Feds, States Meet On Declining Gulf Of Mexico Health - Behind Closed Doors

[hatrack]

NAPLES -- "The Gulf of Mexico was in the spotlight for the first time Thursday as policymakers and scientists from five Gulf states -- Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida -- and the federal government gathered here to discuss its declining health. Two blue-ribbon ocean commissions have said the Gulf is polluted, overfished and neglected, and this week's gathering is being heralded as the start of a regional effort to reverse that trend.

But Thursday's gathering did little to convince environmentalists monitoring the Gulf that government leaders will embrace their ideas and work to restore its health. The federal and state policymakers met behind closed doors and later met with the press, but not environmentalists.

Those same government leaders won't be present today when environmentalists and other members of the public gather at this first meeting of its kind, which is being held at Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.

EDIT

Jim Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, recognized the public's role during a Wednesday night reception. "It's not enough that citizens be heard, but that they get involved," Connaughton said. The public was not invited to the reception."

EDIT

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050610/NEWS/506100592

[whistle]

1. All of the off-shore oil rigs must be taking a toll along with....

...untreated industrial waste dumping into the gulf, untreated coastal community sewage, barge dumping of community garbage and major polluted rivers flowing directly into the gulf. Then all of this mixes with the Caribbean Sea and flows right into the Atlantic Gulf Stream.

[rkc3]

2. Anyone who checks this thread should read "City on Fire"

about the Texas City disaster in the late 40's. For anyone who's never been to the Gulf Coast, this will be an eye-opener about what goes on in the region.

It makes you think the next Bhopal could occur in the area.

[musette_sf]

3. well, it's about Texas and Florida!

Of COURSE it's "behind closed doors"!

[cornermouse]

4. The Gulf was noticeably polluted back in the 70s.

I'm sure its much, much worse now.

[funflower]

5. Will any changes to the Gulf Stream exacerbate this?

[phantom power]

6. It might.

As usual, I'm wading out of my depth here, but I assume that the gulf stream acts like a river, continually flushing the gulf of accumulating pollution. If it were to malfunction, all the crap we're dumping into the gulf might accumulate to even higher concentrations, without a mechanism to remove them.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. Probably not at all

The Gulf Stream is largely isolated from the Gulf of Mexico in spite of the shared names. The Carribean island chain forms a natural barrier that inhibits "communication" of the waters. That doesn't mean that there is NO communication, but it's not a natural flow-through area. The Gulf of Mexico is its own ocean basin. The same tectonic forces that made the Gulf such a rich oil area also turned it into a relatively isolated basin.

The type of pollution also determines how it is cleared. Petrochemical pollution is actually fairly biodegradable. If all oil producing activity stopped right now, within 100 years the Gulf would be just about pristine. But manufactured objects tend to last longer, even plastics, which biodegrade, but much slower.

I tend to suspect that this closed-door meeting is about a lot of things other than just pollution. The way the Bush administration operates, I would not be surprised if they found Atlantis and are gerrymandering the Atlanteans to extract the most electoral votes.

--p!

[amandabeech]

8. Don't forget the nitrogen and phosphorus run-off from the midwest

farms coming in from the Mississippi. Together with all the nitrogen and phosphorus laden treated sewage coming from all the midwest cities. All of this creates the biological oxygen demand that leaves the dead zone in the Gulf in the summer.

[happyslug]

9. That is probably the main problem

Such run off is the problem in the Chesapeake, but to correct the problem you have to crack down on farmers along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, all good Republicans.

[amazona]

10. yeah, I think it's the damn run-off

The rigs have good and bad aspects but the run-off is just all bad for us.