From Louisiana to Florida, growing proof that oil and dispersants remain in Gulf
In the past few weeks, independent scientists, fishermen, journalists, and advocates have taken testing of Gulf waters, sand, and seafood into their own hands. The results prove that the Gulf still has dangerous levels of oil and toxic dispersants from the BP disaster, despite claims from federal agencies and BP.
Here is a state by state overview of some of these investigations.
If you have others stories to contribute, please add a comment below.
Photo Credit: Louisiana Environmental Action Network.
Louisiana
Independent tests find oil spill contamination in Louisiana oysters and crabs
August 31st, Facing South.
"Working with the Louisiana Environmental Acti
on Netwo rk (LEAN) and the Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper, award-winning chemist Wilma Subra took samples of soil, vegetation, blue crabs, fiddler crabs and oysters in areas affected by pollution from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill...
The test results showed the presence of hydrocarbons corresponding to those from the spill in the soil and vegetation.... Hydrocarbon exposure has been linked to health problems including disorders of the nervous and immune systems, blood, liver, kidneys and lungs, as well as cancer."
Lab Results Raise New Concerns Over Gulf Seafood
August 31st, AOL News.
"'Why on Aug. 9 did we find on a relatively concentrated pool of dispersant on the surface, well outside where the dispersant was going to be sprayed? It shouldn't have been there,' [Marco] Kaltofen [president of Boston Chemical Data Corp.] told AOL News."
Watch Mr. Kaltofen explain why dispersants mixed with oil are more harmful than just crude oil (from Florida Oil Spill Law).
Also see related story in the Press Register.
Photos: Oil And Chemical Dispersant Corexit All Over Barataria Bay
August 30th, Alexandra Higgins Blog
"Today we were taking several types on samples from the Bay including bottom and top water samples adjacent to oiled shorelines including thick orange oil stirred up from the bay bottom, water column samples from different levels in deeper waters near Four Bayou Pass, more samples of sheen and dispersant related foam, and beach samples from an island I have visited several times about 4 miles east of Grand Isle which has never been cleaned."
Mississippi
Despite "All Clear," Mississippi Sound Tests Positive for Oil
August 29th, Truthout.
"On August 19, Truthout accompanied two commercial fishermen from Mississippi on a trip into the Mississippi Sound in order to test for the presence of submerged oil. Laboratory test results from samples taken on that trip show extremely high concentrations of oil in the Mississippi Sound."
Alabama
Cotton Bayou tests positive for dispersants.
August 19th, WKRG News (via Florida Oil Spill Law)
Alabama and Florida
Corexit in Florida and Alabama Waters 8/24/2010
August 24th, Project Gulf Impact
Raw footage of oil and dispersant plumes.
Florida
Florida family made sick by corexit in swimming pool.
August 30th, Florida Oil Spill Law.
“'Our heads are still swimming,' stated Barbara Schebler of Homosassa, Florida, who received word last Friday that test results on the water from her family’s swimming pool showed 50.3 ppm of 2-butoxyethanol, a marker for the dispersant Corexit 9527A used to break up and sink BP’s oil in the Gulf of Mexico....
BP Press Officer Daren Beaudo released a statement on August 28 that reads, 'Unified Command records indicate that the last date of use of the Corexit 9527 was May 22,' almost three months before the samples were taken from the pool.
Yet, the Schebler’s report is the second time in the last 10 days that the 2-butoxyethanol marker for Corexit 9527A has been discovered near the Gulf."