Jefferson Parish takes over oil cleanup from BP

[The Straight Story]

Jefferson Parish takes over oil cleanup from BP

People on Grand Isle are finding renewed optimism now that Jefferson Parish leaders commandeered about 40-boats-- working around the island-- under BP's control.

Goodbye to a section of land. Marsh in the Gulf, right near the Sand Dollar Marina in Grand Isle is poisoned by oil.

"All that's going to die and the water is going to eat it up some more and we're going to lose more and more to oiled wetlands," said Grand Isle Firefighter Joel Bradberry who took ABC 26 News out on the water.

Bradberry says this latest surfacing of oil that reached Bassa Bassa Bay, could've been prevented 24 hours ago if BP had a better handle on the cleanup. That's why he's relieved Jefferson Parish Homeland Security Director Deano Bonano stepped up to the plate to commandeer boats involved in clean up.

"BP has had resources on the ground and boats tied up doing nothing, and under a state of emergency I finally decided it's time for Jefferson Parish to take over," Bonano said.

Boats were busy laying out boom on Sunday. People in Grand Isle tell ABC 26, until Bonano took control, this was not happening.

"Good thing what he did, at least we'll get some oil picked up over here instead of boats just riding around," said Sand Dollar Marina Owner Butch Gaspar.

http://www.abc26.com/news/local/wgno-news-jefferson-parish-cleanup-takeover,0,4982464.story

[Swamp Rat]

1. k&r

[suffragette]

2. K&R

[amborin]

3. troubling article here:

http://www.miller-mccune.com/science-environment/oil-cleanup-cure-may-be-worse-than-disease-15722/

maybe someone can post it?

[intheflow]

11. Why don't you post it?

:shrug:

[mzteris]

16. “Sometimes, the best thing to do in an oil spill is nothing,

the report concluded.



John Robinson, a Santa Barbara resident who was NOAA’s scientific adviser on the Exxon Valdez spill, recalled this week .. . Robinson said he feared that if the oil was not removed, it would swirl around and cause damage elsewhere.

“In the end, it was proven pretty clearly that we did the wrong thing,” he said.

... nd in a 10-year study on the effects of the spill, Bowdoin College researchers concluded that 90 percent of the plants and animals in the Exxon Valdez spill zone had recovered by mid-1990, in part because of the cleanup and in part because of natural forces.

... Robinson said his own experience has made him a skeptic. When the Exxon Valdez cleanup was in full swing, he fought for nine areas — totaling less than a mile of coast — to be set aside and not cleaned. Within a few years, he said, “It was clear that the areas that had not been cleaned were faring a lot better in terms of their recovery. The areas that were cleaned were in much worse shape.”

As the head of NOAA’s Hazardous Materials Response Team, which he founded in 1976, Robinson oversaw about 100 oil spill cleanups. “I can’t think of any good example where a cleanup has been anything other than useless. It causes more damage than not doing anything at all. Once the genie gets out of the bottle, there’s no getting it back in. That seems to be proving itself once more in New Orleans.”


:::::::::: Irving Mendelssohn, a Louisiana wetland ecologist, knows what won’t work if and when the oil slick in the Gulf reaches his marshy coastline.

Unfortunately, he’s not sure what will.

“The most important thing is that you don’t send hundreds of people walking into the wetlands, pushing that oil into the soil,” he said. “You can’t have people stomping around in their boots. And you don’t want machines like tractors pushing the oil into the soil. That would definitely kill the vegetation.”


Interesting article. http://www.miller-mccune.com/science-environment/oil-cleanup-cure-may-be-worse-than-disease-15722/

[4_TN_TITANS]

17. Interesting article...

I guess in our desire to 'do something' we could actually make things worse.

[mzteris]

20. yep. Problem is -

people want to DO something. Any thing. Even if it's wrong.

:(

[DeschutesRiver]

21. This came up in an interview yesterday on MSNBC with a boat captain

He said that going into the marsh to clean up the oil would be like going into a garden in full bloom to clean up a mess inside the garden - you might get the clean up done but that all the flowers and veggies in the garden would be trampled to death in the process. He said going in with airboats and the rest of the necessary equipment would just chew up what they were trying to save (paraphrasing).

So, he believed that without cleanup, the marsh is dead for awhile; and yet with clean up (due to the machinery needed to remove the oil), it will be just as dead, probably for even longer that way. And then he got all choked up, teary eyed and couldn't continue, and the interview pretty much ended.

So it was with that perspective that I read that report excerpt, and I am still thinking about it.

[mzteris]

23. I wish more people would

read and think.

[gateley]

4. Wow, it shouldn't have come to this, but I'm glad to see it. Good for them! nt

[Smashcut]

5. Crap - I meant to rec and unrecced by accident!

I'm sorry. Here's a kick in the meantime...

[Petrushka]

6. K & R

:kick:

[Mojeoux]

7. oh jeeze kick n/t

[aquart]

8. So, essentially, BP wasn't doing squat.

They have BILLIONS and they are running a penny ante cleanup.

Did Obama wag his finger and frown at them yet?

[BuelahWitch]

9. Yes, and sent them a threatening letter too!

With a bunch of frowny faces on it: :-( :-( :-( :-( :-(

[ShamelessHussy]

10. "commandeer" - now that is the word I have been waiting to hear!

i don't know where some on DU got it in their heads that the Gov can't do anything, or they don't have the resources to respond to an emergency :shrug:

[aquart]

12. Well, a tea party government wouldn't.

Makes you wonder where some people get their ideas.

[ShamelessHussy]

13. Cause they are whacked and essentially directed by big corporations

N/T

[WeDidIt]

14. Amazingly, Jefferson Parish will now be liable for all damages

in the area they are attempting to clean up.

They have divested BP of all legal liability in that region and taken it upon themselves.

Sad that it'll come to that. Completely sad.

[boston bean]

15. it's better to prevent damage than to let it haapen

And then fight bp for money.

You are a lost cause.

[Lorien]

22. Truly

:thumbsup:

[Karenina]

18. It seems they REFUSED FEDERAL ASSISTANCE...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/24/earlyshow/main6513824.shtml

And jurisdiction may not end with the feds: "CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric reported that the mayor of Grand Isle, La., objected to the Coast Guard, saying they did not want oil containment booms used around the beach because it would be "unsightly" for beachgoers. Rear Admiral Mary Landry told Couric that they have to respect the wishes of local leaders.

[marions ghost]

19. why have they not

sucked more of it up into tanker ships?

Probably the marshlands they're talking about are gone anyway...so might as well have the people feel they are "doing something." It's a natural human urge to try to save your home and community from such a disaster. :cry:

[Karenina]

24. I'm surprised (not) that this story found no legs.

I certainly agree with you that getting Mother Earth's blood out of the water would be Job One. There's just been another tanker failure off Singapore. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/world/asia/26sing.html

All the call for THOUSANDS OF VOLUNTEERS... can you imagine all these untrained folks stomping through the marshes? And never mind the veterans of Exxon-Valdez who controlled during their clean-ups and found that the areas in which they'd done NOTHING healed better...

My BIG wishes are that Amis confront that wall at the back of the theater, realize what works will take till August (Everyone press thumbs that their PR "top kill" does NOT worsen things), INSIST BP's Atlantis rig be shut down STAT, concentrate on tracking the goop, protecting the shoreline; proper booming may help... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrOYoE-Hrp4 and contemplating SERIOUSLY how this came to be. It's a REGULAR OCCURRENCE in other parts of the world where the American Oil Industry runs wild and loose in the streets. Many have suffered for decades, facing environmental degradation, loss of their way of life, sickness and murder for that 6% of the world's population who REQUIRE their fix.