http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/?q=node/7914

California Progress Report

Posted on 02 July 2010
By Zak Smith
Natural Resources Defense Council

As we continue to hear more about animals trapped in the toxic sludge that is the BP oil disaster fall out in the Gulf, NRDC joined a coalition in suing the renamed Minerals Management Service (MMS) – it now styles itself the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (as if rebranding will solve the agency’s problems) – for its failure to comply with our nation’s bedrock environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), when permitting seismic exploration for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico.

Thousands of endangered animals live in the Gulf and are subjected to harassment and injury by seismic exploration in the form of air gun explosions as oil and gas exploration companies search for black gold at the bottom of the Gulf.

BP’s Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill has led to a thorough examination of how safety and environmental laws and regulations have been enforced (or ignored) with respect to oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico and on the outer Continental Shelf generally. Unfortunately, it’s not a pretty picture and uncovering MMS’ record of ignoring basic environmental laws, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, has been disheartening.

The lawsuit we filed yesterday challenges MMS’ practice of approving seismic exploration in the Gulf of Mexico without completing a rigorous environmental review of the activity’s impacts on the environment (including marine mammals) in the form of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). An EIS is so important here because of the real harm to dolphins, whales, and fish that results from seismic exploration.

As NRDC noted even before the current disaster in the Gulf, seismic surveys use some of the loudest underwater sounds generated by humans to explore oil and gas reserves below the ocean floor. Day and night, for days and months at a time, thousands of square nautical miles of the Gulf are inundated with high-intensity sound pulses – billions of times more intense than noise levels known to compromise basic life functions of marine mammals and fish – such as feeding, breeding, navigating, and communicating.

With impacts so profound, there is no good excuse as to why MMS has not completed an EIS for seismic exploration – it’s doing one for the same activities planned to take place off the Atlantic Coast and the National Marine Fisheries Service says that one is necessary for the Gulf of Mexico. Knowing that laziness and bowing to the wishes of the oil industry are not legal defenses – at least not yet – how will MMS justify its failure to comply with America’s most fundamental environmental law?

But regardless of why MMS has failed to prepare an EIS, it must do so now so that the public and decision makers will have a better understanding of how seismic exploration continues to harm marine animals that are already struggling to survive in the wake of the BP disaster. With oil blanketing Gulf shores – destroying wildlife, habitat, fisheries, local economies, and ways of life that have been passed down for generations – shouldn’t we have a full reckoning of the impacts that oil and gas activities have on the environment, measured from the start, before oil is even found (when our government allows explosive noise to inundate Gulf waters, harming whales and endangered fish), to the end, when oil flows from the ocean floor to refineries and eventually into our cars? I think so, and hope this lawsuit plays a part in ensuring that understanding.

While our lawsuit focuses on MMS’ refusal to comply with NEPA for seismic exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, the outcome of the lawsuit is important to other areas of the outer Continental Shelf. Currently, there are no federal waters on the outer Continental Shelf that are safe from this destructive seismic exploration. If an oil company wants to conduct seismic exploration off the coast of California, it can.

And if MMS followed the same practice it has in the Gulf of Mexico when approving the activity, it could do so without completing a full environmental review, neglecting to analyze the impacts to California’s spectacular populations of whales and dolphins. But by compelling MMS to comply with the law in the Gulf of Mexico, we can help ensure that the agency will comply with the law wherever it approves this harmful activity.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-bad-news-for-bp-as-arsenic-levels-rise-around-gulf-of-mexico/story-e6frf7jo-1225888311592

Herald Sun
Last Updated: July 07, 2010

AFP
July 06, 2010 7:35AM

BELEAGUERED energy giant BP was hit with further bad news this morning as it emerged dangerous arsenic levels have been found in seawater around the Gulf of Mexico.

British scientists warned that the oil spill is increasing the level of arsenic in the ocean, and could further add to the devastating impact on the already sensitive environment.

BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig has been spilling between 3,681,500 litres and 911,454,000 litres of oil into the sea per day since it exploded on April 22.

The spill is already being labeled as America’s worst environmental disaster and has turned into a economic and PR nightmare for the British company.

Seventy-five days into the spill, the oil has fouled some 715km of shoreline in four southeastern US states, killed wildlife and put a massive dent in the region’s multi-billion-dollar fishing industry.

The clean-up operation, which has already cost, $US3.12 billion ($3.7 billion), is expected to rise even further after efforts were hampered by technical setbacks to cap the leak and adverse weather conditions.

In a further blow, an operation to permanently cap the ruptured well on the seafloor far below the surface cannot begin until engineers finish drilling relief wells, in mid-August at the earliest.
Imperial College London researchers warned the effect on the environment could worsen unless clean up efforts were hastened.

Researchers published a study which found oil stops the ocean’s natural filtering process of arsenic.
They said the arsenic then gets “magnified” up the food chain, as fish eat small amounts of the deadly poison and may eventually impact humans, researchers said.

Professor Mark Sephton said arsenic, which is found in seawater, was normally filtered out of the ocean when it combined with sediment on the sea floor.

“But oil spills stop the normal process because the oil combines with sediment and it leads to an accumulation of arsenic in the water over time,” he said.

“Arsenic only needs to be a 10th of a part per billion to cause problems.”

He added: “Our study is a timely reminder that oil spills could create a toxic ticking time bomb, which could threaten the fabric of the marine ecosystem in the future.”

Prof Sephton called for a comprehensive mapping of arsenic levels around the world which would allow authorities to consider banning oil drilling in areas with dangerous levels of arsenic.

The findings were published this month in the journal Water Research.

The warnings come after Hurricane Alex sparked a five-day shutdown, raising new questions over how BP would pay for the mounting costs.

Meanwhile, cleanup workers arrived back on Grand Isle, Louisiana by the hundreds, spilling off school buses that shuttled them in from around the state with one worker claiming it’s the most oil he had seen so far.

However, while skimming operations resumed in Louisiana, rough seas kept vessels tied up in harbour in three other southeastern US states and no controlled burns were being carried out.
Skimming was suspended last week as Tropical Storm Alex, which later became the first Atlantic hurricane of the 2010 season, entered the Gulf.

BP is now pinning its hopes on the giant Taiwanese supertanker A Whale exponentially boosting the amount of oil and water mix being scooped up from the surface of the gulf.

The tanker should be able to vacuum up 78.75m litres of oily water a day, separate it and spit the seawater back out.

Tests on the 275-metre tanker-turned-skimmer were expected to be completed by Monday before officials decide whether to deploy it.

It also emerged last night that BP is now turning to rival oil groups and sovereign wealth funds to fend off a possible hostile takeover bid.

The National, an Emirati newspaper based in Abu Dhabi, reported that sovereign wealth funds in the oil-rich Middle East have proposed making a strategic investment in BP, which has pledged to place $US20 billion ($A23.74 billion) in an escrow account to pay for the cleanup in the Gulf.

The firms were also allegedly mulling buying key assets from BP and financially backing any capital the oil company might plan to raise after the British energy giant lost over half of its stock market value and saw its shares plunge in the wake of the disaster.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meanwhile expanded the area closed to fishing in the Gulf beyond the current northwestern boundary off Louisiana, bringing to the closure to 210,258 square kilometres or 33.5 per cent of the Gulf’s federal waters.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/02/national/main6640388.shtml

July 2, 2010 New Orleans
(CBS/AP) BP and the Obama administration face mounting complaints that they are ignoring foreign offers of equipment and making little use of the fishing boats and volunteers available to help clean up what may now be the biggest spill ever in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Coast Guard said there have been 107 offers of help from 44 nations, ranging from technical advice to skimmer boats and booms. But many of those offers are weeks old, and only a small number have been accepted, with the vast majority still under review, according to a list kept by the State Department.

And in recent days and weeks, for reasons BP has never explained, many fishing boats hired for the cleanup have done a lot of waiting around.

A report prepared by investigators with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., detailed one case in which the Dutch government offered April 30 to provide four oil skimmers that collectively could process more than 6 million gallons of oily water a day. It took seven weeks for the U.S. to approve the offer.

Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Thursday scorned the idea that “somehow it took the command 70 days to accept international help.”

“That is a myth,” he declared, “that has been debunked literally hundreds of times.”

He said 24 foreign vessels were operating in the Gulf before this week. He did not specifically address the Dutch vessels.

The help is needed. Based on some government estimates, more than 140 million gallons of crude have now spewed from the bottom of the sea since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, eclipsing the 1979-80 disaster off Mexico that had long stood as the worst in the Gulf.

One possible option for the government is a huge new piece of equipment: the world’s largest oil-skimming vessel, which arrived Wednesday.

Officials hope the ship can scoop up to 21 million gallons of oil-fouled water a day. Dubbed the “A Whale,” the Taiwanese-flagged former tanker spans the length of 3½ football fields and is 10 stories high.

It just emerged from an extensive retrofitting to prepare it specifically for the Gulf, but it’s still waiting for the Environmental Protection Agency and Coast Guard to sign off on it’s use.

“It is absolutely gigantic. It’s unbelievable,” said Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University environmental studies professor who consults for the federal government on oil spills. He saw the ship last week in Norfolk, Va.

The vessel looks like a typical tanker, but it takes in contaminated water through 12 vents on either side of the bow. The oil is then supposed to be separated from the water and transferred to another vessel. The water is channeled back into the sea.

But the ship’s never been tested, and many questions remain about how it will operate. For instance, the seawater retains trace amounts of oil, even after getting filtered, requiring the EPA to sign off on allowing the treated water back into the Gulf.

“This is a no-brainer,” Overton said. “You’re bringing in really dirty, oily water and you’re putting back much cleaner water.”

The Coast Guard will have the final say in whether the vessel can operate in the Gulf. The owner, shipping firm TMT Group, will have to come to separate terms with BP, which is paying for the cleanup.

“I don’t know whether it’s going to work or not, but it certainly needs to be given the opportunity,” Overton said.

Meanwhile, more than 2,000 smaller boats have signed up for oil-spill duty under BP’s Vessel of Opportunity program. The company pays boat captains and their crews a flat fee based on the size of the vessel, ranging from $1,200 to $3,000 a day, plus a $200 fee for each crew member who works an eight-hour day.

Rocky Ditcharo, a shrimp dock owner in Buras, La., said many fishermen hired by BP have told him that they often park their boats on the shore while they wait for word on where to go.

“They just wait because there’s no direction,” Ditcharo said. He said he believes BP has hired many boat captains “to show numbers.”

“But they’re really not doing anything,” he added. He also said he suspects the company is hiring out-of-work fishermen to placate them with paychecks.

Chris Mehlig, a fisherman from Louisiana’s St. Bernard Parish, said he is getting eight days of work a month, laying down containment boom, running supplies to other boats or simply being on call dockside in case he is needed.

“I wish I had more days than that, but that’s the way things are,” he said.

Billy Nungesser, president of Louisiana’s hard-hit Plaquemines Parish, said BP and the Coast Guard provided a map of the exact locations of 140 skimmers that were supposedly cleaning up the oil. But he said that after he repeatedly asked to be flown over the area so he could see them at work, officials told him only 31 skimmers were on the job.

“I’m trying to work with these guys,” he said. “But everything they’re giving me is a wish list, not what’s actually out there.”

A BP spokesman declined to comment.

Newly retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man for the response effort, bristled at some of the accusations in Issa’s report.

“I think we’ve been pretty transparent throughout this,” Allen said at the White House. He disputed any suggestion that there aren’t enough skimmers being put on the water, saying the spill area is so big that there are bound to be areas with no vessels.

The Coast Guard said there are roughly 550 skimmers working in the Gulf, with 250 or so in Louisiana waters, 136 in Florida, 87 in Alabama and 76 in Mississippi, although stormy weather in recent days has kept the many of the vessels from working.

The frustration extends to the volunteers who have offered to clean beaches and wetlands. More than 20,000 volunteers have signed up to help in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, yet fewer than one in six has received an assignment or the training required to take part in some chores, according to BP.

The executive director of the Alabama Coastal Foundation, Bethany Kraft, said many people who volunteered are frustrated and angry that no one has called on them for help.

“You see this unfolding before your eyes and you have this sense that you can’t do anything,” she said. “To watch this happen in our backyard and not be able to help is hard.”

Some government estimates put the amount of oil spilled at 160 million gallons. That calculation was arrived at by using the rate of 2.5 million gallons a day all the way back to the oil rig explosion. The AP, relying on scientists who advised the government on flow rate, bases its estimates on a lower rate of 2.1 million gallons a day up until June 3, when a cut to the well pipe increased flow.

By either estimate, the disaster would eclipse the Ixtoc disaster in the Gulf two decades ago and rank as the biggest offshore oil spill during peacetime. The biggest spill in history happened in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, when Iraqi forces opened valves at a terminal and dumped about 336 million gallons of oil.

The total in the Gulf disaster is significant because BP is likely to be fined per gallon spilled. Also, scientists say an accurate figure is needed to calculate how much oil may be hidden below the surface, doing damage to the deep-sea environment.

“It’s a mind-boggling number any way you cut it,” said Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University environmental studies professor. “It’ll be well beyond Ixtoc by the time it’s finished.”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iV4SwHJNesVoVCV9ko4WK3wBjsmgD9GP10CG0

By HARRY R. WEBER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN (AP) – 10 hours ago July 5, 2010

HOUSTON — As engineers bore deeper into the seafloor toward the source of the oil still spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, BP PLC is growing more confident that the relief well it expects to complete in August will succeed where all previous efforts to contain or kill the gusher have failed.

But what if it doesn’t work?

At the very least, oil would continue to spill while workers try something else.

That proposition would surely bring more misery for the people who live, work and play along the shores from Louisiana to Florida.

And consider this: Chief Executive Tony Hayward said in June that the reservoir of oil is believed to hold about 2.1 billion gallons of oil. If the problem was never fixed, it could mean another two years of oil spilling based on the current flow rate until the reservoir is drained.

BP says the first relief well is on target to be completed by early August. A second relief well, which could be completed a few weeks later, is viewed as a backup if the first one doesn’t work.

But efforts to contain other major oil spills haven’t always gone according to plan.

The 1979 Ixtoc oil spill, the Gulf’s worst oil spill before it was eclipsed by BP’s disaster, wasn’t contained until three months after the first of two relief wells was completed. By then, 140 million gallons of oil had spilled in the 10 months it took Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, to stop the leak.

That’s why BP is developing “backups for the backups.” But the British company is sparse on details, and even the ideas it is floating can’t guarantee the blown-out well that has already pumped up to 160 million gallons of oil into the sea over 2 1/2 months won’t keep flowing into the fall — or perhaps even beyond.

So, the Gulf region is left to hold its collective breath as BP puts much of its effort into the relief well just as Mother Nature could unleash a blistering hurricane at any moment.

“The relief well itself is not a slam dunk,” said Gene Beck, a petroleum engineering professor at Texas A&M University.

Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president, said other options include trying to reconfigure the existing containment cap to collect more of the spewing oil or tying it into another production platform on the surface. However, Wells has been mum on a game plan and he said no decisions have been made on the alternate platform idea.

BP declined repeated requests from The Associated Press over several days to make Wells available to elaborate or for a spokesman to comment further.

As to the hurricane concern, Wells said only that the rigs drilling the first relief well and the backup relief well are designed to operate in everything except a tropical storm or hurricane. If engineers had to disconnect and evacuate the area, drilling could be offline for 14 days, during which time an estimated 2.5 million gallons of oil would flow into the Gulf unabated each day.

History is on BP’s side, but the depth of the seafloor isn’t.

Engineers and oil industry experts familiar with or involved in previous relief well missions at sea say that if the heavy mud BP plans to pump into the existing well from underneath at its source doesn’t stop the flow altogether, it should at least reduce the pressure that is forcing oil so fast into the sea.

Carlos Osornio, a Mexican engineer in charge of Pemex’s deepwater drilling operations during the Ixtoc crisis, said BP may ultimately find that both relief wells are needed to contain the gusher.

“One relief well may not be enough to contain the high volume (of oil flow), but two will work for sure,” he said.

A reduction in pressure could give BP the option of putting a new blowout preventer on top of the one that was damaged in the April 20 explosion. That was a containment option BP considered early on, but hasn’t tried because of the risk posed by the amount of pressure from the seafloor.

A new blowout preventer isn’t foolproof either.

“It’s very unpredictable because the current condition of the well down there is unknown,” said Satish Nagarajaiah, a Rice University engineering professor who focuses on offshore structures.

BP engineers are using tools and running tests that tell them where they need to go. Drilling down parallel to the gushing well before cutting in sideways makes that data more accurate than it would have been if they were approaching the well horizontally, said Donald Van Nieuwenhuise, a University of Houston geology professor who has been a lead geologist on several offshore drilling projects.

“They’re not looking for a needle in the haystack anymore,” he said. “Now they’re just trying to figure out where they want to pick that needle up.”

Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University, said he is “somewhat suspect” that the relief well will hit its target on the first try.

“You’re going 18,000 feet to hit a dinner plate. My guess is two or three times is more of a likelihood,” he said.

Osornio, the former Pemex engineer who is now a deep drilling consultant, said there is no reason BP wouldn’t be successful the first try.

“Today’s tools provide specific locations in real time as they drill, something we didn’t have during Ixtoc,” he said.

Still, there’s potential peril if BP misses its target and decides to drill deeper directly into the oil producing formation.

Engineers tried that approach and were successful in killing several out of control wells in 1970 during the Bay Marchand fire off Louisiana.

But George Hirasaki, a Rice University professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering who was involved in the Bay Marchand oil containment effort for Shell, said engineers have to be very careful when drilling into any formation that has hydrocarbons, which poses the risk of the same type of explosion that destroyed the rig.

Bullock said there have been past successes with relief wells on land and in shallower waters, but no relief well is risk-free.

Beck said he expects the drillers to hit their mark on the first try but wouldn’t be surprised if it took two or three attempts. Beck puts the odds at 80 percent that the relief well will in short order kill the gushing well.

“There haven’t been a significant number of deepwater blowouts before,” he said. “To a certain extent, we’re in an unproven area here, as well.”

Kunzelman reported from New Orleans. AP writer Peter Prengaman contributed to this report.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/02/96959/why-so-few-skimmers-at-the-oil.html

By Anita Lee | Biloxi Sun-Herald
BILOXI, Miss. — From Washington to the Gulf, politicians and residents wonder why so few skimming vessels have been put to work soaking up oil from the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.

Investment banker Fred D. McCallister of Dallas believes he has the answer. McCallister, vice president of Allegiance Capital Corp. in Dallas, has been trying since June 5 to offer a dozen Greek skimming vessels from a client for the cleanup.

“By sinking and dispersing the oil, BP can amortize the cost of the cleanup over the next 15 years or so, as tar balls continue to roll up on the beaches, rather than dealing with the issue now by removing the oil from the water with the proper equipment,” McCallister testified earlier this week before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. “As a financial adviser, I understand financial engineering and BP’s desire to stretch out its costs of remediating the oil spill in the Gulf. By managing the cleanup over a period of many years, BP is able to minimize the financial damage as opposed to a huge expenditure in a period of a few years.”

A BP spokesman from Houston, Daren Beaudo, denied the allegation emphatically. He said, “Our goal throughout has been to minimize the amount of oil entering the environment and impacting the shoreline.”

A report released Thursday by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform included a photo depicting “a massive swath of oil” in the Gulf with no skimming equipment in sight. The report concluded: “The lack of equipment at the scene of the spill is shocking, and appears to reflect what some describe as a strategy of cleaning up oil once it comes ashore versus containing the spill and cleaning it up in the ocean.”

McCallister’s experience in trying to win approval for the Greek vessels, along with the frustrations others have expressed in offering specialized equipment, contradicts the official pronouncements from BP and the federal government about the approval process. For foreign vessels, that process is complicated by a 1920 maritime law known as the Jones Act.

Coast Guard Rear Adm. James Watson, who oversees the Unified Command catastrophe response in New Orleans, determined in mid-June an insufficient number of U.S. skimming vessels is available to clean up oil, essentially exempting from the federal Jones Act foreign vessels that could be used in the response, said Capt. Ron LaBrec, a spokesman at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington.

The Jones Act allows only vessels that are U.S. flagged and owned to carry goods between U.S. ports.

To further clarify, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander, promised expedited Jones Act waivers for any essential spill-response activities. “Should any waivers be needed,” Allen said at the time, “we are prepared to process them as quickly as possible to allow vital spill response activities being undertaken by foreign-flagged vessels to continue without delay.”

LaBrec said 24 foreign vessels, two of them skimming vessels, have operated around the catastrophe site, in federal waters with no need for Jones Act waivers. He also said Watson has the authority to approve operation of foreign-flagged vessels near shore, where the Jones Act comes into play because of the port restrictions.

Fred D. McCallister, Vice President, Allegiance Capital Corporation

“If the unified area commander (Watson) decides that it’s a piece of equipment he needs, either BP would contract for it or he can do that himself,” LaBrec said. “If it’s something he decides is absolutely needed, he can get it in here without BP approval.

“The equipment that has been offered — the foreign equipment that has been offered that is useful for the response — has either been accepted or is in the group of offers that is currently in the process of being accepted. That has been occurring since early in the response and will continue to occur.”

Dealing with BP

McCallister said none of his dealings have been with the Coast Guard. He submitted requests for Jones Act waivers to Unified Command, but said questions about the skimming vessels have come from BP.

BP spokesman Beaudo said McCallister was notified his offer of skimming vessels has been declined because the vessels will not pick up heavy oil near shore. Beaudo said he did not know when McCallister was informed. McCallister said he received communications from BP on Thursday that indicated his proposal was still under review. In fact, he sent supplemental material Thursday, which was accepted, to show the skimming vessels will pick up heavy oil like that bombarding Mississippi’s coastline. The 60-foot vessels, he said, can skim high-density crude up to 20 miles offshore. Equipment on board separates the oil from water.

Desperate for skimmers

All the Gulf states dealing with oil have pleaded for more skimming vessels. The Deepwater Horizon Web site indicates 550 “skimmers” were at work before bad weather suspended operations.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s office has ordered private shipyards to build skimming vessels because so few have been working in state waters. George Malvaney, who heads the Mississippi Coast cleanup effort for BP subcontractor U.S. Environmental Services, said offers of skimming vessels and other equipment take time to review. He believes Mississippi will have a “substantial skimming effort” by late next week.

“Just because it’s a skimmer doesn’t mean it’s effective,” Malvaney said. “There’s a lot of people out there saying, ‘We’ve got skimmers.’ Some are effective, some are not. That’s what we’re trying to wade through right now.”

More than meets the eye?

As the catastrophe reaches Day 73, McCallister, who grew up in Mississippi and has family on the Coast, believes there is just more to it.

“Looking at it from a businessman’s perspective,” he said, “if I am BP, assuming I don’t have a conscience that would steer me otherwise, the best thing I can do for my shareholders, my pensioners, and everybody else, is to try to spread the cost of this remediation out as long as I can.

“I am concerned it is seen by BP as being the most pragmatic financial approach. But they’re playing Russian roulette with the Gulf, the marine life in the Gulf and the people in the Gulf region.”

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/02/96959/why-so-few-skimmers-at-the-oil.html#ixzz0srsFcZdZ