The Information Super-Frog

Links to more new articles on the continuing effects of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.


Mother Jones: BP's Corexit Oil Tar Sponged Up by Human Skin Excerpts:

"Sadly, things aren't getting cleaner faster, according to their results. The Corexit that BP used to "disperse" the oil now appears to be making it tougher for microbes to digest the oil. [...] The persistence of Corexit mixed with crude oil has now weathered to tar, yet is traceable to BP's Deepwater Horizon brew through its chemical fingerprint. [...] Worse, the toxins in this unholy mix of Corexit and crude actually penetrate wet skin faster than dry skin [...] The stuff can't be wiped off. It's absorbed into the skin. And it isn't going away. "

"The use of Corexit is inhibiting the microbial degradation of hydrocarbons in the crude oil and has enabled concentrations of the organic pollutants known as PAH to stay above levels considered carcinogenic by the NIH and OSHA.
26 of 32 sampling sites in Florida and Alabama had PAH concentrations exceeding safe limits.
Only three locations were found free of PAH contamination.
Carcinogenic PAH compounds from the toxic tar are concentrating in surface layers of the beach and from there leaching into lower layers of beach sediment. This could potentially lead to contamination of groundwater sources. "

AlJazeera: Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists

Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause.

"Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp - and interviewees' fingers point towards BP's oil pollution disaster as being the cause.

According to Kuhns, at least 50 per cent of the shrimp caught in that period in Barataria Bay, a popular shrimping area that was heavily impacted by BP's oil and dispersants, were eyeless. Kuhns added: "Disturbingly, not only do the shrimp lack eyes, they even lack eye sockets."

"Some shrimpers are catching these out in the open Gulf [of Mexico]," she added, "They are also catching them in Alabama and Mississippi. We are also finding eyeless crabs, crabs with their shells soft instead of hard, full grown crabs that are one-fifth their normal size, clawless crabs, and crabs with shells that don't have their usual spikes... they look like they've been burned off by chemicals."

Darla Rooks, a lifelong fisherperson from Port Sulfur, Louisiana, told Al Jazeera she is finding crabs "with holes in their shells, shells with all the points burned off so all the spikes on their shells and claws are gone, misshapen shells, and crabs that are dying from within... they are still alive, but you open them up and they smell like they've been dead for a week".

Rooks is also finding eyeless shrimp, shrimp with abnormal growths, female shrimp with their babies still attached to them, and shrimp with oiled gills.

"We also seeing eyeless fish, and fish lacking even eye-sockets, and fish with lesions, fish without covers over their gills, and others with large pink masses hanging off their eyes and gills." "

Gambit Weekly: The oil disaster, two years later: seafood, human health in jeopardy Covers some of the same material plus a couple more details.

Sunday I had an interesting day in Nine Mile Point, Louisiana.

( Hidden architectural treasure rediscovered; photos and more )

Times-Picayune: BP reneges on deal to rebuild oyster beds, repair wetlands, Louisiana officials say

WDSU: Some Oysters Tainted By Oil, Scientist Says

"Sampling by environmental groups has found oysters contaminated with oil along the Louisiana coast befouled by the BP PLC oil spill, a finding that casts doubt on statements by state and federal officials that all seafood tested here is safe to eat."

Southern Studies: Independent tests find oil spill contamination in Louisiana oysters and crabs

Biloxi Sun-Herald: Up to 90% of oysters dead

"Officials from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources took oyster fishermen out on the reefs off the Pass Christian Harbor on Wednesday to give them a preview of what to expect from the upcoming oyster season."

"DMR officials dredged for oysters and pulled up catches with about 80 to 90 percent of the oysters dead."

Hm, I wonder what might have caused that?

"Scott Gordon, director of the DMR shellfish bureau, said there have been more oyster mortalities this year, but he doesn’t know whether it can be attributed to the BP oil spill.

"“We don’t have any evidence that oil has contributed to these mortalities,” he said."

[Insert your own sarcastic comment here]


Mother Jones: The BP Cover-Up

"BP and the government say the spill is fast disappearing—but dramatic new science reveals that its worst effects may be yet to come."

Apparently oil and methane are now leaking from the ocean floor some distance away from the new well cap. The Sun Herald gives today's lesson on how to bury a lede:BP, feds clash over reopening capped Gulf oil well

"BP and the Obama administration offered significantly differing views Sunday on whether the capped Gulf of Mexico oil well will have to be reopened, a contradiction that may be an effort by the oil giant to avoid blame if crude starts spewing again."

Buried lede 4 paragraphs down:

"An administration official familiar with the spill oversight, however, told The Associated Press that a seep and possible methane were found near the busted oil well. The official spoke on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not been made yet. The concern all along - since pressure readings on the cap weren't as high as expected - was a leak elsewhere in the wellbore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix."

Times-Picayune does better: Associated Press says oil may be seeping from BP well

"A federal official said Sunday that scientists are concerned about a seep and possible methane seen near BP's busted oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. Both could be signs there are leaks in the well that's been capped off for three days. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not yet been made."

CS Monitor: Gulf oil spill: Fouling air as well as water?

Um, that has to be a question rather than a statement?

"The EPA says some communities in Louisiana face a 'moderate health risk' due to hydrocarbon fumes from the Gulf oil spill. Researchers will report air quality findings this week."

Two background pieces:

Picayune: Louisiana has always welcomed offshore oil industry, despite dangers

Washington Post puts things a bit more bluntly: Oil spills. Poverty. Corruption. Why Louisiana is America's petro-state.

WDSU: Slidell Resident Reports Dead Fish In Lake Pontchartrain

Similarly Times-Picayune: Lake Pontchartrain fish kill reported

Click2Houston.com:Tar Mats Discovered In Galveston

"There are two big, black globs of tar scattered along the sand dunes on the west end of Galveston"

Picayune:NOAA seafood assessors are key part of effort to keep tainted fish from consumers

Testing for oil. "Dispersants will also be tested, but only based on the smell and taste tests."

Huffington Post: BP, Governments Downplay Public Health Risk From Oil and Dispersants

Huffington Post:BP Named The Fourth Most Profitable Company In The World

Examiner.com:BP payouts are Keeping Officials Quiet: Hear no Evil, See no Evil

APF: Oil spill claims arriving faster than BP can pay them

AP:EPA: Moderate health concerns with Gulf air

"The EPA says recent air sampling shows a moderate health risk in Venice and Grand Isle, two Louisiana towns about 50 miles from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill site."

Picayune: Discovery of second pipe in Deepwater Horizon riser stirs debate among experts

Editorial by Jarvis DeBerry:In Louisiana, politics keeps getting in the way of science

Picayune: Scientists warn of unseen deepwater oil disaster

"Independent scientists and government officials say there's an aspect to the oil spill disaster we can't see, hidden in the Gulf of Mexico's mysterious depths; the ruin of a world inhabited by enormous sperm whales and tiny, invisible plankton."

"Every fish and invertebrate contacting the oil is probably dying. I have no doubt about that"

If I were just a bit more cynical, I'd say that Big Oil's plot to make the Gulf of Mexico unfit for all those pesky alternative uses other than drilling oil is succeeding.
[edit: Driftglass goes there: BP's "GULF KILL" Procedure ]

Again: Like seafood? Enjoy it now.

"There's a school of thought that says we've made it worse because of the dispersants"

Ya think?

CNN: Fisherman files restraining order against BP

"A fisherman who was hospitalized after becoming ill while cleaning up oil in the Gulf of Mexico has filed a temporary restraining order in federal court against oil company BP.

"John Wunstell Jr., is asking BP to give the workers masks and not harass workers who publicly voice their health concerns."


BP CEO Tony Hayward has been speaking up. UPI story

"As far as I'm concerned, a cup of oil on the beach is a failure," Hayward said.

Fair enough. If one spilled cup is a "failure", how would you classify, say, 10 million gallons (to use one of the most conservative non-BP estimates)?

"There's no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back," Hayward said.

Mr. Hayward: Rather than an extended diatribe comparing your situation with those of the people who have for generations made their living in South East Louisiana, I'll keep my reply short and simple: FY, YFF.

Huffington Post: Gulf Oil Spill: Media Access 'Slowly Being Strangled Off'

They don't want to let people know how bad its getting.

And remember, this is still just beginning.

Times-Picayune: Bird rescuers race to save oiled wildlife in Gulf oil spill:

”Although BP didn’t have plans for dealing with an oil spill from a deepwater rig, local wildlife officials were prepared with cages for animal rescues in the event of a spill.

“‘I’m impressed that there is this level of preparedness,’ Salazar said.”

Louis Maistros at HumidCity Help Save Our Wildlife Now responds in part:

"Interior Secretary Ken Salazar need not be surprised. The people of the gulf stand at the ready to defend their coastal wildlife from corporate thuggery at all times because they have always known there would be a need for it. Meanwhile, the corporate thugs who callously provide such a need, feign surprise at the magnitude of the disaster that they created while knowing full well their own unpreparedness is absent in lieu of any immediately beneficial impact to their bottom line. It is ghastly math in action."

Read more. How about some mechanical bird cleaners down here?

News of the "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill just keeps getting worse. BP has admitted the size of the leak was 5 times the volume were saying 2 days ago, and that they have no idea how to stop it from continuing to get worse.


Forget the word "spill."

"This isn't a spill," said Kerry St. Pe, who headed Louisiana's oil spill response team for 23 years. "This isn't a storage tank or a ship with a finite amount of oil that has boundaries. This is much, much worse."


Times-Picayune: Gulf spill is really a river of oil

Congresscritter Vitter's handing out pork to his cronies may scuttle plans to save Louisiana's rapidly disappearing coastline.

Porked-up water act throws good money after bad
by Froma Harrop, Providence Journal

Louisiana is famous for — how shall we put it? — its colorful politics. And so Sen. David Vitter got an easy laugh from Washington with the quip, "In Louisiana, we're half under water and half under indictment." At a hearing on the Water Resources Development Act, the Louisiana Republican added, "In this bill, we're beginning to address at least one of those issues."

Only one? American taxpayers are not so sure. The Senate bill raises to $1.2 billion their share of a project to preserve land in coastal Louisiana. This would be the first installment of a grand plan to restore the Mississippi Delta. Experts put the total cost at a minimum of $15 billion.

But then Vitter slipped in a last-minute provision that would endanger hundreds of thousands of forested wetland acres in Louisiana alone. It would ease the way for timber companies to cut down majestic cypress trees — part of the very ecosystem taxpayers are being asked to save — and turn them into cheap garden mulch.

The Mississippi Delta happens to be one of America's great natural wonders, right up there with the Grand Canyon, the Everglades and Chesapeake Bay. It represents 40 percent of the coastal wetlands in the contiguous United States.

But the question arises: Why spend billions fixing a resource that Louisiana politicians are busy wrecking? If inserting the Vitter provision into the water-project bill doesn't amount to an indictable offense, it certainly puts American taxpayers in a bad mood.

( more, arrgh )