Latest BP oil spill Updates - (Please only post TEXT or PHOTOS here)

[bluegate]

I believe this is very important information about the latest BP/Golf Mexico situation


http://phoenixrisingfromthegulf.wordpress.com/

[Pathfinder]

Transocean ordered to turn over safety records

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101217/...spill_lawsuits

'NEW ORLEANS – A federal judge has ordered Transocean Ltd. to turn over a batch of safety records to a government panel probing the deadly rig explosion that spawned the massive Gulf oil spill.

The company that owned the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon rig had balked at providing safety records for its other rigs in the Gulf of Mexico to the panel of Coast Guard and industry regulators.

Transocean argued that the records aren't relevant to the panel's investigation, but U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled Friday that the government is entitled to the documents.

A government attorney told Barbier that the records are needed to determine if the April 20 rig explosion resulted from a systemic problem with Transocean's rigs.'

[fifi]

Is the GOM spill totally capped now? What is the date that it was completely capped? Please share if you know it. Thank you.

[iceni tribe]

[Ba-ba-Ra]

Yes Corexit! Just look at the name: Core exit. - from the PTB's perspective perhaps a subtle way of exiting many from this planet at our core.

I also found it interesting that the news media pronouciation of the word was: "Corrects it." Which was sending the message that this chemical was correcting the problem, when it fact it was doing the opposite.

[iceni tribe]

[arctourist]

what does that mean-'please only post text or photos here'-?
what is it you don't want posted then?
is a link considered text then?
i too wonder about the situation with the oil in the gulf down there...how would we know in any case,right?
it may be that they're still pumping that corexit into the water,and oil is still gushing out all over the place....
isn't it true that no one is allowed anywhere near there?

[Richard]

Posted by arctourist (here)
what does that mean-'please only post text or photos here'-?
what is it you don't want posted then?
is a link considered text then?

There is another thread for Video/Audio updates

[Lost Soul]

Any updates? I know people are being distracted (as usual) because of other events - this time the Middle East with Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

[bbj3n546pt]

Sick Gulf Residents Beg Officials for Help

by Dahr Jamail


Global Research, January 14, 2011
Inter Press Service



NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, Jan 14, 2011 (IPS) - In an emotionally charged meeting this week sponsored by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, fishermen, Gulf residents and community leaders vented their increasingly grave concerns about the widespread health issues brought on by the three-month-long disaster.

"Today I'm talking to you about my life," Cherri Foytlin told the two commissioners present at the Jan. 12 meeting. "My ethylbenzene levels are 2.5 times the 95th percentile, and there's a very good chance now that I won't get to see my grandbabies…What I'm asking you to do now, if possible, is to amend [your report]. Because we have got to get some health care."

Ethylbenzene is a form of benzene present in the body when it [benzene] begins to break down. It is also present in BP's crude oil.

"I have seen small children with lesions all over their bodies," Foytlin, co-founder of Gulf Change, a community organisation based in Grand Isle, Louisiana, continued.

"We are very, very ill. And dead is dead. So it really doesn't matter if the media comes back… or the president hears us, or… if the oil workers and the fishermen and the crabbers get to feed their babies and maybe have a good Christmas next year… Dead is dead…I know your job is probably already done, but I'd like to hire you if you don't mind. And God knows I can't pay you. But I need your heart. And I need your voice."
Commissioner Frances Beinecke, president of the National Resources Defence Council, vowed to convey her concerns to the White House.

"We hear what you are saying," said Beinecke. "We will take these health issues and concerns back to the president."

The commission, appointed by President Barack Obama, released its final report this week after a six-month investigation into the nation's worst-ever oil disaster.

The report recommended a massive overhaul of the oil industry's failed safety practices in the Gulf, as well as the creation of a new independent agency to monitor offshore drilling activity.

However, most of the 250 people at the meeting here focused on the health crisis that has exploded in the wake of the April 2010 disaster, leaving former BP clean-up workers and Gulf residents alike suffering from ailments they attribute to chemicals in BP's oil and the toxic dispersants used to sink it.

Dr. Rodney Soto, a medical doctor in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, has been testing and treating patients with high levels of oil-related chemicals in their bloodstream.

These are commonly referred to as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Anthropogenic VOCs from BP's oil disaster are toxic and have negative chronic health effects.

Dr. Soto is finding disconcertingly consistent and high levels of toxic chemicals in every one of the patients he is testing.

"I'm regularly finding between five and seven VOCs in my patients," Dr. Soto told IPS. "These patients include people not directly involved in the oil clean-up, as well as residents that do not live right on the coast. These are clearly related to the oil disaster."

Nevertheless, U.S. government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with President Obama himself, have declared the Gulf of Mexico, its waters, beaches, and seafood, safe and open to the public.

Gulf residents at the meeting on Wednesday made sure the two commissioners were aware of the health crisis they are facing.

Tom Costanza of Catholic Charities in the New Orleans area stated that the region is in the middle of a social service crisis and faced a claims process he said is fraught with problems.

"People call me crying and dying," he said. "They need medical attention and support to get through this."

Ada McMahon works with Bridge the Gulf Project, a citizen journalism website that highlights stories from Gulf Coast communities about justice and sustainability. She told IPS that "the unmet health issues are the biggest issue, along with residents turned advocates going to meetings of the commission or with [BP oil spill fund administrator Kenneth] Feinberg to tell people about their health problems."

"People who can afford the 300-dollar blood tests have found alarming rates of chemicals in their bodies, and these people are concerned and doing what they can to speak out," she said. "But they feel they can't wait for Congress or Obama to address this, because they need doctors and support now in the communities."

LaTosha Brown, director of the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health, which works with 250 community groups, agreed that "the key concern expressed by the community in response to the report is the overwhelming need for access to health care."

"Over and over, people exposed to crude and dispersants from the drilling disaster told stories of serious health issues - from high levels of ethylbenzyne in their blood, to respiratory ailments and internal bleeding - and expressed an urgent need for access to doctors who have experience treating chemical exposure," she said.

Stephen Bradberry, executive director of the Alliance Institute, a non-profit that provides community organising support in the Gulf South, worries that the Gulf Coast Claims Facility is not accepting health claims, thus leaving sick residents unable to work and without any income to pay their medical bills.

"There is bruising and skin lesions, not just with clean-up workers, these are residents not involved in the clean-up," Bradberry told IPS. "Just yesterday I learned of five people on Grand Isle who passed away…people who did not have health problems prior to this. Nevertheless, there has not been any talk of monitoring of these communities."

Bradberry, who also attended the forum on Wednesday, also said, "We need a separate health task force that can focus solely on testing, monitoring, and studying the long-term health issues from exposure to crude and dispersants. And this needs to happen now."


Dahr Jamail is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Dahr Jamail

[Architect]

wow, this is horrible i wish I could say I was surprised...although I can't - because like i said before - our mass culture is so addicted to being jacked up on the next disaster high - that the egyptian situation made sense - and the deaths of animals... it is insane really. Good thing i understand life is eternal!

I'm happy this forum is keeping up with important issues.

[Arrowwind]

This link will take you to text and videos. People are not being able to get the money promised for their losses, and dieseas is hitting home hard. Where is all the money going that Obama set aside?

http://last-lost-empire.com/blog/?p=811

[Hybrid5226]

http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/sh...animals-photos

millions of fish show up dead today an florida shores oil washes up on beaches along with dead animals .

[Lost Soul]

The cover-up is a crime. Those college kids heading for the beaches in ignorance or in belief of the assurances of BP and Obama are all potential victims. Virtually an entire generation of kids will be wiped out. Where are the leftists who loved to protest against Bush now that we need more public outrcy?

[Etherios]

Posted by Lost Soul (here)
The cover-up is a crime. Those college kids heading for the beaches in ignorance or in belief of the assurances of BP and Obama are all potential victims. Virtually an entire generation of kids will be wiped out. Where are the leftists who loved to protest against Bush now that we need more public outrcy?

I think thats exactly what they are hoping for. Entire generation of sick kids. They wont get sick now this will happen in the next 5-10 years and then it will be too late. They just dont care.

[Arrowwind]

Huffington Post Is the Best Link:

http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/br...g-started-days


http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2...mexico_un.html


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rocky-..._b_838019.html

[Hybrid5226]

A Coast Guard press release yesterday stated the giant dark plumes in the water appeared to be a massive dredging operation in the Mississippi River that had washed silt into the Gulf. The agency said it had sampled the water from the plumes that could be seen from the air and found only "trace amounts" of petroleum hydrocarbons, oil and grease.

[IndigoStar]

There has been a lot of depressing news on this topic and it seems people are thriving off it. I feel it lowers the vibration rather and we would do better to focus on the positive and give our attention/energy to the positive aspects because after all we create reality with our thoughts. In that light I would like to post a good news story about the oil spill.

Why the Gulf Oil Spill Cleaned Up So Quickly: Microbes Looking For A Meal
By Good News Network Thursday, August 04, 2011
Earth - Science

Gulf oil spill was eaten by microbes
A lingering mystery of the Gulf oil spill is where the oil actually went. It seems now that the microbes in the water made a meal of it.
After the initial shock of last year's Gulf oil disaster passed, it quickly became apparent that the oil had somehow disappeared--on the surface, at least. Dispersants helped break up some of the larger plumes, sure, but that doesn't entirely explain why the surface oil slick in the Gulf seemed to disappear just three weeks after the disaster.
Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute think they have the answer: hungry bacterial microbes.

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/earth...oil-spill.html

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

Judge to rule on BP's plea deal over Gulf spill
Updated at 04:13 AM today

NEW ORLEANS, LA -- A federal judge will decide whether to approve an agreement for BP PLC to plead guilty to manslaughter and other charges and pay a record $4 billion in criminal penalties for the company's role in the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance on Tuesday will either accept the deal and impose the sentence negotiated by BP and the Justice Department, or reject the sentence and allow the company to withdraw from the agreement.

Before ruling, Vance is expected to hear testimony from relatives of 11 workers who died when BP's blown-out Macondo well triggered an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

BP agreed in November to plead guilty to charges involving the workers' deaths and for lying to Congress.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?se...rld&id=8971805

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

http://news.yahoo.com/oil-spill-docu...004819602.html

The Oil Spill Documentary That BP Definitely Did Not Sponsor
Takepart.com – Fri, Feb 1, 2013

In case this story, on the Deepwater Horizon haunting the Super Bowl, wasn’t enough of a reminder of the horrific environmental mess that still plagues NOLA, filmmaker Bryan Hopkins’ just-released Dirty Energy will have you crushing your big-game Doritos and beer cans in anger.

I stood up and started screaming at the television. I was mad and felt like I had to do something. So I did. Within a week I had packed my bags, kissed my wife and son goodbye and set out for Louisiana.

Like many storytellers who have visited Louisiana post-spill, California-based Hopkins—armed initially with just a video camera and $250—couch-surfed his way around Cajun country, taking note of the widespread ecological destruction in the process. He admits the film resulted out of “anger and helplessness” and now hopes it will make people across the country, and not just on Super Bowl Sunday, sit up and pay attention.

In November 2012, BP pleaded guilty to criminal charges relating to the 2010 sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig, and subsequent oil spill. They agreed to pay $4.5 billion in fines and restitution. A major civil case by the government, in which BP could face up to $20 billion in fines under the Clean Water Act, is scheduled to begin February 25, 2013.

On the eve of the Super Bowl, TakePart caught up with Hopkins to discuss all things Gulf spill.

TakePart: How did you come to tell this story about the Deepwater Horizon accident and its aftermath?

Bryan Hopkins: The film was more a heart-felt reaction to what I was seeing in the media, than a premeditated project. I was home watching CNN one evening during the spill and saw (Plaquemine Parish chief) Billy Nungesser discussing the spill with Anderson Cooper. Nungesser began to cry. He pleaded for the government to help his community. He was frustrated that so little had been done at that point. Hearing his cry for help had a powerful effect on me.

I stood up and started screaming at the television. I was mad and felt like I had to do something. So I did. Within a week I had packed my bags, kissed my wife and son goodbye and set out for Louisiana with $200 (nearly all my cash) and a bag of groceries that I bought with food stamps. I posted a request for trip donations on Facebook, and luckily a few friends were able to contribute. However, the biggest contribution to making this film came from the Gulf residents themselves. They opened their doors to me and were extremely generous.

What is the most indicting evidence you filmed that the accident continues to harm the environment?

Two main events took place after the BP well was capped that made me realize that Gulf residents are going to be dealing with this oil for very long time.

The first event took place roughly a year after the spill had begun. I went to Grand Isle to do some additional interviews. As I was about to cross the bridge onto the main island I noticed clean-up crews, so I stopped to do some filming. As I reached the water’s edge, I saw some dead fish and a pool of thick fresh oil. Keep in mind that it had been more than 6-months since the well had been capped. I was infuriated seeing this since, at this same time, BP was running national ads declaring the "Gulf was open for business".

Doing this, despite clear evidence that the spill remained in the environment. In fact, I took a boat trip during this same time period and got out of the boat to stand on the marsh and do some filming. As I stood there, oil began oozing out of the ground beneath my feet. It was and is, obvious that BP ads were misleading the public on a large scale.

The second event that reinforced this misleading of the public was when fisherman Dean Blanchard caught some deformed shrimp from his dock in Grand Isle last November (2012), nearly three years after the spill. The shrimp had black discoloration in their gills, large tumors and deformities such as missing eyes and enlarged heads.

Fortunately, Riki Ott PhD., a marine toxicologist, was with me in Louisiana at the time, and was able to explain how the oil and Corexit dispersant residue was mutating the shrimp. We taped this and it is a bonus feature on the DVD. What should alarm everyone, is that there are no tests or sorting processes in place to keep these clearly damaged shrimp from our national food supply.

I think the untold story of the environmental mess, which you've told well, is the impact on human health. When do you think we'll really wake up to the impact the spill, and the clean-up, had on humans?

Sadly, we may never know the full extent of the spill damage or have concrete information that could lead to actionable policy changes. These toxins were dispersed into the environment on such a massive scale, and the medical research being conducted is so inadequate, that it’s terrifying. There are many questions that I fear will not be answered due to competing agendas. The only people who want to find the truth are the people who suffered the greatest loss and have the least amount of resources to get done what needs to be done.

BP, Federal and State Government agencies, and the seafood and tourism industry all want the situation to be over. Everyone seems fine with writing or receiving checks. It is fishermen like George Barisich who now must use an inhaler for COPD, despite never smoking or working in the oil industry, that are fighting for the real truth to come out in the open. Clearly, the disenfranchised are out numbered and out gunned.

Does anything give you hope that an accident like this won't happen again?
No, I see no hope unless we can get big business out of politics and we begin holding our politicians accountable. Citizens United must be overturned. We need to a single payer healthcare system in place that would marry the government budget to the health of its population. Until we address those two important issues, it is going to be extremely difficult to break the tie that binds corporations to D.C.

Related Stories on TakePart:
• 2010 Gulf Oil Spill: Two Years Later, Scientists Still Unsure of Eco-Impact
• At Rally, Crowd Blames Obama for Spill's Biggest Blunder: The Drilling Moratorium
• Why the Deepwater Horizon Spill Will Haunt This Year’s Super Bowl