Also see: Gulf Coast Memories
They are telling us everything is back to normal!!
"Vigils, call for liability a year after gulf spill; Amid sorrow, region hints at recovery" April 21, 2011|By Cain Burdeau and Harry R. Weber, Associated Press
Somber remembrances marked the one-year anniversary of the rig explosion that caused the worst offshore oil spill in American history. But all is not bleak. Beaches, restaurants, and hotels are filling up again, and analysts say the resilient gulf is on the mend.
(Blog editor feels as sick as if he drank a barrel of oil. Garbage propaganda does that to me)
The disaster began on the night of April 20, 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon rig burst into flames and killed the 11 men. The rest of the crew evacuated, but two days later the rig toppled into the Gulf and sank to the sea floor. Over the next 85 days, 206 million gallons of oil — 19 times more than 1989’s Exxon Valdez spill — spewed from the well.
Keep that in mind for later.
Parents, siblings, and wives of the workers — whose bodies were never recovered — boarded a helicopter yesterday to see the waters where their loved ones perished. The helicopter took them from New Orleans out to the well site, circled around so that people on both sides of the aircraft could see and then returned to shore, said Arleen Weise, whose son, Adam, was killed on the rig. The only indication they were at the site was an announcement from the pilot, she said.
“It was just a little emotional, seeing where they were,’’ Weise said by phone from Houston, where the rig’s owner, Transocean, planned an evening memorial service.
Asked what went through her mind when she saw where the rig went down, Weise said, “Just rise up. I wanted them to come up, but it didn’t happen.’’
*******************
At a candlelit ceremony in New Orleans’s Jackson Square shortly after sunrise, environmentalists and religious leaders joined to remember the perished rig workers and call on the nation to take the steps to prevent another environmental catastrophe.
Elsewhere around the world, BP employees were observing a minute of silence....
The solemn ceremonies underscore the delicate healing that is only now taking shape. Oil still occasionally rolls up on beaches in the form of tar balls, and fishermen face an uncertain future.
Related:
"Scientists judge the overall health of the Gulf of Mexico as nearly back to normal one year after the BP oil spill"
Yeah, IGNORE those TAR BALLS!
I notice the spill total is down to 172 million gallons, too!
I'm at the point where I want to cry, readers. I don't want to read the newspaper anymore. It's hurtful.
Louis and Audrey Neal of Pass Christian, Miss., who make their living from crabbing, said their outlook after the spill is bleak.
“We thought we’d see hope after a year, but there’s nothing,’’ Audrey Neal said.
Still, there are some signs that normalcy is returning.
Readers, can I sob now?
John Williams spent the oil spill anniversary trying to catch mackerel on the fishing pier at Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, Ala. Hundreds lined the pier.
Look on the bright side: your fish will be flavored with the seasonings of oil and radiation.
Bon appetite, America!!!
“People will be back. It’s pretty down here, and it’s good to be out here,’’ Williams said.
Just ignore the tar balls, dead fish, oil-soaked sand, etc.
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Maybe all is not back to normal:
"A year after oil spill, future of gulf ecosystem is murky; Conditions better than once feared, but damage cited" April 24, 2011|By Brian Vastag, Washington Post
When you see murk in the paper yo better get your waders, readers.
WASHINGTON — The 86-day Deepwater Horizon gusher sent nearly 200 million gallons of oil, tens of millions of gallons of natural gas, and 1.8 million gallons of poorly studied chemical dispersants into the northern Gulf of Mexico. And the fate of much of it remains unknown.
They don't know how much oil gushed; they are simply coming up with a number that will be acceptable to BP as a fine.
“There’s still an awful lot of oil unaccounted for in the environment,’’ said Ian McDonald, an oceanographer at Florida State University who has worked extensively in the gulf.
We were told it magically disappeared.
A massive environmental crime investigation spearheaded by federal and gulf state officials is underway to tally the harm and has logged tens of thousands of samples from the gulf’s waters, seafloor, marshlands, beaches, and wildlife.
Yeah, KEEP THAT in mind, too!!
In the meantime, a handful of independent scientists report that many things aren’t quite right in the gulf. More than 100 square miles of delicate marshland looks sick, they say.
You would be to if gallons of oil lapped up and stuck in your roots.
The immune systems of certain fish appear compromised, seaweed and algae production has slowed in places, and a new layer of muck coats the sea bottom near the wellhead.
Gee, I WONDER what that MUCK COULD BE!
A TOXIC OIL and DISPERSANT MIX?
That is what the chemical was supposed to do, sink the oil.
At least a few formerly vibrant deep-sea communities of corals, sea stars, and worms now lie dead. Also dead: untold numbers of fish and crustaceans, thousands of birds, and hundreds of sea turtles, and dolphins.
But it's not that bad and everything is back to normal.
See why I am getting sick of reading this shit, dear readers?
While the scientific and legal wrangling over the meaning of this growing mountain of data promises to drag on for years, even ardent environmentalists and cautious government officials agree on one point: The direst predictions of catastrophe sounded during the blowout have not come to pass.
So THOSE LYING SACKS of S*** SAY!
You go to blogs and you find that HEALTH PROBLEMS down there are RISING!
How SAD it is to SEE the "environmentalists" as PART of the CON JOB!
“It’s not as bad as it might have been, but the jury is still out in terms of the full impact of the spill on the health of the gulf,’’ said Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is heavily involved in documenting the damage.
NOAA lied about global warming temperatures as well as the oil spill, and have forfeited any right to be believed.
Tracking the enormous discharge of oil and gas that surged from the Earth has proved a huge challenge for federal officials who have repeatedly said that nature, in various guises, eliminated much of it.
These the same crack investigators spearheading efforts to.... ah, never mind.
According to the government’s “oil budget,’’ released by NOAA in November, a quarter of the oil evaporated or dissolved into the water.
Another 13 percent was blown into fine droplets as it rushed from the broken riser pipe, the report says. Much of this dispersed oil mixed with natural gas from the well and remained deep in the gulf as a thin plume that drifted for months.
Of course, at the time we were told by this same government that the PLUMES DID NOT EXIST!!!
I know REMEMBERING THINGS is a REAL BUMMER for the PROPAGANDISTS of the paper and government, but.... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The chemical dispersant Corexit 9500 sprayed at the wellhead dispersed another 16 percent into fine droplets, which joined the plume, the report says.
Yes, and that chemical there DEPLETES WATER of OXYGEN!
That explains the DEAD PATCHES and OTHER THINGS!
Natural oil-munching bacteria then swarmed the plumes.
Uh-huh.
Ignore the sarcasm like you would a tar ball. Thank you.
In addition to the quarter of the oil that NOAA says nature erased, the Unified Command, led by the Coast Guard, dispensed with a third of it. Some 17 percent of the total got sucked into the “top hat’’ lowered onto the broken riser pipe or was otherwise recovered, loaded onto tankers, and moved to refineries. Flaring at the surface burned another 5 percent.
Yet prolonged efforts to skim the oil — essentially slurping up slicks on the open ocean — proved largely ineffective, said Stephen Da Ponte, a lawyer in the Coast Guard’s Office of Maritime and International Law. Only 3 percent of the oil was skimmed.
The report was not intended to be an accounting of the final fate of the oil, but rather a guide to oil recovery.Still, the budget drew fire from environmentalists and other critics who assailed it as incomplete. Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia said data she collected show that oil at depth, as well as gas, lingered much longer than the oil budget suggests.
Yeah, she is the one that found the muck.
Much of the criticism focused on the dispersant’s effectiveness, along with whether it damaged, or will damage, wildlife. And up to a third of the residual oil has not been accounted for.
Translation: It is still out there in the Gulf, marshlands, etc.
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And remember that crack government investigating all this?
"Scientists fret over delay in gulf research" April 25, 2011|Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Scientists say it is taking far too long to distribute millions of dollars in BP funds for badly needed gulf oil spill research, and it could be too late to assess the crude’s impact on pelicans, shrimp, and other species by the time studies begin.
Maybe that is the POINT, huh?
Related: BP agrees to provide $1b for oil spill restoration
How long is that public relations propaganda going to take to get spent?
The spring nesting and spawning season is a crucial time to sample the reproduction rates, behavior, and abundance of species, all of which could be altered by last year’s massive spill. Yet no money has been made available for this year, and it could take months to determine which projects will be funded.
Yeah, the "incompetent" government again.
Funny how WARS, WALL STREET, and ISRAEL get a check cut within a week!
“It’s like a murder scene,’’ said Dana Wetzel, an ecotoxicologist at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida. “You have to pick up the evidence now.’’
Considering ALL the DEAD ANIMALS, yeah!
BP PLC had pledged $500 million — $50 million a year over 10 years — to help scientists study the spill’s impact and forge a better understanding of how to deal with future spills. The first $50 million was handed out in May 2010 to four gulf-based research institutes and to the National Institutes of Health.
A DROP in the proverbial BARREL of PUBLIC RELATIONS PROPAGANDA PAYOUTS!
Rita Colwell, a University of Maryland scientist who chairs the board overseeing the money, said the protocol for distributing the remaining $450 million would be announced today at the National Press Club Washington.
Why? Another chance for PR PROMOTION?
Why does this have to be done over at the Press Club?
After that, scientists will be allowed to submit proposals, but it could take months for research to be chosen....
Yes, when it will be TOO LATE!
Oh, right, government is on the case.
I wonder how many strings that is coming with. Better write what government wants to read.
With the BP funds so slow to get out the door, scientists are trying to get funding from federal grants and other sources.
From the outset, the $500 million has been fraught with problems and questions over how the money would be distributed and how much scientists would be influenced by BP.
They work for them like Feinberg?
The result has been paralysis....
Which was the INTENDED RESULT, I'm sure!
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Also see: BP lawsuits blame others for disaster
Coast Guard faults Transocean in gulf spill
You are all to blame, assholes.
