Congratulations to all involved in this—at last–a call to examine the toxic effects of dispersants. This has been my greatest concern with the BP blowout beyond the obviously toxic impacts of the oil itself. Such lethal doses should never have been allowed. DeeVon

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 13, 2010

CONTACT:
Marianne Engelman Lado, Earthjustice, (212) 791-1881, ext. 228, (917) 608-2053 (cell)
Clint Guidry, Louisiana Shrimp Association, (504) 952-4368
Cyn Sarthou, Gulf Restoration Network, (504) 525-1528 ext 202, cyn@healthygulf.org
Manley Fuller, Florida Wildlife Federation, (850) 567-7129 (cell), wildfed@gmail.com
Bob Shavelson, Cook Inletkeeper, (907) 235-4068, ext. 22, 907.299.3277 (cell) bob@inletkeeper.org
Pamela K. Miller, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, pkmiller@akaction.net
Scott Edwards, Waterkeeper, (914) 674-0622, ext. 13, sedwards@waterkeeper.org
Kristina Johnson, Sierra Club (415) 977-5619 kristina.johnson@sierraclub.org

Shrimpers, community groups petition agency for info, clear rules before OK’ing future use

Washington, D.C. – Gulf coast shrimpers and affected community groups from Alaska to Louisiana to Florida pressed the federal government today to better regulate dispersants — the chemicals that oil companies routinely use to break up oil slicks on water – before these chemicals are used in future spill cleanups.

The non-profit environmental law firm Earthjustice filed a petition (PDF) on behalf of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, Florida Wildlife Federation, Gulf Restoration Network, the Alaska-based Cook Inletkeeper, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Waterkeeper and Sierra Club asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to write rules that would set out exactly how and when dispersants could be used in the future.

The move comes just one day after the Obama administration announced it was lifting a moratorium on Gulf Coast oil drilling.
“Unprecedented use of toxic dispersants during the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster without prior scientific study and evaluation on the effect to Gulf of Mexico marine ecosystems and human health was a horrific mistake that should never have been allowed to happen,” said Clint Guidry of the Louisiana Shrimp Association. “Potential ecosystem collapse caused by toxic dispersant use during this disaster will have immediate and long term effects on the Gulf’s traditional fishing communities’ ability to sustain our culture and heritage.”

The groups are also calling on the EPA to require dispersant makers both to disclose the ingredients of their products and to better test and report the toxicity of those products.

“Industry executives would like us to think that dispersants are some kind of fairy dust that magically removes oil from water,” said Earthjustice attorney Marianne Engelman Lado. “The fact is we have very little idea how toxic dispersants are, what quantities are safe to use or their long term effects on everything from people who work with the chemicals to coral in the water. We have little information about their long-term impact on life in the Gulf, or even whether the mix of oil and dispersants is more harmful than oil alone.”

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson herself has raised concerns about this lack of information, calling for more data and better testing of dispersants so that officials don’t have to make “judgment calls on the spot.”

“We need to make sure that we understand the full effects of dispersants on the environment and human health,” said Florida Wildlife Federation President Manley Fuller. “And when dispersants are used, we need to be sure they are as safe as possible.”

The groups’ petition comes on the heels of draft report issued last week by the federal Oil Spill Commission that acknowledged that federal agencies were unprepared for the tough decisions they faced over whether to allow some 1.84 million gallons of chemical dispersants to be dumped in the Gulf of Mexico during the record-breaking BP Deepwater Horizon spill. The requested rules would ensure the agency never again be forced to make such decisions without sufficient information and guidelines.

“Never again should the oil industry be allowed to dump hundreds of thousands of gallons of dispersant into the sea as their preferred method of response to an oil spill,” said Cynthia Sarthou, of the Gulf Restoration Network. “Because so little is currently known by EPA — or anyone else for that matter — about the long-term impact to fish and wildlife, the use of dispersants is a dangerous and potentially devastating experiment.”

The summer’s catastrophe in the Gulf is not the first time the use of chemical dispersants has come under fire. Workers involved in the cleanup of Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska reported health problems — including blood in their urine and kidney and liver disorders — believed to have been linked to dispersant exposure.

“In Alaska, we have witnessed the long-term adverse health consequences of the use of dispersants on the health of cleanup workers,” said Pamela Miller, Executive Director of Alaska Community Action on Toxics. “The indiscriminate use of toxic dispersants also threatens the health of subsistence and commercial fisheries that are essential to the culture and economy of Alaska.”

“Oil corporations in Alaska now reach for dispersants as one of their first tools for oil spill response,” said Cook Inletkeeper Bob Shavelson. “Countless Alaskans rely on our wild, healthy fisheries, and we have a right to know about the toxic dispersants used in our waters.”

The group also filed a 60-day-notice of intent to file a lawsuit (PDF) prodding the agency to provide information long required by the Clean Water Act identifying exactly where dispersants may be used and how much is safe.

“The largely unregulated use of dispersants is another example in the all-too-long list of ways that oil, coal and gas industries act with an open distain for environmental and human health,” stated Scott Edwards, Director of Advocacy for Waterkeeper Alliance. “Coal companies dumping mine waste in our streams, gas extractors injecting harmful chemicals in our drinking water and the oil industry poisoning our coastal communities first with oil and now with untested dispersants all point to one thing – it’s time to end our irresponsible addiction to harmful fossil fuels and move onto cleaner, renewable energy sources.”

The Clean Water Act requirements have been in place for decades, but administration after administration has failed to comply with the law, and there was scant data available to EPA officials when they were confronted with the devastating Gulf Coast spill this summer.

“The BP oil disaster painfully showed just how little is known about these chemicals. We should not be gambling with the health of our coastal waters or the people who make their life from them. If dispersants are going to be part of the toolbox for responding to future emergencies, we need to be certain they’re not doing more harm than good. We call on EPA to pledge that never again will oil spill response turn into an uncontrolled experiment in our nation’s waters,” said Sierra Club Louisiana Representative Jill Mastrototaro.

###

For Background Materials go to www.inletkeeper.org or:

To see the petition filed pressing EPA to establish new rules requiring dispersant manufacturers to reveal the toxicity and ingredients of their projects see: http://www.earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/pdf/dispersant-petition

To see the 60-day notice of intent to sue over long required Clean Water Act requirements, please visit: http://www.earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/pdf/dispersant-notice

To view the federal Oil Spill Commission report, please visit: http://www.oilspillcommission.gov/document/use-surface-and-subsea-dispersants-during-bp-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill

Cook Inletkeeper
P.O. Box 3269
Homer, AK 99603
p. 907.235.4068 x22
f. 907.235.4069
c. 907.299.3277
skype: Inletkeeper
bob@inletkeeper.org

1995-2010: Celebrating 15 years protecting the Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains. www.inletkeeper.org

Special thanks toRichard Charter

ttp://www.bayoubuzz.com/buzz/latest-buzz/79942-salazar-lifts-deep-drilling-moratorium-restriction-still-imposed

Louisiana

TUESDAY, 12 OCTOBER 2010 13:18

The following are details from the White House concerning the lifting of the BP oil spill Gulf of Mexico Deep water moratorium which will require operator certifying compliance and safety restrictions:

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has determined it is appropriate that deepwater oil and gas drilling resume, provided that operators certify compliance with all existing rules and requirements, including those that recently went into effect, and demonstrate the availability of adequate blowout containment resources.

Secretary Salazar reached his decision after reviewing a report from Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEM) Director Michael R. Bromwich and considering other information on the progress of offshore oil and gas safety reforms, the availability of spill response resources, and improved blowout containment capabilities.

“In light of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we must continue to take a cautious approach when it comes to deepwater drilling and remain aggressive in raising the bar for the oil and gas industry’s safety and environmental practices,” said Salazar. “We have more work to do in our reform agenda, but at this point we believe the strengthened safety measures we have implemented, along with improved spill response and blowout containment capabilities, have reduced risks to a point where operators who play by the rules and clear the higher bar can be allowed to resume. The oil and gas industry will be operating under tighter rules, stronger oversight, and in a regulatory environment that will remain dynamic as we continue to build on the reforms we have already implemented.”

“There has been significant progress over the last few months in enhancing the safety of future drilling operations, and in addressing some of the weaknesses in spill containment and oil spill response,” said Director Bromwich. “More needs to be done – and more will be done to continuously improve the safety of deepwater drilling and to bolster the ability of the government and industry to respond in the case of a major blowout. But we believe the risks of deepwater drilling have been reduced sufficiently to allow drilling under existing and new regulations.”

Secretary Salazar based his decision to lift the deepwater drilling suspensions on information gathered in recent months, including a report from Director Bromwich on October 1, that shows significant progress in reforms to drilling and workplace safety regulations and standards, increased availability of oil spill response resources since the Macondo well was contained on July 15 and killed on September 19, and improved blowout containment capabilities. Director Bromwich prepared his October 1 report and recommendations based on extensive public outreach and information gathering, including the eight public forums he held around the country to assess safety, spill response, and blowout containment issues

In his decision today, Secretary Salazar directs BOEM to require the following before approving drilling in deepwater that would have been subject to suspension under his July 12 Decision Memorandum:

Pursuant to applicable regulations, each operator must demonstrate that it has enforceable obligations that ensure that containment resources are available promptly in the event of a deepwater blowout, regardless of the company or operator involved. The Department of the Interior has a process underway regarding the establishment of a mechanism relating to the availability of blowout containment resources, and Secretary Salazar said he expects that this mechanism will be implemented in the near future.

That the CEO of each operator seeking to perform deepwater drilling certify to BOEM that the operator has complied with all regulations, including the new drilling safety rules.

Director Bromwich said that before deepwater drilling will resume, BOEM intends to conduct inspections of each deepwater drilling operation for compliance with regulations, including but not limited to the testing of BOPs.

In addition to the recently issued Drilling Safety Rule, Secretary Salazar said he anticipates the Department and BOEM will undertake further rulemaking that considers additional safety measures – such as redundant blind shear rams, remote activation systems for BOPs, and enhanced instrumentation and sensors on BOPs – to further enhance recent safety improvements. Future rulemakings may take into consideration information developed by ongoing investigations into the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, or as a result of public comments on the recently issued Drilling Safety Rule.

On July 12, Secretary Salazar suspended certain deepwater drilling activities based on his authorities and responsibilities under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) to ensure safe operations on the OCS. The decision was supported by an extensive record of information supporting his determination that certain deepwater drilling posed a threat of serious, irreparable, or immediate harm or damage to the marine, coastal, and human environment.

For a fact sheet on recent offshore oil and gas drilling reforms, click here.

For a fact sheet on the requirements operators must fulfill before resuming deepwater drilling operations, click here.

For Secretary Salazar’s decision memorandum, lifting the deepwater suspensions, click here.
For Director Bromwich’s report on safety practices, spill response resources, and blowout containment capabilities, click here.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130378837

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 6, 2010

The White House blocked efforts by federal scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could have been, according to a panel appointed by President Obama to investigate the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

In documents released Wednesday, the national oil spill commission’s staff reveals that in late April or early May the White House budget office denied a request from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make public the worst-case discharge from the blown-out well. The Unified Command – the government team in charge of the spill response – also was discussing the possibility of making the numbers public, the report says, citing interviews with government officials.

The White House didn’t not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

But Jerry Miller, head of the White House science office’s ocean subcommittee, told The Associated Press in an interview at a St. Petersburg, Fla., conference on the oil’s flow that he didn’t think the budget office censored NOAA.

“I would very much doubt that anyone would put restrictions on NOAA’s ability to articulate factual information,” Miller said.

The April 20 blowout and explosion in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers, spewed 206 million gallons of oil from the damaged oil well, and sunk the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

BP’s drilling permit for the Macondo well originally estimated the worse scenario to be a leak of 6.8 million barrels per day. In late April, the Coast Guard and NOAA received an updated estimate of 2.7 million to 4.6 million barrels per day.

While those figures were used as the basis for the government’s response to the spill – they appeared on an internal Coast Guard Situation report and on a dry-erase board in NOAA’s Seattle war room – the public was never told.

In the meantime, government officials were telling the public that the well was releasing 210,000 gallons per day – a figure that would be later adjusted to be much closer to the worst-case estimates.

“Despite the fact that the Unified Command had this information, relied on it for operations, and publicly states that it was operating under a worst-case scenario, the government never disclosed what its…scenario was,” the report says.

University of South Florida oceanographer David Hollander, who was also at the St. Petersburg meeting of 150 scientists studying the oil flow on Wednesday, said he was surprised to find that the White House budget office gagged NOAA. He said public disclosure would have helped scientists to figure out what was going on.

“It would have been much better to know from a scientific point of view the reality,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

Published: October 5, 2010
The six-month federal moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is scheduled to end on Nov. 30. Complaining of job losses, politicians in the gulf and many in industry are demanding that it be lifted now. Senator Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, is threatening to block President Obama’s nominee for budget director unless drilling is allowed to resume quickly.

The only question that should matter is whether government and industry have learned enough since the BP blowout to proceed safely.

As to the Obama administration, the answer is mostly yes. After a shockingly slow and disorganized start, it has reorganized and strengthened the regulatory agencies, stiffened environmental reviews and otherwise raised standards for approval for all deep-water drilling projects – not only in the gulf but elsewhere on America’s Continental Shelf.

Government and industry have to improve their capacity to respond to a major spill. And Congress needs to give these reforms the force of law (making it harder for another administration to backslide) and provide more money for increased inspections and oversight. But after years of serving industry, the regulators seem finally to understand that their first responsibility is to the public and the environment.

It is impossible, at this point, to tell whether industry gets it. Four major companies – ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips – have promised to invest $1 billion in new response capacity that would broadly replicate the “top kill” technology that took BP months of floundering to find; BP says it will join the effort. Yet the list of what went wrong is long, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is right to say he will lift the moratorium only when he is comfortable that industry has “significantly reduced” the risks of another blowout.

Last week, Mr. Salazar announced the specific conditions the 33 deep-water rigs affected by the moratorium must meet before they can go back to work. Blowout preventers – the device that failed in the BP explosion – must be inspected and certified by industry, government and third-party professionals. New rules governing the cementing and casing of wells must be strictly observed. Every stage of the drilling must be monitored and certified by independent engineers.

Mr. Salazar sensibly made clear that the moratorium will not be lifted en masse and that each of the idled rigs will have to meet the new specifications. He told The Times that he expected oil companies to complain that the regulations are too onerous. “There is the pre-April 20th framework of regulation and the post-April 20th framework,” he said, “and the oil and gas industry better get used to it.”

Some environmental groups would like a permanent moratorium on all new offshore drilling. And, clearly, the country must develop cleaner and more secure energy sources. But until then, oil and gas will have to be a part of the energy mix. What the administration is doing is establishing the conditions under which exploration can proceed responsibly. We need to hear a lot more from industry about what it is doing to meet those conditions.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

Let’s hope (against all odds) that grassroots conservationists make it onto the council so that local knowledge & expertise is utilized. DeeVon

From: U.S. EPA
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2010 2:59 PM
Subject: BP Oil Spill Response Update: President Obama Signs Executive Order Officially Forming Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force

CONTACT:
EPA Press Office

press@epa.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 5, 2010

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson to oversee national transition from emergency response to coastal recovery in the gulf

WASHINGTON. – With an executive order in place setting up the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force to continue the recovery after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, EPA Administrator and Task Force Chair Lisa P. Jackson today started a series of meetings in the region to focus on the next steps.

“The president has made clear that he wants restoration plans to come from the gulf coast, and not be imposed on the gulf residents by Washington. We’re counting on the people who know these areas best — the people who call the gulf home — to shape our work,” Administrator Jackson explained during her meetings on Tuesday. “As someone who grew up here, I know the ecosystem is the key to our future. Our economy, our health and our culture are built on the coastline and the gulf waters. I know this, the president knows this, and we are going to stand with you.”

Jackson was a key part of the Obama Administration’s immediate response efforts following the oil spill, and her deep expertise in environment-related issues will be central in spurring actions that help to restore the region’s ecosystem while providing important support for the economy.

President Obama today signed the executive order formally creating the task force. Its mission is to coordinate efforts to implement restoration programs and projects in the gulf coast region. The task force also will coordinate with the Department of Health and Human Services on public health issues and with other federal agencies on ways to enhance the economic benefits that ecosystem restoration will bring to the region.

It will have five state representatives, appointed by the president upon recommendation of the governors of each gulf state, along with one senior official each from many federal departments and agencies, including the departments of Defense, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and Transportation. The task force may also include representatives from affected tribes.

The executive order follows the release last week of the long-term restoration proposal, written by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus — an aggressive plan that included a call for dedicated funds to support the gulf coast’s environmental and economic recovery. Included in the Mabus report was a recommendation for Congress to authorize a Gulf Coast Recovery Council to manage the overall restoration efforts in the gulf coast. The president created the task force to enhance the coordination and implementation of important restoration efforts, even before Congress acts.

View the executive order: http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/executive-orders.

Special thanks to Richard Charter