http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/shock-water-sample-exploded-when-chemist-tested-for-oil-most-likely-methane-or-corexit

July 17th, 2010
Share102TOP1K48retweetKids playing in water found to be 221 parts per million oil and walking in sand that is 211 ppm; Normal is ‘none detected’

News 5 Investigates: Testing The Water, WKRG Channel 5 Mobile/Pensacola, July 16, 2010:

More than a week has passed since Alabama’s beaches have seen significant oil… [S]ome swimmers are taking their chances.

News Five collected samples of water and sand from Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, Katrina Key and Dauphin Island. To our eyes, the samples appeared normal…
Newscast Transcript Excerpts:

“When testing for oil… how much would be normal on the beach?”

[Bob Naman, analytical chemist said,] “I wouldn’t think you’d find very much on the beach. there’s no real ‘normal’ amount. normal is ‘none detected.’”… a chemist with nearly thirty years of experience… he wouldn’t expect to see any more than 5 parts per million of the greasy stuff…

Gulf Shores beach water, right where people were swimming, showed 66 parts per million. The sand, where beachgoers are walking, has 211 parts per million.

[Another] sample was a spot in Orange Beach, where again, we found kids playing. and we found our highest content of oil and petroleum. 221 parts per million. …

When Naman added an organic solvent to separate the oil from the water [collected at Dauphin Island Marina, near some boom], just like he did with all the other samples, this sample exploded right in his lab. “It was almost instantaneous. Actually, maybe one second. that’s just weird.” The result surprised even our chemist.

“We think it most likely happened, either due to the presence of methanol, or methane gas. or the presence of the dispersant, Corexit.”

Even if you don’t see oil on the beach or in the water… chances are it’s there. All of our tests from orange beach to Dauphin Island showed an abnormal presence of oil…

News 5 will [again attempt to] test that water [which exploded] for chemicals, specifically chemicals linked to the dispersant… Corexit.

Special thanks to Erika Biddle

From: Audubon of Florida
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:00:02 -0500 (CDT)

Tell Your Friends Send this message to friends and family members. Tell them to help Florida’s birds and wildlife too.

Special Session to Ban Drilling in State Waters

Call on Florida’s Legislature to Let the People Decide

We were all thrilled yesterday with news reports that the BP Deepwater Horizon oil well has been capped. Yet hundreds of millions of gallons of oil are still awash in the Gulf and we need to focus on long-term protection for Florida’s beaches.

Join us in Tallahassee on Tuesday to Ask Legislators for a Constitutional Ban on Drilling in State Waters.

Governor Charlie Crist has called a special session of the State Legislature to craft a permanent ban on oil drilling in state waters and place it on the ballot in November. Crist has proposed amending Florida’s constitution to make our nearshore waters off limits for oil production.

Conservation groups are organizing a Hands Across the Capitol event at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in Tallahassee. Hands Across the Capitol is an extension of Hands Across the Sand. Join us in Tallahassee and then meet with your legislators to urge them to give the people of Florida the power to protect our beaches, ecology and economy.

Tell Your Representatives to Let the People Decide: Amend Florida’s Constitution to Permanently Ban Drilling in Florida’s Waters.

Some legislators argue that Florida already has a ban in general law. Unfortunately, this ban can easily be overturned with legislation. In fact, for the last two years, a coalition of advocates for Florida’s coastal environment and economy have only narrowly staved off the attempts of the oil industry and certain legislators who would open Florida’s nearshore waters to oil drilling.

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster makes it clear that the time has come to permanently ban oil drilling in Florida’s jurisdictional waters. We can act right now to make our beaches safer. Click here to write to your legislator today and come to Tallahassee on Tuesday.

Let’s make sure a Gulf oil disaster never happens again in Florida by permanently banning oil drilling in our state waters. We can win this fight so our children don’t have to.

Bring Your Passion to Tallahassee

Find your state legislators’ info so you can schedule an appointment.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1219829320100712

Seafood, tourism industries feeling pain of spill
* Groups plead their cases before presidential panel on oil (For full spill coverage link.reuters.com/hed87k)

Mon Jul 12, 2010 3:40pm EDT

By Alexandria Sage

NEW ORLEANS, July 12 (Reuters) – Sal Sunseri’s P&J Oyster Company has worked Louisiana waters since 1876, making it the oldest operating oyster processor in the United States.

But the future is grim, he told a presidential panel on Monday, due to the devastating BP Plc (BP.L)(BP.N) spill that has been gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico since late April.
“Due to this unnatural catastrophe in our water, P&J may forever be extinct,” he said.

Sunseri, who has laid off 11 workers, was among a group of speakers from the fishing, seafood and tourism industries sharing stories of loss with the seven-member commission investigating the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Keith Overton, chairman of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, said tourism operators across his state were already suffering even though tar balls had been found only on the Florida Panhandle in the north.

At his company, TradeWinds Island Resorts near St Petersburg, calls from potential customers are down 25 percent, he said.

“These losses have occurred in our area without a single drop of oil reaching our shore,” said Overton.

He implored the panel not to overlook legitimate claims from businesses hit by a public misperception that all Gulf Coast areas should be avoided.

“I think our losses are going to be scrutinized. Give us the benefit of the doubt,” Overton said.

JOBS IN JEOPARDY

President Barack Obama set up the commission with an executive order in late May, a month after a rig drilling a well for BP, the Deepwater Horizon owned by Transocean Ltd (RIGN.VX)(RIG.N), sank after an explosion.

Eleven workers were killed and the damaged well has been spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico from a mile (1.6 km) under the surface. BP is using a containment system to capture some of the oil and hopes to finally plug the leak by mid-August.

Michael Hecht of Greater New Orleans Inc, an economic development agency, warned the panel not to underestimate the damage of a moratorium on deepwater drilling sought by the Obama administration.

“The economic impact from the oil spill itself, however broad and long-lasting, will likely be dwarfed by the impact of the moratorium,” Hecht said.

A drilling freeze threatens 24,000 jobs in Louisiana alone, representing nearly $2 billion in wages, he said.

While commercial fishermen and seafood operators are at risk of losing their livelihoods and way of life due to the spill, the crisis is also hurting sport fishing.

That pastime supports a wide variety of small business, from bait and tackle shops to marinas, charter vessels, hotels, and gas stations, said Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Coastal Conservation, a group that advocates sport fishing.

“If the entire Gulf were closed to recreational fishing from May to August, the region would would lose … $1.1 billion and about 19,000 jobs,” Angers told the panel.

The spill has wreaked havoc on delicate coastal ecosystems, killing birds, sea turtles and dolphins and threatening the spawning season of fish.

Containment and cleanup have taken too long, said Sunseri of P&J Oyster, expressing a common complaint in the area.

“Our livelihoods have been drastically jeopardized,” he said. “I don’t see a future in the oyster business as it once was.”

(Editing by John O’Callaghan) Special thanks to Richard Charter

I personally hope that everyone will suppor this effort to ban oil drilling in Florida; our endangered coral reefs, our beaches, fisheries and tourism economy demand it! DeeVon

Dear Friend:

We urgently need your help.

So do all of Florida’s citizens, our beautiful beaches and our imperiled marine life.

This Tuesday, the Florida Legislature will meet in a Special Session called by Governor Charlie Crist. The Governor is asking our Representatives and Senators to send the voters a proposed constitutional amendment that would permanently ban oil drilling off our coasts. (Governor’s proclamation attached.)

But House leaders are threatening to kill the proposal when they arrive in Tallahassee, denying the voters the right to decide. Here’s a link to a news story that ran today in the Miami Herald and St. Pete Times describing this horrible state of affairs:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/16/1732883/special-session-on-oil-drilling.html#ixzz0tr8OBncO

It is imperative that the Legislature put the drilling ban on the ballot and let the voters decide. We must take action quickly to mobilize our friends, organizations and communities as effectively and visibly as we did last month when more than 40,000 Floridians joined hands at 242 beaches across the State.

There are three things we are asking people to do:

1) Call and write your Florida Representative and Senator and urge them vote yes to place the drilling ban amendment on the ballot.
2) Hold a Hands gathering in front of your State Representative’s district office on Monday and/or Tuesday at Noon (& alert the media). You don’t need 100 people — 10 or more would work just fine.
3) If possible, travel to Tallahassee on July 20th to join Hands Around the Capitol and to lobby legislators during the first day of the special session (see below for more details).

Together we can mobilize tens of thousands of Floridians to persuade the Legislature to do the right thing:

Let the voters decide!

Frank

—
Frank Jackalone
Senior Field Organizing Manager/ FL & PR
Sierra Club
111 Second Avenue, Suite 1001
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
(727)824-8813
frank.jackalone@sierraclub.org

HELP US SEND THIS MESSAGE TO OUR LEGISLATORS:

JOIN HANDS WITH FLORIDIANS AND

LET THE VOTERS DECIDE!!

An important message from Dave Rauschkolb (founder of Hands Across the Sand):

This is the most important week in the battle to keep oil drilling out of Florida’s waters. I am calling on every Floridian who joined hands with us on February 13 and June 26 to join hands once again and do one or all of 3 very important things.

1. Join us this Tuesday, July 20 in Tallahassee for an important gathering to JOIN HANDS (details below.)

2. Take five minutes and call your Legislators at this link. (TALKING POINTS BELOW)
http://myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/myrepresentative.aspx?Address=&City=&Zip5=&

3. Take 2 minutes and write this pre-prepared letter to your legislator at this link.
https://secure3.convio.net/nasaud/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=815

There is no more important thing you can do right now than join hands with us in one or all three of these ways. Help us put the decision to drill in our waters firmly where it belongs, in our hands!! Join hands Florida!! Special thanks to the Coalition of organizations (listed below) which has joined hands to bring this event together.

Very best,

Dave Rauschkolb

A JOINING OF HANDS AT THE CAPITAL IN TALLAHASSEE
FOR THE SPECIAL SESSION ON OIL DRILLING

WHEN: Tuesday, July 20, 2010

WHERE: The Capitol Courtyard (between the old and new Capitol)

Tallahassee, FL

TIME: 11:30 am EST

Please join Crude Awakening, Hands Across The Sand, The Florida Wildlife Federation, 1Sky Florida, Audubon of Florida, Clean Water Action, Emerald Coastkeeper, Defenders of Wildlife, Progress Florida, Save Our Shores! Florida, Sierra Club Florida and other organizations for a Hands at the Capitol Event to ask our legislators to let Florida citizens decide the question – Should drilling be banned from our state territorial waters?

Join us on Tuesday July 20 at 11:30 am EST in the Capitol Courtyard for this important event then stay to visit with your elected representatives to ask them to let the voters decide.

Goal: at least one caravan from EVERY legislative district! Please tell all your supportive friends in Florida!

The Legislature has been called into Special Session on Tuesday, July 20 -23 to consider a Joint Resolution that would place the question of drilling in state waters on the ballot for November. This event will show the statewide support for this ballot initiative. Our message to the legislators is – Let the people decide!!

For more information on this important event, including finding out about places to stay and other events in Tallahassee that week, please go to Crude Awakening’s link –

http://sites.google.com/site/crudeawakeningtally/home/events
or contact Kim Ross at crudeawaketally@gmail.com

To assist Crude Awakening in the lobby portion of the day, please complete the following form to help us better organize: http://bit.ly/9tnuN6

Talking points when calling your Legislators:

Support a Permanent Ban on Oil Drilling in Florida’s Waters

Let the People Decide. Tell your Legislators to put the Oil Drilling Ban on the State Ballot and make the ban on drilling in Florida’s coastal waters permanent.

The oil that has been washing up on Florida’s beaches is a stark example of why oil drilling should never be allowed in Florida’s coastal waters.

While state law limits drilling in Florida waters the Legislature can undo the ban in a matter of days. (At the request of the oil companies they almost did that last year).

To protect Florida’s beaches now and for our children and grandchildren we need to give the people a chance to vote on an amendment banning nearshore drilling on November’s ballot.

Once the people of Florida place this ban in the Constitution, only the people of Florida can remove it.

Friday, July 17th, 2010
by CNN news wire staff
New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) — The verdict Friday: so far, so good. But don’t break out the champagne just yet.

Cautious optimism blossomed after BP stopped the oil gushing from its ruptured undersea well, especially when a top company official reported Friday that pressure within the new well cap was steadily rising.

President Barack Obama, who expects to return to the Gulf Coast in the next few weeks, tempered the good news in remarks Friday morning. He said the new capping stack BP lowered in place this week is successfully containing the oil, but definitive answers won’t be known until the testing and data evaluation are complete.

“I think it’s important that we don’t get ahead of ourselves here,” he said. “You know, one of the problems with having this camera down there is that when the oil stops gushing, everybody feels like we’re done, and we’re not.

“We won’t be done until we actually know that we killed the well and have a permanent solution in place,” he said.

Pressure was up to 6,700 pounds per square inch inside the well’s capping stack, said BP Senior Vice President Kent Wells. The company is looking for a pressure above 8,000, which would indicate that no oil was being forced out through a fresh leak and that the well was undamaged and able to withstand the pressure of the cap.

Video: Obama’s ‘good news’ on oil spill

Video: The leak’s stopped, now what?

Video: BP exec: ‘Too early to celebrate’

Video: Berms good for cleanup? RELATED TOPICS
Gulf Coast Oil Spill
BP
Gulf of Mexico
Two robots trolling the sea floor in the area of the well bore and two others capturing sonar data have not detected any breaching yet, Wells told reporters on a conference call Friday. BP is “encouraged by those results,” he said.

The “well integrity test” began Thursday after two days of delays, first as government scientists scrutinized testing procedures and then as BP replaced a leaking piece of equipment known as a choke line.

The oil stopped gushing out Thursday afternoon, the first time BP has been able to gain control since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded three months ago and triggered the catastrophe.

A series of cameras below the surface clearly showed the halt — a far different scene from the images day after day of a relentless flow.

BP and government engineers and scientists are scrutinizing the test data at six-hour intervals.

The testing could go on for 48 hours. The longer it goes, the better indications are that the well is holding with the custom-made sealing cap.

BP planned a second seismic run Friday to check for a breach in the well. It will take 24 hours to evaluate the seismic tests.

Meanwhile, Wells said work restarted Friday on the drilling of the first of two relief wells, seen as a more permanent way to plug and seal the breached well.

BP cautioned that the oil cutoff, while welcomed, isn’t likely to go beyond the 48 hours.

Valves are expected to open after that to resume siphoning oil to two ships on the surface, the Q4000 and Helix Producer, as government and BP officials assess the data and decide what to do next. Two more ships are due to join them in coming weeks, bringing containment capacity to 80,000 barrels (about 3.4 million gallons) of oil a day, more than high-end estimates of how much oil had been leaking.

“It felt very good to see no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico,” Wells said. He said company officials are “obviously very encouraged” but they are “trying to maintain a strict focus” on remembering the whole purpose of the test, which is to gather data and decide how to proceed.

“I don’t want to create a false sense of excitement,” he said. “We want to move forward and make the right decisions.”

And BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said on CNN’s “Situation Room” that while no leaks were apparent, it’s too early to celebrate.

However, that did not stop Gulf residents from being cautiously optimistic about the leak being stopped.

“See the smile? That’s my reaction,” said Jamie Munoz. “But it’s cautious optimism. Obviously I’m very happy. It’s been our goal for 88 days now. It’s been a long run. But hopefully we get it done right and begin the cleaning. That’s the most important part. Let’s clean up and get our fishermen back to work.”

Retired Adm. Thad Allen, government’s oil response manager, issued a statement saying that it “remains likely” that sending the oil to containment ships will be the avenue officials decide to pursue after the test, until the relief wells are ready.

The relief wells are expected to be completed in August. The second one serves as a backup to the first.