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Tuesday, 15 May 2012 13:02 |
Contact: Katherine Unger Baillie– Penn News – May 10, 2012Research by a trio of geoscientists, including the University of Pennsylvania’s Douglas Jerolmack, now offers an explanation for why some of the oil stayed out at sea. Using publicly available datasets, their study reveals that the force of the Mississippi River emptying into the Gulf of Mexico created mounds of fresh water which pushed the oil slick off shore. […] “We recognized that there was a very persistent mound, a bump or a bulge, in the elevation of the sea surface in the vicinity of the Mississippi Delta,” Jerolmack said. The reason was that the oil spill coincided with the typical spring flood on the Mississippi, creating a larger-than-normal flow of water into the Delta. This powerful discharge of fresh water mounded on top of the denser salt water of the Gulf. The resulting bulge, which was approximately 10 centimeters higher than the surrounding ocean and 50-100 kilometers in diameter, was positioned so that oil from the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig ran “downhill” and away from the coast. For full story, click here. |
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Tuesday, 24 April 2012 12:41 |
By Associated Press – The Washington Post – April 19, 2012
Two years have passed since the April 20, 2010, blowout of BP’s Macondo well triggered an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and spawning the nation’s worst offshore oil spill. After several attempts to cap the well failed, engineers finally halted the flow of oil after more than 85 days, but not before an estimated 206 million gallons of crude spilled. The oil soiled fragile wetlands, stained beaches, killed wildlife and closed vast areas of the Gulf to commercial fishing for time. For full story, click here. |
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Monday, 02 April 2012 21:10 |
By Brad Johnson – Think Progress Green– March 30, 2012As BP reaps billions in profits from rising gasoline prices, the Gulf of Mexico is dying from its uncleaned pollution. “After months of laboratory work, scientists say they can definitively finger oil from BP’s blown-out well as the culprit for the slow death of a once brightly colored deep-sea coral community in the Gulf of Mexico that is now brown and dull,” the AP reports.Tarballs that washed up on the beaches were “teeming with bacteria.” Oil from the killer Deepwater Horizon blowout “has contaminated zooplankton, one of the first links in the oceanic food chain,” scientists found. For full story, click here. |
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Friday, 09 March 2012 17:55 |
By Associated Press – The Washington Post – March 8, 2012
The Senate approved Thursday using the bulk of water pollution fines stemming from the 2010 Gulf oil spill to pay for restoration in five Gulf states, a move hailed by environmental groups and state officials. The money is tied to a transportation bill that the Senate still must pass. BP PLC could be fined between $5.4 billion to $21.1 billion under the Clean Water Act, depending on whether the company is found grossly negligent. For full article, click here.
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Wednesday, 18 April 2012 00:00 |
By National Wildlife Federation – April 2012
This report gives a snapshot view of the current status of coastal wetlands and six wildlife species (or groups of species) that depend on a healthy Gulf. Some 1,050 miles of beaches and wetlands were reported to be contaminated by oil. The extent of damage is highly variable depending upon severity of contamination. Oil contamination or efforts to clean it up can damage wetlands, killing vegetation and thereby causing accelerated erosion and conversion of land to open water. Future Trends: Despite restoration efforts that have slowed the rate of loss, without large-scale restoration Louisiana is projected to lose another 1,750 square miles of coastal wetlands by 2060.xx If that happens, in total, Louisiana will have lost an area of coastal wetlands larger than the state of Rhode Island. For full report, click here. |
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Monday, 12 March 2012 20:35 |
Editorial – NOLA.com – The Times-Picayune – March 11, 2012Legislation that will send 80 percent of Clean Water Act fines from the BP oil spill to Louisiana and its Gulf Coast neighbors took a significant leap forward in Congress last week when the Senate voted to add it to a transportation spending bill. The Senate action follows a House vote last month to include key parts of the so-called Restore Act to its transportation bill. But the Senate voted on an amendment that attaches the entire Restore Act to its $109 billion transportation bill. For full story, click here. |
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Tuesday, 06 March 2012 13:56 |
By Tom Fowler – The Wall Street Journal – March 5, 2012The $7.8 billion oil spill settlement between BP PLC and thousands of residents and businesses along the Gulf of Mexico clears the way for what may become a far more expensive battle between the oil giant and the U.S. government. Legal experts said the size of the settlement, announced Friday night, suggests that if the government pursues criminal environmental penalties against BP the potential penalties could reach $17 billion to $40 billion, though a settlement likely would reduce any fine to far less. For full article, click here.
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