January 2011
21 posts
Upcoming events scheduled for St. Bernard Parish...
By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, The Times-Picayune~ Jan 26, 2011 St. Bernard Parish residents who have experienced income or job loss due to the Gulf oil spill have two upcoming opportunities to express grievances, and possibly obtain up to $5,000 for job-related training. Residents can attend a meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Islenos Museum, 1357 Bayou Road in lower St. Bernard, to learn about...
National Oil Spill Commission urges research on...
by Times_Picayune Staff Jan. 15, 2011 EPA Administrator Lisa Perez Jackson, who grew up in New Orleans, came under a lot of criticism for her on-the-fly decision approving the use of dispersants in unprecedented volume and at an unprecedented depth to help break up the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last summer. It was the first-ever subsea application of dispersants, and Louisiana officials...
Public comment deadline on $2.9 billion...
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times Picayune The Army Corps of Engineers has extended the public comment period until Feb. 14 for its draft environmental impact statement and feasibility study that describes the $2.9 billion plan to restore the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet ecosystem. The restoration plan includes a new freshwater diversion near Violet; restoration of cypress swamp in wetlands...
Forum on the 5th: Health Effects of Gulf Oil...
Forum Saturday, February 5th, 2011 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m ◊ First Unitarian Church 5212 S. Claiborne. New Orleans, LA 70115 Principle Speaker - Dr. Wilma Subra, Louisiana Environmentalist. Interviewed recently in the award winning documentary “Gasland”. Will report on recent tests results on the Gulf Coast. In independent testing, residents of the Gulf Coast are...
Natural gas leak reported at offshore platform in...
By The Associated Press ~ nola.com Jan 18,2011 Federal authorities are monitoring a natural gas leak at an offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said Tuesday the platform is located about 93 miles south of Lake Charles in about 173 feet of water. Authorities said the platform has not been in production for nearly a decade —...
Evaluation of the Results of Whole Blood Volatile...
By Wilma Subra ~Subra Company Technical Advisor to Louisiana Environmental Action Network/ 01.18.2011 Whole blood samples were collected from 12 individuals between the ages of 10 and 66 on September 13 and 27, 2010, November 1, 22 and 29, 2010 and December 6, 2010. The individuals consisted of 10 and 11 year old males, four adult males and six adult females. The individuals were male and female...
Berms and boom were largely ineffective responses...
by Johnathan Tilove ~ nola.com About of a third of the way through the National Oil Spill Commission’s 400-page report, there is a 43-page chapter on the oil spill response and containment efforts that suggests that berms and boom were pretty much a bust, collecting more headlines than oil. Along the way, the report also casts a rather unflattering light on Louisiana officialdom, singling...
Oil spill panel recommends tighter rules, money...
By Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin Tuesday, January 11, 2011; 11:00 AM The presidential oil-spill commission said Tuesday that the federal government should require tougher regulation, stiffer fines and a new industry-run safety organization, in its final report released as part of an effort to prevent a repeat of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year The report suggests...
Failure in the Gulf
The New York Times Editorial~Jan. 6, 2011 The document released Wednesday by the presidential commission investigating last spring’s oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico is a riveting and chilling indictment of “systemic failures” throughout the oil business and of the federal agencies that allowed themselves to be captured by the people they were supposed to regulate. The commission will offer...
National Oil Spill Commission says oil drillers...
By Jonathan Tilove ~ nola.com ~ Jan. 11, 11 The National Oil Spill Commission called Tuesday on Congress to create an independent safety agency to oversee oil drilling, raise the $75 million oil spill liability cap and dedicate 80 percent of any Clean Water Act penalties paid by BP to restoring the Gulf Coast. The commission also called on the oil industry to create its own “Safety...
Shocking human poison levels in latest Gulf tests
January 6th, 2011 10:42 pm ET While Dr. Soto and Wilma Subra of Subra Company are finding shocking levels of poisons in each individual they test, Gregg Hall, who tested with VOC levels “off the chart” and lost feeling in his feet, recovered those feelings only one month after leaving the Gulf Coast. As long as the masses continue to breathe the gulf air, drink the water and...
Broad reforms needed, national Oil Spill...
by Jonathan Tilove~ Jan. 10, 11 ~ nola.com Six months after its first meeting in New Orleans, the federal Oil Spill Commission looking into the BP oil spill disaster will present its final findings and recommendations Tuesday morning at the National Press Club. The commission is expected to unveil a broad reform agenda, calling on the industry to dramatically step up its commitment to safety on...
Crowd grows angry during Ken Feinberg's meeting in...
by Bill Capo / Eyewitness News/ wltv.com 01/10/2011 BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. — On a cold day in Bay St. Louis, oil spill claims czar Ken Feinberg got a chilly reception. A large crowd of people voiced their anger over the way they were treated by the process designed to provide emergency help. “I’m telling you ma’am, I’m very sympathetic to you,” Feinberg said....
Louisiana officials: Parts of coastline still...
By the CNN Wire Staff ~ Jan 8, 2011 (CNN) — More than eight months after an oil rig explosion launched the biggest oil disaster in U.S. history, Louisiana officials say they’re still finding thick layers of oil along parts of the state’s coastline. “Every day, this shoreline is moving inland,” lessening flood protection for residents, Plaquemines Parish President...
Governor's coastal restoration advisory commission...
By Mark Schleifstein ~ Times Picayune Staff ~ nola.com The executive director of the new federal-state Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force will brief Louisiana’s Governor’s Advisory Commission on Coastal Restoration, Protection and Conservation this morning on its plans for determining how best to restore coastal ecosystems from the effects of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig...
Oil rig blowout stemmed from systemic management...
by David Hammer, The Times Picayune ~ nola.com The president’s Oil Spill Commission has concluded that systemic failures, not a rogue BP management style, caused the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout in April. “The blowout was not the product of a series of aberrational decisions made by rogue industry or government officials that could not have been anticipated or expected to...
BP claims administrator to hold town hall meetings...
by Paul Rioux_ The Times Picayune Nola.com BP claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg will hold two town hall meetings next week in lower Jefferson Parish where he will undoubtedly get an earful from frustrated oil-spill victims. Feinberg, who oversees BP’s $20 billion claims fund, accepted Parish President John Young’s invitation to hold hourlong meetings Monday in Grand Isle and...
Evaluation of the Results of Whole Blood Volatile...
Louisiana Environmental Action Network & Lower Mississippi RIVERKEEPER© By Wilma Subra ~ Jan 5, 2010
Subra Company Samples of blood were collected on December 16, 2010, from four males, age 3, 36, 42 and 43, and one female, age 38. The individuals tested were a diver who came in contact with the BP spill chemicals, individuals who visited the coastal communities and wetlands,...
Results of sampling performed by the Lower...
by Wilma Subra, Subra Company; Paul Orr, Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper; and Michael Orr, Louisiana Environmental Action Network
Jan. 3, 2011
In response to the BP Oil Disaster, the Lower Mississippi River Keeper (LMRK), Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN), and Subra Company have performed monitoring, sampling and analysis of the environment and seafood in the coastal estuaries and...
Gulf of Mexico oil spill continues to foul 168...
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times Picayune/Nola.com Louisiana’s coastline continues to be smeared with significant amounts of oil and oiled material from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, with cleanup teams struggling to remove as much as possible of the toxic material by the time migratory birds arrive at the end of February, said the program manager of the Shoreline Cleanup and Assessment...
For bayou tribe, new year brings only uncertainty-...
by Kari Huus ~ MSN.COM Holidays in the bayou are different this year, says Laura Billiot. Maybe the biggest difference was what wasn’t on the table for Christmas dinner — seafood. Like many in the Native American Houma Nation, Billiot and her husband have long harvested shrimp and oysters from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, both for food and income. But just over five months after the BP...