Once I get free I'll have to clean myself.
"Study: BP spill hastened damage to Louisiana marshes; ‘Black belt’ of oil choked grasses, worsened erosion" by Brian Vastag | Washington Post, July 01, 2012
WASHINGTON — The 2010 BP oil spill accelerated the loss of Louisiana’s delicate marshlands, which were already rapidly disappearing before the largest oil spill in US history, according to a new study.
As the oil washed into the marshlands, it coated and smothered thick grasses at their edge. When the grass died, deep roots that held the soil together also died, leaving the shorebanks of the marshlands to crumble, said Brian Silliman, the University of Florida researcher who led the study....
Before the oil spill, Louisiana was losing marshlands at a rate of at least a football field a day, Silliman said.
The Mississippi River, forced into a narrow channel, does not deliver land-building silt to the marshlands as it once did.
A real man-made problem, but those are not as important as the nebulou$ global warming argument, so....
And, as the Gulf of Mexico rises, the entire foot of Louisiana also is sinking, further accelerating loss of the marshlands.
The marshes were ‘‘drowning’’ before the oil spill, said Steve Pennings of the University of Houston, who has documented how the spill killed insects and spiders in the marshes.
What did it do the fish and birds?
While ‘‘locally important,’’ marsh loss caused by the spill was not ‘‘extraordinary’’ compared with losses from the other, more permanent factors at work, he said.
Situated at the foot of the Mississippi River, Louisiana’s salt marshes are a ‘‘lifeblood’’ for the state, Silliman said. Shrimp, oysters, clams, and fish hatch their young in the marshes, making these areas vital to the state’s fishing industry.
The marshes also act as a two-way buffer: They protect the mainland from storms and attendant storm surges while soaking up fertilizers and other runoff from farms that can cause damaging algae blooms in the Gulf of Mexico.
Related:
"Every summer, algae caused by fertilizer runoff sucks up the oxygen in a large patch of the Gulf, creating a "dead zone" from which all sorts of sea creatures must escape."
Also see: The New Dead Zone
Congress Neglects Gulf Gusher Restoration
Look, if it it ain't Wall Street, the wars, or Israel you ain't getting nothing no more.
--more--"
Related: Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists
The Gulf is STILL not OK
Also see: New Orleans tops list of fastest-growing US cities
La. justice sues to fill court’s top job
Judge overturns fortune-telling ban
You don't need to be a fortune teller to see a disaster waiting to happen:
"Groups sue US over Arctic oil drilling" by Becky Bohrer | Associated Press, July 11, 2012
JUNEAU, Alaska — A coalition of conservation groups sued the federal government Tuesday over its approval of oil spill response plans for an Arctic Ocean drilling program.
The lawsuit does not seek to block Shell Oil from beginning to drill this summer as planned, and an attorney for Oceana, one of the groups suing, said it is unlikely the case will be resolved in a timeframe that could affect drilling this year.
However, the case could prevent drilling in future seasons, attorney Michael LeVine said....
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While on the subject of oil spills:
"Canadian firm blamed for 2010 oil disaster" Associated Press, July 11, 2012
DETROIT — The Canadian operator of an oil pipeline that ruptured in southwestern Michigan two years ago, causing the most expensive onshore spill in US history, failed to deal adequately with structural problems detected years ago and did not respond appropriately to the catastrophe, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.
And now you are going to trust them when it comes to the Keystone XL Pipeline that will run from the northern to southern borders?
Enbridge Inc. knew in 2005 that its pipeline near Marshall, a city 95 miles west of Detroit, was cracked and corroded, but it did not perform excavations that might have prevented the rupture, agency investigators told the five-member board in Washington before it approved the findings and 19 safety recommendations.
We call it negligence.
Enbridge did not realize the pipeline was gushing oil into the Kalamazoo River and a creek for more than 17 hours, when a gas company worker pointed it out, and during that time Enbridge control center personnel twice pumped more oil into the ruptured line, investigators found....
Can you say incompetence?
The spill dumped about 843,000 gallons of heavy crude into the Kalamazoo and a tributary creek, fouling more than 35 miles of waterways and wetlands. About 320 people reported symptoms from crude-oil exposure....
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Related: At the Other End of the Mississippi
While we are in the Michigan mud why don't we take a picture?
"GETTING DIRTY -- Kellan Clegg (right), 9, savored a full-body squish with his friends on Tuesday at the 25th annual Mud Day in Westland, Mich., which featured a pit filled with 20,000 gallons of water and 200 tons of topsoil (Boston Globe July 11 2012)."
I feel dirty every time I read a Boston Globe.
UPDATE:
"A New Orleans city councilman has pleaded guilty to plotting to misuse thousands of dollars in federal money intended to help a nonprofit organization after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and divert some of it to one of his political campaigns."
I'm sure he will feel right at home.
