industry. Hundreds of thousands of migratory birds nest in the wetlands' inner reaches, a complex network of bayous, bays and man-made canals.

To keep oil from pushing deep into Louisiana's marshes, Gov. Bobby Jindal and officials from several coastal parishes want permission to erect a $350 million network of sand berms linking the state's barrier islands and headlands.

That plan is awaiting approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. If large volumes of oil make it through passes, the cleanup will become far more difficult as oil spreads into the bayous and canals.

Smaller spills have been occurring in the marshes for decades. In the past, cleanup crews would sometimes slice out oiled vegetation and take it to a landfill, said Andy Nyman with Louisiana State University.

But with the plants gone, water from the gulf would roll in and wash away the roots, turning wetlands to open water.

Adm. Allen said that where conditions are right, an "in-situ burn" could be used to set oil-coated plants ablaze.

Nyman and other experts, though, warn it's trickier than simply lighting a fire. If the marsh is too wet, the oil won't burn. Too dry, the roots burn and the marsh can be ruined.

Representatives from BP PLC — which leased the sunken rig and is responsible for the cleanup — said Saturday that cleanup crews have started more direct cleanup methods along Pass a Loutre in Plaquemines Parish. Shallow water skimmers were attempting to remove the oil from the top of the marsh.

Streams of water could later be used in a bid to wash oil from between cane stalks.

In other cases, the company will rely on "bioremediation" — letting oil-eating microbes do the work.

"Nature has a way of helping the situation," said BP spokesman John Curry.

But White, the Loyola scientist, predicted at least short-term ruin for some of the wetlands he's been studying for three decades. Under a worst-case scenario, he said the damage could exceed the 217 square miles of wetlands lost during the 2005 hurricane season.

"When I say that my stomach turns," he said.

This Oil spill is outta control,just like my penis!

June 6, 2010, 1:43 pm Why is Salvaged Oil Going to BP Instead of U.S. Reserves?
By ANDREW C. REVKIN


For the moment, BP officials are saying that the oil they’re skimming from the Gulf of Mexico and siphoning from the unabated seabed gusher into the Discoverer Enterprise (above) belongs to the company, Times reporters tell me.

That seems outrageous. Even at 10,000 barrels a day times $75 a barrel, that potential revenue is a tiny fraction of the $23 million a day the company says it’s paying for cleanups and other costs. But to my mind, this is irrelevant.

Along with all of its other obligations and penalties, perhaps BP should be required — if only for symbolic value — to contribute to the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve an amount of oil equal to every barrel now being salvaged from the seabed gusher at its Macondo Prospect well.

Heck, why not the entire estimated flow, given that the company’s chief executive, Tony Hayward, has acknowledged its failure to prepare for worst-case risks. That momentous lapse has resulted not only in 11 deaths and spreading environmental and economic disruption, but also the loss of a resource owned by the American people.

I’ll circulate this question to some environmental and corporate lawyers. What are your thoughts?

NewsMassive Flow Of Bullshit Continues To Gush From BP Headquarters
June 7, 2010 | ISSUE 46•23

06.23.04 LONDON—As the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico entered its eighth week Wednesday, fears continued to grow that the massive flow of bullshit still gushing from the headquarters of oil giant BP could prove catastrophic if nothing is done to contain it.

The toxic bullshit, which began to spew from the mouths of BP executives shortly after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April, has completely devastated the Gulf region, delaying cleanup efforts, affecting thousands of jobs, and endangering the lives of all nearby wildlife.

"Everything we can see at the moment suggests that the overall environmental impact of this will be very, very modest," said BP CEO Tony Hayward, letting loose a colossal stream of undiluted bullshit. "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean, and the volume of oil we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total volume of water."


Hayward's comments fueled fears that the spouting of overwhelmingly thick and slimy bullshit may never subside.
According to sources, the sheer quantity of bullshit pouring out of Hayward is unprecedented, and it has thoroughly drenched the coastlines of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, with no end in sight.

Though no one knows exactly how much of the dangerous bullshit is currently gushing out of BP headquarters, estimates put the number at somewhere between 25,000 and 70,000 words a day.

"We're looking at a truly staggering load of shit here," said Rebecca Palmer, an environmental scientist at the University of Georgia, who claimed that only BP has the ability to stem the flow of bullshit and plug it at its source. "And this is just the beginning—we're only seeing the surface-level bullshit. It could be years before we sift through it all and figure out just how deep this bullshit goes."

Congressional hearings aimed at stopping the bullshit have thus far failed to do so, with officials from BP and its contractors Halliburton and Transocean only adding to the powerful torrents of bullshit by blaming one another for the accident.

Along with the region's wildlife and fragile ecosystem, countless livelihoods have been jeopardized by BP's unchecked flow of corporate shit. Those who depend on fishing or tourism for their income are already feeling the noxious effects of the bullshit firsthand, as out-of-control platitudes begin to reach land and seep ashore.


Dense streams of shit are expected to continue spreading throughout the region and the entire United States.
"This bullshit, it's everywhere," said Louisiana fisherman Doug LaRoux, who lost his house to a tide of government bullshit following Hurricane Katrina. "It reeks. Big buckets of disgusting shit are oozing everywhere you look and I don't know if it's ever going to stop. I feel helpless"

Added LaRoux, "I never thought I'd be the victim of so much bullshit."

Observers have noted that after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, corporate bullshit gushed up like a geyser for two decades and didn't wane until the oil company had bullshit its way through an exhaustive process of court appeals that ultimately reduced payouts to victims by 90 percent.

Despite Hayward's denials that BP is at fault for the environmental disaster and his concern that it will result in "illegitimate" American lawsuits, the embattled CEO has still managed to trickle out a few last drips of bullshit sympathy for Gulf Coast residents.

"I'm as devastated as you are by this," Hayward said after a meeting with cleanup crews on Louisiana's Fourchon Beach. "We will clean every last drop up and we will remediate all of the environmental damage."

"There's no one that wants this thing over with more than I do," he added a week later, just absolutely defying belief with the thickest, most dangerous bullshit yet. "I'd like my life back."

Millions of Americans reported feeling ill and disoriented upon contact with that particularly vile plume of bullshit.

Many environmentalists, including Palmer, have called for a boycott of BP until the bullshit stops or is at least under control, but they emphasize that in the long term, Americans will have to change their habits if they wish to avoid future catastrophes.

"We must all work together if we're going to cure our nation of this addiction," Palmer said. "The sad fact is, the United States has been running on bullshit for decades."

More News
« Last Time Sources Checked This Still ...
(June 5, 2010)

still gushing...

Nice oil disaster article there chicky! - now that one is more accurate than all the others I have read!!!!

He(Obama) is a hypocrite because he wants to hold American Adults to a standard that he never observed himself. As he has said, he inhaled often and "that was the point."(ovalbugmann: I remember when he said this does anyone else?) So it is OK for him to get "high" but not for other Adult Americans?

But Jack summarized the real reason no President, or member of Congress, would truly advocate Marijuana Re-Legalization perfectly in "The Emperor:"

So, What's the Catch?

The “catch” is obvious: The energy companies! They own most of the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, liquor and tobaccos companies, and are intertwined with insurance companies and banks.

According to the press, many politicians now in power are bought and paid for by the energy companies, and their U.S. government arm is the CIA – “The Company”– (Robert Ludlum, etc.). The Bush, Sr., Clinton, and Bush, Jr. Administrations were/are uniquely tied to oil, newspapers, pharmaceuticals – and the CIA.

The world struggle for money is actually a struggle for energy, as it is through energy that we may produce food, shelter, transportation and entertainment. It is this struggle which often erupts into open war. If we remove the cause, these conflicts may never occur.

(Carl Sagan; and U.S. EPA prediction, 1983, of worldwide disaster in the making within 30 to 50 years.)

Energy Security

If introduced to Third World nations, hemp biomass could drastically cut our overseas aid and reasons for war, while raising the quality of life there by quantum leaps.

New, non-polluting industries will spring up everywhere. The world economy will boom like never before. The race of man will at last be betting on environmental survival instead of indulging in the lemming-like (suicidal) consumption of fossil fuel, which threatens all life on the planet.
The Emperor Wears No Clothes: Chapter Nine (ECONOMICS: Energy, Environment and Commerce) By Jack Herer
http://www.jackherer.com/chapter09.html

In 2006, when our petroleum resources have dwindled to 20% of their original size, America will have six choices to avoid economic and environmental ruin:

1. Use more coal, further polluting the environment
2. Continue to fund nuclear power and risk annihilation of the planet
3. Convert forests into fuel, permanently altering life-sustaining ecosystems
4. Continually wage wars over foreign oil
5. Build massive wind, solar, geothermal, and tidal energy systems
6. Establish energy farms to grow biomass fuels

The last two choices are the only rational, life-sustaining choices.

Farming only 6% of continental U.S. acreage with biomass crops would provide all of America’s gas and oil energy needs, ending dependence upon fossil fuels.

Manahan, Stanley E., Environmental Chemistry, 4th Edition
The Emperor Wears No Clothes: Chapter Nine (ECONOMICS: Energy, Environment and Commerce) By Jack Herer
http://www.jackherer.com/chapter09.html

In the past couple of years I have been using various "Hemp" based products, that I order from a Northern California company by mail/internet - hemp is a strain of Cannabis Sativa, but without the drug: THC, so the hemp clothes I buy cannot be smoked.