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Today, Gulf Looks Fine, But Wait Until The Next One Hits

Today, Gulf Looks Fine, But Wait Until The Next One Hits

Five years after the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up, the Chandeleur Islands look alive off the coast of Louisiana.

The beaches are sugary white and unstained by oil. The water is green and full of fish. Birds are everywhere — laughing gulls, willets, terns, skimmers, egrets, oyster catchers, and herons.

A rookery that some feared would be annihilated by the spill is thriving, the mangroves bobbing with hundreds of pelicans, old and young.

It’s glorious to see, yet also deceiving. For 87 straight days in 2010, crude oil gushed nearby from a broken well in the Gulf of Mexico — 172 million gallons, according to the U.S. government, though nobody really knows how much.

And nobody can say how much of it remains in the water. Most of the oil has likely dissolved or evaporated, but panels of scientists assert that millions of gloppy gallons still spatter the sea floor.

The Chandeleurs, a crescent barrier chain that’s part of the Breton National Wildlife Refuge, were among the first to get oiled after the BP blowout. It was also the first place where dying sea birds were found.

A six-foot sand berm was hastily constructed to contain the oil at the northernmost Chandeleurs. Whether it was because of that, the tides or favorable winds, the islands were not hit as brutally as some coastal areas.

Seeing all this life on the water at sunrise, one can’t be blamed for thinking everything’s fine, pretty much back to normal. That’s what you hear from BP, too, but it’s not entirely true.

Since the spill, bottle-nosed dolphins have been dying at about three times the normal rate in the northern Gulf. Deep-water corals have shown lasting damage. Oil traced to the BP blowout has been found in the livers of red snapper and tilefish. Unexplained lesions and tumors have been observed in bottom-dwelling fish.

BP says the seafood taken from the Gulf is safe to eat, and tests much lower for oil residues than is required by the Food and Drug Administration.

The oil giant has spent a fortune cleaning up its image and the mess in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, including $13.7 billion in claims and settlements. The company says its drilling operations are much safer now.

Because the whole world got to watch the Deepwater Horizon disaster live — literally streaming — politicians who favored more offshore exploration retreated temporarily. They were counting on Americans to have a short memory.

Then, in January, the Obama administration proposed a plan that would open offshore oil leases in the Atlantic Ocean, from Virginia to Georgia. Ten new leases would also be granted in the Gulf of Mexico; one is in the eastern zone near Florida, where opposition to coastal drilling traditionally has been fierce.

Yet, except for criticism from environmental groups, there hasn’t been a loud public outcry over Obama’s plan in Florida, or in any of the states with tourist economies that depend on clean, untarred beaches.

Virginia’s two U.S. senators, both Democrats, praised the president’s drilling program, saying it “should result in the safe, responsible development of energy resources.”

Because big oil companies never screw up, right?

Apparently, five years is the political probation period after a man-made catastrophe. Obama has moved to allow seismic testing for possible offshore oil and gas reserves all the way from Delaware to Cape Canaveral.

The process involves the staccato firing of big compressed air guns deep in the ocean over periods of weeks. Prominent scientists from Duke, Cornell and other institutions say the method poses a “significant threat to marine life.”

In a rare display of attentiveness, Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection last month wrote to the feds, seeking postponement of seismic permits until more is known about how the blasting air guns affect whales, fish and sea turtles. (Negatively would be a good guess).

On a boat in the Chandeleurs, under a sky filled with birds, it’s tempting to marvel at nature’s rebound and push aside the dreadful images from the spring of five years ago.

There are no obvious signs of the BP spill here. Even the protective berm is gone, obliterated by Hurricane Isaac in 2012.

Yet the truth is that terrible damage was done by that 87-day flood of oil into the Gulf, and many communities suffered immensely. Since then, numerous spills have occurred both on land and in water in this country, none of them on the scale of the Deepwater Horizon but still a signal for extreme caution.

Nobody knows when the next big ocean blowout will happen.

Everything out there looks just fine.

Until one day it isn’t.

(Carl Hiaasen is a columnist for The Miami Herald. Readers may write to him at: 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, FL, 33132.)

Photo: In this April 21, 2010 file image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, File)

Drilling In Atlantic Raises Alarm

Drilling In Atlantic Raises Alarm

As a monster storm roared up the northeastern seaboard last week, the White House announced plans to open a wide swath of offshore waters to gas and oil exploration. Nice timing.

Although drilling is years away, future rigs in the Atlantic would lie in the path not only of fierce winter clippers but also hurricanes, presenting the year-round potential for devastating winds and pounding seas.

The risk doesn’t trouble the oil companies or the governors of Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas, all eager for a piece of the action.

Already the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe of 2010 is a fading memory, except for the families of the 11 workers who died and the hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents whose lives were upended.

We’re told that the BP disaster was a jarring wake-up for the energy industry. Today the drilling technology is much better, the companies boast, and so are the safety measures.

Trust us, they say. Something that terrible can’t happen again.

Which is what they said after the tanker Exxon Valdez dumped its load in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, polluting a thousand miles of shoreline. Twenty-six years later, there’s still crusted oil on the beaches.

After the BP rig blew up off the Louisiana coast, crude oil gushed for almost three months before the company could cap the pipe. Day after day, underwater video cameras let the whole nauseated country watch the poisoning of the Gulf of Mexico.

Nobody knows how much oil really leaked out, but BP’s early estimates proved absurdly (and predictably) low. The U.S. government says the amount was at least 210 million gallons, much of which is still suspended as a spectral goo somewhere in the depths, according to many experts.

Tar-balled beaches from the Mississippi to the Florida Panhandle have been cleaned, groomed and re-cleaned to make them presentable to tourists, but the Gulf still shows signs of sickness.

In the time since the spill, marine biologists have documented more than 900 dead bottle-nosed dolphins and 500 dead sea turtles — and those are just the corpses that were found. Infant dolphins continue dying at a suspiciously elevated rate.

While some prized species of Gulf fish seem to be rebounding, life-threatening deformities are occurring in the organs of tuna and amberjack. A University of Miami study found that larval and juvenile mahi exposed to Deepwater crude were much weaker, losing up to 37 percent of their swimming strength.

The possibility of a similar calamity along the eastern seaboard hasn’t deterred the Obama administration or politicians in the lower coastal states, but it’s scaring many oceanfront municipalities with economies that rely on clean beaches and healthy, abundant seafood.

And scared they should be. One blowout is all it takes.

Fortunately, Florida was spared from Obama’s offshore-lease plan, thanks to Sen. Bill Nelson and others who don’t suffer from Deepwater Horizon amnesia.

Energy-industry lobbyists insist that oil spills are extremely rare, but that’s not true. According to the Associated Press, at least 73 domestic pipeline-related spills happened in 2014, an 87 percent jump since 2009.

Two weeks ago, a pipeline broke near Glendive, Mont., spewing more than 50,000 gallons of crude into the Yellowstone River and contaminating the public water supply. A similar accident happened less than four years earlier, when an ExxonMobil pipeline ruptured and dumped 63,000 gallons into the Yellowstone near the town of Laurel.

Those spills weren’t on the nightmare scale of Exxon Valdez or the Deepwater Horizon, yet they jolted the rural communities that treasure the Yellowstone and depend on it for irrigation, drinking water and family recreation.

(Boosters of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry foreign-bound Canadian oil through Montana and elsewhere, say recent mishaps demonstrate a need for larger, more modern pipes.)

Major ocean spills don’t happen often, but the damage is long term and far reaching. If a major well ruptured off the Atlantic seaboard, the resulting spill could impact millions of residents by killing tourism and destroying vital fisheries.

Obama said the rig platforms must be at least 50 miles from land, not much of a comfort zone. The Deepwater Horizon was about the same distance offshore, and that wasn’t enough to spare the beaches or the marine life.

At the same time the president declared his intention to allow oil leases in the Atlantic and expand exploration of the Gulf, he said he will prohibit drilling in parts of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas in the Arctic Ocean.

These areas, explained Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, “are simply too special to develop.”

That’s another way of admitting that drilling is still very risky.

The shorelines of Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas evidently aren’t “special” enough to deserve protection.

Carl Hiaasen is a columnist for The Miami Herald. Readers may write to him at: 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla., 33132.

Photo: Berardo62 via Flickr

Five Years After The Spill: What BP Owes The Gulf Coast

Five Years After The Spill: What BP Owes The Gulf Coast

By David Yarnold, CQ-Roll Call (TNS)

It’s been nearly five years since BP slimed the Gulf Coast, taking the lives of 11 men, wrecking livelihoods and killing tens of thousands of helpless coastal birds. Finally, federal Judge Carl Barbier is heading into the final stretch, deciding how much the third largest oil company in the world will have to pay in pollution fines for the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

It’s time to hold BP accountable for the environmental damage it continues to cause the wildlife and people of the Gulf Coast. The Gulf Coast’s way of life is a rich stew, a place that’s uniquely American, where drilling and shrimping go hand-in-hand. But we also know whether you’re talking about a curfew for your kids or creating a safe construction site, there have to be consequences when rules are blatantly ignored. America’s laws acknowledge that deep sea drilling is risky business that requires extraordinary safety measures — and that’s why there are penalties for lawbreakers.

BP already admitted it broke America’s laws and has pleaded guilty to felony manslaughter, environmental crimes and lying to Congress. One of its executives is awaiting trial on other criminal charges.

While the third and final phase of the civil trial is under way to determine how much BP will have to pay in environmental Clean Water Act penalties, BP continues to employ the big lie strategy: It’s all better. Nothing to see here on the Gulf Coast, folks. Move along.

BP has also been trying to muddy the waters inside the courtroom, but the judge has not been fooled, and neither has the public.

In the previous two rounds of the trial, Barbier found BP “grossly negligent” for its role in the disaster and chastised the British oil corporation for covering up from the very beginning how much oil gushed out of the Deepwater Horizon well during the spring and summer of 2010.

Barbier conceded we may never know precisely how much oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico, writing, “there was no meter counting off each barrel of oil as it exited the well.” He has ruled that expert testimony indicates at least 3.19 billion barrels poured into the currents of the Gulf in the nearly three months before BP managed to cap the well as it should have in the early hours of the crisis.

But we do know that scientists continue to find oil and uncover new damages — from lung disease in dolphins to the destruction of critical wetlands.

To be sure, the long-term environmental damage isn’t as easy to show in pictures and video as those early heartbreaking images of pelicans and herons covered in oily brown goo.

How do you show a “bathtub ring” of oil residue the size of Rhode Island on the floor of the Gulf where deep-water coral has been bleached and stunted? How do you photograph the continuing kills of Louisiana coastal insects that are the primary food for countless birds, fish and other wildlife? How do you show dolphins suffering from reproductive problems?

Even more troubling is the mounting evidence that the damage from the oil spill has accelerated marsh erosion in a place where every square foot of wetland is essential to protect people and wildlife from powerful hurricanes and rising sea levels. The money BP is required to pay under the Clean Water Act will go a long way to helping to preserve and restore coastal areas.

In this final phase of the civil trial, Barbier will consider a range of eight different factors in determining the amount BP should pay. Those issues range from BP’s history of violations to the British oil company’s revenues — its ability to pay the fines.

The most recently totaled numbers show BP was the third largest petroleum company in the world based on just over $440 billion in revenues in 2013. If Barbier rules BP should pay the maximum allowed under law for 3.19 million barrels of spilled oil, the bill will be just under $14 billion.

But times are tough in the oil business, say BP’s attorneys. Barbier surprised them in the first hours of the trial when he asked if a payment plan might ease the pain. Caught off guard, BP’s best and brightest said they’d never considered it.

Holding BP fully accountable for the 2010 Gulf oil disaster is what the law mandates. After five long years, justice is close. The Gulf has waited long enough.

David Yarnold is president and CEO of the National Audubon Society. He wrote this for CQ-Roll Call.

Photo: ideum via Flickr

BP Trial’s Last Phase Begins, Will Determine Penalty For 2010 Oil Spill

BP Trial’s Last Phase Begins, Will Determine Penalty For 2010 Oil Spill

By Julie Cart, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

The slowly unwinding Deepwater Horizon oil spill trial began its final phase Tuesday as a judge in New Orleans considers the record fine that oil giant BP must pay for the well blowout five years ago that killed 11 men and spawned the worst environmental disaster in American history.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier heard arguments from government lawyers and BP, which is liable for fines of up to $13.7 billion for violating the federal Clean Water Act as a result of the April 20, 2010, explosion in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The accident and BP’s efforts to mitigate its effects transfixed a worldwide audience, starting with fireboats, helicopters and an armada of civilian and military vessels mounting a frenzied effort to save a crippled drilling rig that eventually pumped millions of barrels of crude oil into the gulf.

Tar balls washed up on beaches in an arc from Texas to Florida, and Louisiana’s already fragile wetlands were devastated. Untold wildlife deaths were symbolized by photographs of oil-drenched pelicans. Commercial fishing, tourism and public health suffered — most of those costs have been laid at BP’s door.

The Britain-based energy company has aggressively challenged the federal government and often portrayed itself as being victimized by the legal aftermath, complaining that its deep pockets have been drained by false claims.

In other proceedings, BP reached a $4.5 billion criminal settlement with the Justice Department in 2012. That included $525 million paid to the Securities and Exchange Commission for charges the company lied to investors during the spill.

The trial taking place in an elegant federal courthouse is being tried under maritime law with no jury. The judge has wide latitude to structure the proceedings as he wishes. The hugely complex trial has played out in three phases over two years, with each phase focusing on a central issue.

The first phase determined who was to blame for the blowout. The second, highly technical phase attempted to quantify the amount of oil that billowed up from the well bore.

Edward F. Sherman, a law professor at Tulane University, called the spill trial “the most complex court case in modern history.”

From the start, Barbier has kept a tight rein on a case with dozens of moving parts. “The large number of different claimants, death and personal injury, widespread economic loss to whole industries, injuries to landowners _ there a lot going on,” Sherman said. “He’s had a heavy thumb on the case and he’s done a terrific job.”

Over the course of the next three weeks, Barbier will consider a number of factors that apply to the Clean Water Act, including the severity of the spill, who was to blame, the amount of fines the company has already paid, BP’s safety history, and what mitigation efforts it undertook.

In pretrial filings, BP foreshadowed its approach, emphasizing the immensity of the $14 billion cleanup efforts, which included hiring thousands of boats to skim oil from the gulf and thousands more people to rake tar off beaches.

The company said it reserved $43 billion for spill-related costs, which covers an array of associated lawsuits.

Last week, Barbier ruled that 3.19 million barrels of oil poured out of the Macondo well, an estimate that was substantially lower than the government’s and somewhat more than BP claimed.

The figure is crucial to BP because it sets the formula for the fine, which carries a maximum of $4,300 per barrel.

Barbier had ruled that BP had acted with “gross negligence and willful misconduct” in its actions leading up to the explosion, making it liable for the maximum fine.

Whatever fine Barbier levies, it will be the largest environmental penalty ever, and perhaps the largest of any kind. The previous record was $1 billion paid in 2013 by Transocean Ltd., which owned the Deepwater Horizon.

Even though the court case is winding down, legal observers expect BP to appeal whatever decision emerges, likely tacking five more years to the proceedings.

The company still faces scores of claims from private parties and has yet to settle another federal environmental damage claim, which is still being assessed.

Photo: ideum via Flickr