Gulf of Mexico oil disaster: The most severe impacts 'may never be known'

Public Service (U.K.) – September 8, 2010
As BP's internal investigation into the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico finds that 'a series of failures' was to blame, Larry McKinney executive director, Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, warns the long-term impact could be worse than projected. There is no good place or time for any oil spill. The BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico has illustrated that point more acutely than any other in recent history. As the oil spread from the well site some 82km southeast of Venice, Louisiana, more and more of the Gulf's most diverse and productive waters became imperilled. The waters of the Mississippi River drain more than 40% of the continental USA and pour out into the Gulf in the same area. http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=14850

Collapsing Gulf marsh dwarfs oil spill as ecological disaster

By Ken Wells – Statesman/Bloomberg News – September 7, 2010
Claude Luke throttles down the motor of his 21-foot aluminum work boat. Off to the left, the snout of an alligator disappears near the mouth of a watery gash in the Louisiana marshland. The 51-year-old Cajun crab fisherman is touring the epicenter of an unfolding environmental disaster that dwarfs the BP spill and predates it by decades, according to state scientists and environmentalists. If unchecked, the destruction threatens to undermine the world's seventh-largest estuary. http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/collapsing-gulf-marsh-dwarfs-oil-spill-as-ecological-902420.html

Voices of the Gulf: A threat greater than any oil spill?

By Shannon Tompkins – Houston Chronicle – September 6, 2010
A cluster of fiddler crabs crouching on a rim of gray mud and arguing over a shred of silvery fish flesh didn't notice as a juvenile yellow-crowned night heron with tai chi-like movements crept almost imperceptibly toward them. When the distracted fiddlers finally became aware of the looming heron, they seemed unsure whether to bolt toward the safety of their thumb-size holes or scramble for the cover of the adjacent spartina grass. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/outdoors/7188209.html

Gulf oil spill: Has it caused a new fish kill? (UPDATED)

By Margot Roosevelt – Los Angeles Times – August 23, 2010
Louisiana state biologists Monday were investigating whether a large fish kill at the mouth of the Mississippi River was caused by oil or dispersants from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The gulf also contains a vast dead zone created by agricultural runoff along the river. "By our estimates, there were thousands, and I'm talking about 5,000 to 15,000 dead fish," St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro said in a news release Monday. "Different species were found dead, including crabs, sting rays, eel, drum, speckled trout, red fish, you name it, included in that kill." For full story, go to: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/08/gulf-oil-spill-dead-fish-kill-mississippi.html

LA: Vanishing marshes dwarf Gulf oil spill

By Ken Wells – Washington Post – August 20, 2010
Claude Luke throttles down his 21-foot aluminum work boat. Off to the left, the snout of an alligator disappears near the mouth of a watery gash in the Louisiana marshland. The 51-year-old Cajun crab fishermen is touring the epicenter of an unfolding environmental disaster that dwarfs the BP spill and predates it by decades, according to state scientists and environmentalists. If unchecked, the destruction threatens to undermine the world’s seventh largest estuary and one of the nation’s most important energy corridors. For full story, go to: http://www.theolympian.com/2010/08/20/1341673/vanishing-marshes-dwarf-gulf-oil.html#ixzz0xdBECzro

Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill (Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlW_pLNNfxc&feature=player_embedded

Reflections on Global Interdependance's Gulf Oil Spill Disaster Seminar

Editorial by John Mauldin – Minyanville – August 16, 2010
I was in Baton Rouge for a special seminar on the Deepwater Horizon ( RIG) Gulf of Mexico oil spill. I have both good news (or maybe more like less-bad news) and bad news. Today's article is a report on what I learned. The conference was sponsored by the Global Interdependence Center (GIC). David Kotok of Cumberland Advisors organized the event with help from people from Louisiana State University. The quality of the speakers was outstanding. They were extremely knowledgeable and well-connected. The meeting was conducted under the Chatham House Rule, which means all the speakers spoke off the record, unless they indicated otherwise. This allows for a more frank discussion. So, much of what you'll read from me is my impressions of what I heard, which I cannot attribute to specific speakers. Indeed, some would be at some occupational risk if I did so. For full editorial, go to: http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/gulf-oil-spill-global-interdependance-dispersants/8/16/2010/id/29612

Gulf oil spill adds facet to Katrina recovery

By Rick Jervis – USA Today – August 16, 2010
For Fred Dietz, recovery from Hurricane Katrina has been a slow, tough slog of rebuilding a splintered business and coaxing visitors back to his fishing lodge in Delacroix Island, a fishing village about 30 miles southeast of New Orleans. Five years since the storm, recovery was on track — until oil spilled into the Gulf. That set him back several years, says Dietz, owner of Destination Delacroix, a two-story, five-room lodge for fishermen and duck hunters. Business has dropped 60% since the start of the spill, he says. For full story, go to: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-08-16-katrina16_ST_N.htm

Obama swims in Gulf, says beaches open for business

By Ross Colvin – Reuters – August 16, 2010
President Barack Obama went swimming off the coast of Florida on Saturday and declared the Gulf area's beaches "open for business," trying to show by example that a region hit by the BP oil spill was safe for tourists to enjoy. Obama, on his fifth visit to the region since BP Plc's deep-sea well in the Gulf of Mexico ruptured in April, pledged to restore the economy and the environment in the aftermath of the world's worst offshore oil spill. "Oil is no longer flowing into the Gulf, and it has not been flowing for a month. But I'm here to tell you that our job is not finished, and we are not going anywhere until it is," he told reporters after holding talks with local business owners. For full story, go to: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65O5TA20100815

BP Spill's Gulf Threat May Fade as Farms Pollute, Wetlands Sink

By Peter Coy – Bloomberg – August 12, 2010
Visit the Gulf of Mexico today and you’d hardly recognize it as the scene of what President Barack Obama called “the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced.” It’s as if scientists had conducted an insane experiment -- dumping about 4.9 million barrels of oil into the water -- and discovered its effect was in certain ways negligible. For full story, go to: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-12/bp-spill-may-be-least-of-gulf-woes-as-farm-chemicals-invade-wetlands-sink.html

Read: Regulators’ Deepwater Drilling Document Is “at War With Itself”

Chicago Press Release Service – August 9, 2010
The document, written in 2000, was mentioned in Sunday’s New York Times story about the Minerals Management Service and its record of drilling oversight. The Times called the environmental assessment a “document at war with itself” that reflects the regulatory agency’s conflicting mandates: facilitating energy production and royalty collection while ensuring that offshore drilling is done safely, with proper environmental consideration and review. From one part of the document [PDF], highlighting the risks: Although the loss of well control (blowout) is not a new source of spills, the likelihood and magnitude of spills from them or from a large pipeline rupture in deep water may be very different from the likelihood and magnitude of such spills in shallow water. Full article and links to the document, go to: http://chicagopressrelease.com/news/read-regulators%E2%80%99-deepwater-drilling-document-is-%E2%80%9Cat-war-with-itself%E2%80%9D For the New York Times story, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/us/08mms.html?_r=1&hpw

Delta Waterfowl Discusses Plan to ‘Shortstop’ Migratory Waterfowl from Oil-Fouled Wetlands

Delta Waterfowl News Release – August 9, 2010
BP’s Macondo well is capped—at least for now—and that’s welcome relief to Gulf Coast residents who are grappling with the economic, environmental and emotional fallout from the largest oil spill in U.S. history. But serious questions remain for the millions of migratory birds that will begin descending on or through the Gulf Coast beginning this month. “The fact is, when blue-winged teal start to show up here in August, no one knows what they’re going to find,” said Delta Waterfowl Scientific Director Dr. Frank Rohwer, who is also a professor at Louisiana State University’s School of Renewable Natural Resources. For full story, go to: http://www.ammoland.com/2010/08/09/delta-waterfowl-plan-to-shortstop-migratory-waterfowl/

Minerals Service Had a Mandate to Produce Results

By Jason DeParle - New York Times – August 7, 2010
On March 5, 1997, an obscure federal official with a puckish grin entered a hotel ballroom here and greeted 1,000 jittery oilmen on what would prove a landmark day. For years, fading interest in the Gulf of Mexico had punished the local economy and left Louisiana to mourn its “Dead Sea.” Now, rising oil prices and new technology were setting off the deep-water version of a gold rush. Interest in drilling ran so high that the official, Chris Oynes, was heading into the annual lease auction with a record number of sealed bids. For full story, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/us/08mms.html?_r=1&hpw

Oil spill enters new phase: restoring the Gulf, learning from the disaster

Mark Schleifstein -  The Times-Picayune – August 6, 2010
With the injection of cement into the Macondo well on Thursday promising a permanent end to the unprecedented release of hundreds of millions of gallons of oil from the Deepwater Horizon drilling accident, the focus has turned to how to best remove the remaining oil from the Gulf of Mexico and the coastal beaches and wetlands, and how to identify and mitigate the spill's short-term and long-term economic and environmental effects. For full story, go to: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/08/oil_spill_enters_new_phase_res_1.html

Phoenix Zoo Adopts Pelicans Affected by Gulf Oil Spill

By Claire Lawton – Phoenix New Times (blog) – August 6, 2010
A FedEx plane brought six American White pelicans to the Phoenix Zoo yesterday. The pelicans all have wing injuries that prevented their ability to fly away from the oil slick left by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April. They'll be in quarantine for the next 30 days, and will then be released into the Zoo's Wetlands exhibit. For full blog, go to: http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/jackalope/2010/08/phoenix_zoo_adopts_
pelicans_af.php

EPW Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Assessing Damages from Oil Spill

CSO Weekly Report – August 2010
On July 27, the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife held a hearing on Assessing Natural Resource Damages Resulting from the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster.  The witnesses included: Ms. Cynthia Dohner, Regional Southeast Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Mr. Tony Penn, Deputy Chief of the Assessment and Restoration Division at the Office of Response and Restoration in NOAA; Dr. Eva Pell, Under Secretary for Science at the Smithsonian Institution; Dr. Robert Spies, President Applied Marine Sciences; Mr. Stanley Senner, Conservation Science Director at Ocean Conservancy; Dr. Erik Rifkin, Interim Executive Director at the National Aquarium Conservation Center; and Mr. John Young, Chairman of Jefferson Parish Council.  For more information and to view witnesses statements, visit:
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_id
=f1ff5117-802a-23ad-4228-4fd76a477376 For more Coastal State news, go to: http://coastalstates.org.seedevelopmentprogress.com/publications-news/

A challenge migrating birds and gulf oil

By John Collins Rudolf– New York Times blog – August 2, 2010
While BP may permanently seal its leaking well as early as this week, scientists predict that the persistence of oil in the gulf waters and coastal wetlands will continue to exact a toll on the region’s ecosystem for years to come. Full article, go to: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/a-challenge-migrating-birds-and-gulf-oil/

Women of the Storm – And the Men Who Love them

By Darwin Bond-Graham – Counterpunch – August 2, 2010
“B e the One," a campaign urging citizens to petition the Congress towards passing and funding a comprehensive Gulf Coast restoration plan, has drawn criticism from some who point to the group's corporate oil and gas industry backers. http://www.counterpunch.org/graham08022010.html

Saving marshes: Experts say spill, and years of bad policy, leave little time to help top global food source

By Matthew Tresaugue - Houston Chronicle – August 1, 2010
When Dennis Takahashi-Kelso surveyed Louisiana's coastal marshes recently, the biologist saw oil puddling in the grasses that hold the isles in place. The grasses were dying, and without them, the surrounding ground would sink into the sea — a revealing sign of the present wounds and future worries from the largest oil spill in America's history. Full story, go to: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7134769.html

Michigan Oil Spill Among Largest In Midwest History: Kalamazoo Spill SOAKS Wildlife (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post – July 27, 2010
As the Gulf Coast deals with the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, the Midwest is now facing an oil spill of its own. A state of emergency has been declared in southwest Michigan's Kalamazoo County as more than 800,000 gallons of oil released into a creek began making its way downstream in the Kalamazoo River, the Kalamazoo Gazette reports. For full story, go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/27/michigan-oil-spill-among_n_661196.html  For related story, go to: Oil From Michigan Spill Could Threaten Important Wetlands http://www.ducks.org/news/2241/OilFromMichiganSpill.html

How oil-damaged marsh grasses recover could affect gulf's rebound

By David A. Fahrenthold - Washington Post  - July 26, 2010
In the next act of the drama of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, two of the most important heroes don't look like heroes. They are just thin green stalks, sticking out of grass too wet to stand on. They are cordgrass and wiregrass, common species that wave in the winds in south Louisiana's coastal marshes. Except, in some places, they aren't waving anymore: Where oil has sloshed into the marshes, their stalks are matted and gooey and on their way to death. What happens next -- whether these two grasses rebound or vanish -- will be a very important piece of the gulf's larger environmental story. Now that the well has been capped, the next question is whether marsh and marine ecosystems can shrug off the oil's damage, or whether it will leave them with lasting wounds. "Many of us are much more worried about the marsh than we are about fish and shrimp and all that," said Denise Reed, a wetlands expert at the University of New Orleans. "If those plants die, they don't come back. And the marsh is gone." Full article, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/07/25/AR201007
2502620_pf.html

Athletes witness firsthand the damage caused by oil spill in Gulf

By Daelyn Fortney – The Dish is Veg – July 26, 2010
Earlier this month a group of athletes joined the Sierra Club on a boat tour of the Gulf Coast region to witness firsthand the devastation caused by the BP oil spill. The group encourages a full clean up of the coast along with ditching our oil dependency and moving toward clean energy to ensure a disaster of this kind never happens again. To read more, go to:
http://www.thisdishisvegetarian.com/2010/07/0634athletes-witness-firsthand-damage.html

The poster girl of the gulf clean-up

The Independent – July 17, 2010
Only two things are holding back Olivia Bouler, an 11-year-old from Long Island, NY with a passion for birds and a talent for drawing them. While she can finish a picture, she says, in "seven to five minutes", her wrist gets tired after a while and she has to rest. And then there are all the pesky media intrusions. This week has been the maddest, with a two-day trip to Washington DC with her family where she cast a vote for her local congressman on the floor of the House of Representatives and had face-time with the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, to discuss oil and how America can stop drinking it. For full story, go to: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-poster-girl-of-the-gulf-cleanup-2028707.html  And check out her Facebook fan page with over 28,000 people backing her up! She’s sold over 500 drawings http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-the-Gulf-Olivias-Bird-Illustrations/102196836492763?v=wall

After Oil Spills, Hidden Damage Can Last for Years

By Justin Gillis and Leslie Kaufman – New York Times – July 17, 2010
On the rocky beaches of Alaska, scientists plunged shovels and picks into the ground and dug 6,775 holes, repeatedly striking oil — still pungent and dangerous a dozen years after the Exxon Valdez infamously spilled its cargo. […]And on the southern gulf coast in Mexico, an American researcher peering into a mangrove swamp spotted lingering damage 30 years after that shore was struck by an enormous spill. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/science/earth/18enviro.html

Oil leak is stopped for first time since April 20 blowout, Pres. Obama Speaks About Cap on Spill

By Joel Achenbach – Washington Post – July 16, 2010
The gusher is gone. The plume is off the well. BP's Macondo well isn't dead yet, and it may be back in a flash, but at 3:25 p.m. Eastern time Thursday it ceased to spew oil into the Gulf of Mexico. For full story, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/15/AR2010071500642.html For related link go to: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2010/gulf.coast.oil.spill/ For a speech by President Obama on the good news about the recent cap on the oil spill, go to: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/16/obamas-good-news-on-oil-spill/?
fbid=pPln1NGWBc6

Dispute on Oil Spill Panel Flares Before First Meeting

By Stephen Power – The Wall Street Journal – July 10, 2010
The independent commission appointed by President Barack Obama to investigate the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will hold its first formal meeting Monday, but it is already at the center of several battles raging in Washington. To read full article, go to:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704799604575357350741148766.html
?mod=googlenews_wsj

Determining oil spill's environmental damage is difficult

By David A. Fahrenthold – The Washington Post – July 5, 2010
How dead is the Gulf of Mexico?

It is perhaps the most important question of the BP oil spill -- but scientists don't appear close to answering it despite a historically vast effort. To ready full article, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/04/AR2010070403990.html?wpisrc=nl_headline

Seafood watch
Gulf oil spill doesn't bring lower seafood supplies for home cooks—yet

Storm Threatens Gulf Wetlands

By Ann Zimmerman – The Wall Street Journal – June 30, 2010
New Orleans—As Hurricane Alex targeted the western side of the U.S. Gulf Coast, whipping waves into a fury, government officials along Louisiana's southern tip feared the storm would push more oil from BP PLC's broken well into fragile wetlands. To read more, go to: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703426004575339011874125550.html

Gulf's coastal wetlands surviving despite oil

By John Flesher – Associated Press – June 29, 2010
Belle Chase, La. — From a seaplane 1,000 feet above Louisiana's coastal wetlands, the places hit hardest by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are easy to spot — dark slashes marring a vast expanse of marshes and bayous. To read more, go to: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ir2YZpy2b4qb51iOkLgd
GWBegjywD9GL2A8O0

Oil spill brings push for wetlands habitat

Associated Press – June 29, 2010 – Alexandria, LA
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill prompts a new push to quickly increase wetlands habitat for birds migrating toward the Gulf of Mexico. To read full article, go to: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/29/1706106/oil-spill-brings-push-for-wetlands.html#ixzz0sQlB6Qrs

Gulf farmers asked to flood fields for migrating birds

By Andrew Zajac – Tribune Washington Bureau – June 29, 2010
A federal conservation agency said Monday that it would begin paying some gulf region farmers and ranchers to flood their fields so that migratory birds can find alternative rest and nesting grounds to oil-fouled habitats. To read more, go to: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-migratory-birds-
20100629,0,2312312.story

BPOil Spill:  Jindal Says Feds Must Get in the War to Win

Bayoubuzz News – June 28, 2010
Prior to the scheduled appearances by Vice-President Joe Biden along the gulf coast, Governor Jindal issued the following statement after holding a press  conference:  

GRAND ISLE – Today, Governor Bobby Jindal viewed firsthand a massive and heavy oil slick that is roughly three miles off the coast of Grand Isle where local leaders have been waiting weeks for federal officials to issue a permit to narrow passes and block oil from coming into Louisiana’s wetlands. Governor Jindal called on federal officials to immediately issue authorization for the project so work can begin to stop more heavy oil from hitting Louisiana’s coast. To read full article, go to: http://www.bayoubuzz.com/buzz/
latest-buzz/13376-bp-oil-spill-jindal-says-feds-must-get-in-war

Flotilla of barges used as oil barricade

By Broam Skoloff – Associated Press – June 28, 2010
GRAND ISLE, La. — Mired in a daily battle against the oil soiling Louisiana's shorelines, marshes and wetlands, locals in this barrier island town are pushing ahead with a novel plan to block the crude's path with a flotilla of barges. To read full article, go to: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hqi4XLl1PxMW7QfEhlPxD
NR5DUjwD9GK4QP02

Costs, Questions for Gulf Promise

Catherine Cheney – June 27, 2010
In his Oval Office speech on the BP oil disaster, President Barack Obama declared he would reverse the devastation caused by crude oil on the area's shoreline, but pledged his administration would also address “decades of environmental degradation” and “multiple economic disasters” that have ruined the fragile Gulf Coast. To read full article, go to: http://fredericksburg.com/News/Web/politico?p_id=2313

Gulf Oil Spill: Mississippi River Hydrology May Help Reduce Oil Onshore

National Science Foundation – June 17, 2010
The Gulf of Mexico: what role will the Mississippi River play in oil washing ashore and into delta wetlands? One of the spill's greatest environmental threats is to Louisiana's wetlands, scientists believe. But there may be good news ahead. Scientists affiliated with the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED), a National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center headquartered at the University of Minnesota, are using long-term field plots in Louisiana's Wax Lake Delta to measure the baseline conditions of, and track the effects of the oil spill on, coastal Louisiana wetlands. For full press release, go to: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117048&org=NSF&from=news

Category Five – Season 2, Episode 1: Wetlands Watch

Video on Gulf Oil Spill – June 6, 2010
http://category5wetlandswatch.wordpress.com/

Gulf Oil Spill Tracker (map)
http://oilspill.skytruth.org/

BP Media Blackout Hides Dead Oil Spill Animals, Cutting Heads Off Birds
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6626613-bp-media-blackout-hides-dead-oil-spill-animals-cutting-heads-off-birds

In Louisiana, Wetlands Erosion is a Slow-Moving Crisis
By Betty Ann Bowser – PBS Blog – The Rundown – August 30, 2010
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/08/in-louisiana-wetlands-erosion-is-slow-moving-crisis.html

Wetland Restoration/Oil Spill Clean-up Information

Restoration and Recovery Grants and Economic Assessment Teams Dispatched to the Gulf

CSO Weekly Report – August 2010
On August 16, 2010, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced $31.3 million in coastal restoration and economic development grants for Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. A $30.7 million restoration grant awarded by NOAA to the Louisiana Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration will be used to fund the restoration of a critical barrier headland near Port Fourchon, Louisiana. In addition, National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen announced the deployment of 19 additional Economic Assessment and Evaluation Teams – funded through a grant from the Economic Development Administration – to communities affected by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A total of 21 interagency teams will work with communities in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas to help develop action plans and offer guidance for their post-spill economic recovery efforts.  For more information visit: http://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2010/08/16/commerce-secretary-gary-locke-announces-313-million-restoration-and-r or http://app.restorethegulf.gov/go/doc/2931/863671/