Shell Oil Spill Cleanup Operation Ends As Voices Against New Gulf Drilling Grow Louder

By Julie Dermansky • Thursday, May 19, 2016 - 14:19

Five days after Royal Dutch Shell reported an estimated 88,000 gallon crude oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico from its operations in the Glider field, the oil company and the U.S. Coast Guard agreed to halt skimming operations used in the cleanup because they were no longer finding recoverable oil. 

Both entities stated that no environmental damage has been reported, but independent monitors from Greenpeace, Vanishing Earth and Wings Of Care question whether the size and potential impact of the spill are being downplayed. 

News of Shell’s oil spill 90 miles south of Louisiana’s Timbalier Island came the day before the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) hosted a final week of public meetings on the Gulf Coast to give the public a chance to comment on itsFive Year Plan 2017-2022 oil leasing program. Its plan calls for lease sales of 47 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas companies for offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. 

Shell contracted Clean Gulf Associates and Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC) for the cleanup operation. MSRC, one of the companies BP used to clean up its 2010 spill, dumped the dispersant Corexit in the Gulf.

This time, “dispersant wasn’t used,” the Coast Guard told DeSmog. The Coast Guard and Shell agreed that using on-water recovery vessels and skimming would be the best oil recovery option. 

Environmental scientist Wilma Subra, though pleased dispersant wasn't used, told DeSmog, “Skimming is not a very good oil recovery option.” 

Subra believes that if skimming is the best cleanup method the Coast Guard and oil companies can come up with, it shows they are no better prepared for an oil spill than they were when the BP oil disaster occurred. 

Shell oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. ©2016 Jonathan Henderson

Environmental watchdog group SkyTruth concurred with Subra. They described the oil spill cleanup response as a bad joke. Last Saturday, Greenpeace photographed the site, taking with them Jonathan Henderson, founder of Vanishing Earth, who also documented the spill.

“I counted three vessels skimming oil,” Henderson told DeSmog. “It’s ridiculous that our federal government has basically sat back and allowed this industry to invest the vast majority of its money on exploration and extraction and not nearly the level of investment in response technology that is so critical whenever something like this goes wrong.”

On Wings of Care, another environmental watchdog group, flew Dr. Ian MacDonald of Florida State University over the spill site on Sunday. SkyTruth’s blog revealed that

“Dr. MacDonald observed that the response vessels seemed to be missing the thickest parts of the slick and were generally making very little headway, despite operating under fairly calm conditions (average wind speed of 7 knots recorded at Brutus TLP over this time period), nearly ideal for oil cleanup operations.”

“Oil spill response vessels grossly underperform,” SkyTruth stated. Five spill response vessels were dispatched including four skimming vessels, according to Shell and the Coast Guard.  

Not only was the cleanup effort not state of the art, the fact it took a pilot to spot the oil slick indicates Shell’s “pipeline leak detection is unreliable,” SkyTruth’s blog stated. 

“That’s right: a modern pipeline at a high-tech deepwater development project leaked thousands of gallons of oil, and that leak was accidentally discovered. Not because high-tech telemetry on the pipeline signaled an alarm due to a drop in pressure; not because flow metering detected a difference between what was going in one end of the pipe vs. what was coming out the other.“ 

Both Shell and the Coast Guard stated that there has been no reported impact on wildlife. But Subra said it is impossible for an oil spill of this size not to have environmental consequences. 

“Of course organisms at the spill site were impacted,” Subra said. “Some fish at the site must have died and other fish and mammals will get sick from the oil.”  

A Shell press release identified an underwater flow line near its Brutus platform as the source of the leak and stated the damaged section “has been isolated.” 

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is leading an investigation to determine the cause of the release. The agency has approved Shell’s plan to resume production at the Brutus platform though part of Shell’s Gilder operations remain “shut-in.”

Whatever the cause of the leak, Shell acknowledged that no spill is acceptable, a point environmentalists and activists have reiterated, while objecting to BOEM’s latest 5-year plans to lease an additional 47 million acres in the Gulf for drilling.

Cherri Foytlin of Bold Louisiana created a petition insisting any new oil development follow through on President Obama’s promise to “change the way we manage our oil and coal resources so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet.”

Bold Louisiana calls for an end to all new leasing in the Gulf. 

Cherri Foytlin with one of her sons at a protest against BOEM’s Gulf of Mexico lease sale in the Superdome in New Orleans ©2016 Julie Dermansky

Jonathan Henderson at a rally before a protest against BOEM’s Gulf of Mexico lease sale in the Superdome in New Orleans. ©2016 Julie Dermansky

Henderson and Foytlin took part in a protest during BOEM’s Gulf of Mexico lease sale at the Superdome in New Orleans on March 23.

“While we did not successfully stop the auction,” Henderson said, “never before in history has the industry been confronted like this in this region and the momentum from that historical day will continue forward.” 

A Gulf Coast delegation that converged on the Superdome also took part in “Break Free” protests, demonstrations that took place on six continents calling for bold action to break free from fossil fuels.

At the Washington DC  “Break Free” protest on May 15, activists called out Shell’s latest oil spill as an example of why offshore drilling must be stopped. 

BOEM held public meetings across the Gulf Coast this week that Foytlin encouraged people to participate in.

“We are not willing to let the Gulf of Mexico be a sacrifice zone any longer. Further, we are calling for a just transition for all of our communities to a clean, green economy, one that is both respectful to the life-giving systems of our planet and truly benefits the people of our region.” Foytlin told DeSmog.

She doesn’t think coastal communities are sustainable if nothing is done to protect them, and expanding drilling in the Gulf is a move in the wrong direction. 

Though Shell and the Coast Guard are quick to point out none of the oil from the Shell spill has been found on Louisiana’s beaches, Subra said she would be surprised if none of it washes up on the Louisiana coast.

“It is impossible to dismiss environmental impacts from even a small spill,” Subra said, “and an 88,000 gallon spill is significant.”

Main image credit: Jonathan Henderson with other activists protesting against BOEM’s Gulf of Mexico lease sale in the Superdome in New Orleans ©2016 Julie Dermansky 

MEDICAL MOMENT WITH TRISHA SPRINGSTEAD - THE DOUBLE EDGED SWORD

April 26, 2015 at 10:42pm 

By Trisha Springstead

The Arnesens

" The Double Edged Sword "

"When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you."  

Khalil Gabran

***

My Double Edged Trip to Plaquemines Parish, began at night while driving from Mississippi on two lanes of highway. Etched across the skies in the dark forever in my minds eye, were the lights of megalithic refineries. It was an auditory hauntingly quiet, drive into a place that I had never been, but visually my eyes were overwhelmed with the colorful lights. As far as the eye could see, alongside intensely, brightly lit huge cruise ships, glaring glimpses of Refineries, Oil barges. tugs, and trawlers, which became the landscape of the background of the towns, that constitute the parish called, “Plaquemines."

The strange illusion was that in reality, the people of Plaquemines Parish (part of ground zero for the BP Disaster and the Spraying of Toxic Corexit) had to coexist peacefully with refineries, open coal pits, oil companies, orphan wells and pollution. My co-pilot was Theresa Graff, our trip was probably one of the most bittersweet (joyous and tearful) that I have been on since the Blowout of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster in 2010.

Theresa and I checked into a Motel in the Dead of Night. Many of the people staying in our designated place, woke up at 3 to 4 am. in order to begin their day working in the refineries. We were told not to speak of the BP Blowout nor allude to why we were there. A double edged sword, the oil went everywhere, it happened, but we dare not speak of it with the oil field workers or the owners of marinas or hotels. Along with oil field workers, guests in our hotel were wealthy anglers visiting with beautiful sport fishing boats, which approximately, only four percent of the people in the US can even afford to own.

Theresa Graff, Kindra Arnesen, Trisha Springstead

The light of day changed my whole perspective of Bures and Venice, Louisiana. The sun was bright when we drove to the Southern home with the beautifully painted wrapped porch and the inviting oaks that became the backdrop for the beauty that I found in Louisiana. The wind blew comfortably, Kindra was the consummate welcoming friend who for the rest of my life I will know. She and I held together a bond for almost 5 years never really speaking of it and keeping it to ourselves looking out for each other on facebook and in phone calls and emails to one another over the years. Just the look in her eyes finally brought me physically to tears and I could not believe that I was finally meeting my Sister (not related by birth) and my friend. Having Theresa there was a treasure, her humor and compassion was an added component to that sisterhood.

Marriages have fallen apart all along the Gulf Region. Due to the stress, cancers, funerals, illnesses, devastation and the sheer loss that couples and families have had to endure, many prior secure marriages failed. Living in a toxic environment creates elements of anger, frustration, depression and anxiety along with the symptoms of brain fog, lesions, rashes, eyesight damages, cancers and the host of illnesses are likened to First Gulf War Syndrome. Many can not survive the day to day stresses much less the bleak future that they have to face.

Life was good for most of the residents of the Plaquemines Parish and the commercial fishermen but since the Gulf Disaster their everyday joys, celebrations, surrounded by music, love and community have been taken away. Every day in Louisiana I saw people try to enjoy every moment they could but there was always that deep dark stain in the back of so many minds that BP, Transocean, Halliburton and Bill Gates majority owner of Nalco aka Corexit took AWAY.

I can not begin my series of articles on the illnesses to come, until I speak of Kindra and David Arnesen and what they have endured. These “accidental” activists did not want the spotlight they wanted their lives back. They wanted justice, not just for their family but for every family that suffered similar fates all along the Gulf.

The Arnesen family lived for 2 years with reporters in their home and a consistent barrage of spotlight into their everyday lives. They did not receive any compensation for their “advocacy,” at one time in the midst of their nightmare a famous talk show host offered to buy them a new home. Kindra, being the woman that she is said “NO.” That was a first according to the reporter.

She and David gave generously of their time, boat, gas and money and the lives of their children in order to show the world what BP and the Corporate Dynasties did to their community. They did this only to help others that were suffering, and for all of the communities that were impacted by the largest maritime disaster in the history of the United States of America. They wanted their piece of heaven cleaned up and they wanted the US to stop spraying those dispersants.

When David Arnesen first went out on to the water, after the Gulf Massacre, every person on that boat and the vessels around him were vomiting and sick. There are days where he wakes up not feeling well and I noted that many of the residents of Plaquemines symptoms become more acute at sundown. Sun-downers syndrome is a very real phenomenon in hospitals and with many Chemically Toxic people that includes people with Alzheimer's and episodes of confusion.

They weathered Katrina, walking the perimeter of their slice of heaven home that they rebuilt, I was astounded by the magnitude of the work that they did. Kindra talked, “If you look up to that window (she pointed to the second story window of her home) below the window is how far up that water came." She went on to add, "We rebuilt a brick home that was practically gutted to what it is now. We rebuilt our lives then after Katrina, fishing was great and we were able to move forward to live our lives once again. We learned how to evacuate, the people of my town and David knew how to evacuate, why did they not evacuate this place after the BP Disaster?”

With solemnity and reverence to two human beings and their family I was able to look into Kindra and David's blue sparkling eyes. Sitting alone with David one morning in the Arnesen's comfortable den, adorned with photos of their children and their lives, I listened. David's eyes welled up with tears that traveled down his bronze, strong cheek bones when he spoke of the future, “I don't know if I am going to see my children grow up. They tried to take away everything, including my health. Every day my throat gets sore when the prevailing winds blow out of the southwest, my eyes burn. I wake up nauseated some days.”

“I have been doing this (commercial fishing) for 35 years of my life my father was a commercial fishermen well into his 80's I always thought it would be my work for my entire life and there is nothing else that I want to do.” When I asked him about the workforce programs that are being offered (and other fishermen) the resounding question was “If BP made it so good and if everything is okay why are we offered Workforce programs? What is it that the States know that they are not admitting?” David was forthcoming when he spoke of his thoughts in regard to the red tape and the ridiculous rules that were placed on commercial fishermen. His statements were corroborated by others in my journey along the Gulf.

Kindras' sparkling, beautiful blue eyes welled up at times when she spoke of her love for her family, her Parish and her husband. “At night I reach over to see if he is still breathing, David still has discharge coming from his ears and his breathing is not good he is suffering from Chemical Toxicity, some days are good and others are not good at all.” We were in a restaurant the day of our departure, when she began reading a statement that she sent to Bridge the Gulf for a quote, she couldn't finish reading it and I took the text, finished reading it out loud while she, Theresa and I cried. On our trip to a local graveyard Kindra showed us dates and plots and empty graves that were never recovered. “We have a reverence for our dead here, when I am attending at least a funeral a month here…then someone is not looking at the reality of what we are going through.”

The stark reality is that this reporter who loves her Gulf of Mexico, saw a whole lot of early, young deaths in the obituaries and on those grave markers.

Kindra has learned to live with being chemically toxic herself. She looks after her community as much as she can and will be the first to talk to a friend and hold them and a sick child. I watched how she greeted people in her community. She knew their names no matter their color or social standing and Theresa and I in turn I accepted and treated like one of the family. In my trip I was honored to talk to other commercial fishermen and women and residents of Bures and Venice that were chemically ill, I was honored to have them share their stories that will be forthcoming in future articles.

Kindra Arnesen and Trisha Springstead

I only had to spend time with them to see the love that permeates their lives. When I see them together and watch them look at their family I can feel nothing but love for them and respect. The story of how Kindra and David met was a heart rendering story. As she told Theresa and I her story in her mix of Southern Cajun dialect and her passion with words, I was mesmerized. The pride that she feels for her husband and family touched off a tinge of bittersweet envy in that I have not seen that lifelong love with a mate. The words that are expressed by David and Kindra are palpable and in the softness of the moment you can truly feel their words.

The unfortunate fact is that due to work that David and Kindra have done for their community and for the love of their Gulf have left them isolated from some local people, that they have known their whole lives. They have been outcasted by people that they knew, loved and trusted. One thing is that anyone who outcasted them lost some real friends. Kindra and David who would have loved them and accepted unconditionally, if they would not have turned their backs on them. The double edged sword is as Kindra stated, “the loss of connections from over the years has taken it’s toll on our friendships and family.” To this day Kindra shakes her in disbelief at that. It is difficult to see the people that she loved every day, only to be talked over her and be ignored.

The Double Edged Sword is that people who loved their lives in the impact zones and who lived there all of their lives, must co exist with the oil companies, refineries and polluters. I too, after spending time outdoors had burning eyes and a sore throat but I was at least able to get out of that region and come home. The Double Edged Sword is that these people are chemically toxic and have no physicians but for a few in the whole of Louisiana and practically none all over the Gulf to care for them. They are diagnosed as drug seekers, fakers or people who are just out to cash in on a windfall.

It has been estimated that thousands will go out of the Impact zones in a box often at a young age.

That sword needs to be sharpened and its fine blades must pierce the truth so that anyone who needs help and anyone who was impacted needs recompense and the needs are great. They also need clinics filled with compassionate health care providers. Finally and lastly these people need to be made whole that is the least we can do for these people.

Photos by Theresa Graff and Trisha Springstead with love to all the People of the Gulf.

Trisha Springstead, RN, MBS has worked in many areas of medicine and research and has worked with the people impacted by the Gulf Oil Spill and continues to fight to expose and help those suffering with illnesses in the Gulf. It has been proven that oil mixed with Corexit and industrial solvents, PAH's, impact the effects of the toxicity oil on humans, animals. The devastation to our ecosystem and environment have been highly explored and documented. The work of many before her has taught Trisha so very much, including her integrative health consultant, Dr. Wilma Subra, Dr. Riki Ott, Dr. Michael Robicheaux, MaryLee Orr, Dr. Paul Sammarco, Dr. Ira. Leifer , Dr. Linda Hooper-Bui. Dahr Jamail, and all of the people who suffer from exposure to these dangerous chemicals and the bacterial organisms.

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Disclaimer:

This article contains general information about medical conditions and treatments. The information is not advice, and should not be treated as such. If you have any specific questions about any medical matter you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. If you think you may be suffering from any medical condition you should seek immediate medical attention.

FIVE YEARS AFTER THE BP OIL DISASTER: A BARRIER ISLAND FOR NESTING BIRDS DEVOID OF LIFE

 by Julie Dermansky on April 19, 2015

Cat Island, off the Gulf Coast in Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish, was home to a vibrant bird rookery inhabited by brown pelicans, seagulls, spoonbills, and egrets before BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Five years after the largest oil spill in American history, the barrier island has just about disappeared.

Despite ongoing efforts by former Plaquemines Parish coastal zone manager PJ Hahn to restore the island, only the needed building permits and an engineering plan have been completed.

“Cat Island was ground zero of the oil spill,” Hahn told DeSmogBlog.

Read more at: http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/04/19/five-years-after-bp-oil-disaster-barrier-island-nesting-birds-devoid-life

Photo by Julie Dermansky