July 9, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/07/09/09greenwire-new-bp-data-show-20-of-gulf-spill-responders-e-82494.html

By ELANA SCHOR of Greenwire
Published: July 9, 2010

In an under-the-radar release of new test results for its Gulf of Mexico oil spill workers, BP PLC is reporting potentially hazardous exposures to a now-discontinued dispersant chemical — a substance blamed for contributing to chronic health problems after the Exxon Valdez cleanup — among more than 20 percent of offshore responders.

BP’s new summary of chemical testing, posted to its website this week after a nearly monthlong absence of new data, also makes notable revisions to the company’s public characterization of the health risks facing Gulf workers. The oil giant now describes the government as a partner in developing the program for monitoring cleanup crews.

In a June 9 report on worker test results, BP confidently asserted that the health hazards of exposure to both dispersant chemicals and the components of leaking crude “are very low.” In its latest summary, BP replaced those three words with an assurance that health risks “have been carefully considered in the selection of the various methods employed in addressing its spill.”

The new BP summary, including results up to June 29, show a broad majority of workers testing below exposure limits set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

But the Valdez-linked chemical 2-butoxyethanol was detected at levels up to 10 parts per million (ppm) in more than 20 percent of offshore responders and 15 percent of those near shore. The NIOSH standard for 2-butoxyethanol, which lacks the force of law but is considered more health-protective than the higher OSHA limit, is 5 ppm.

Some public-health advocates pointed out that BP references the NIOSH ceiling of each chemical it tested for except 2-butoxyethanol, an ingredient in the Corexit 9527 dispersant that BP phased out after spraying it in the Gulf during the early days of the spill. “They’re playing with these numbers,” said Mark Catlin, a veteran industrial hygienist who has studied the worker-health fallout from the 1989 Valdez spill.

Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Scientist Gina Solomon described BP’s continued offshore 2-butoxyethanol detection during the month of June as “worrisome.”

“It suggests to me that there is still, clearly, a serious air-quality concern. … [Gulf] air quality, if anything, seems to be deteriorating,” Solomon said.

Hunter College toxicology professor Frank Mirer said it would be “implausible” that the ongoing detection of 2-butoxyethanol among workers could be attributable to only BP’s early use of Corexit 9527.

On June 9, BP’s testing summary stated: “BP has, for the very start, worked hard to ensure that the people involved in all the activities associated with the incident are protected.” That sentence also appeared in this week’s report, with “BP” replaced by “the Unified Area Command,” the government’s joint oil spill response effort.

More questions than answers

BP’s latest report on worker exposures adds test results for three components of crude oil not mentioned in previous monitoring summaries: toluene, xylene and ethylbenzene. Solomon praised the company for releasing more of its data amid pressure for increased transparency from members of Congress (E&E Daily, June 15).

“I was very happy to see they have presented results for many more chemicals than they were previously,” she said.

However, the company’s continued use of bar graphs that encompass ranges of exposures — without including where and under what conditions the Gulf tests are performed — left several occupational safety experts with more questions than answers.

New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health industrial hygienist David Newman, who served on a U.S. EPA expert panel that evaluated lingering public health risks after the Sept. 11 attacks, cautioned against focusing on worker testing data without considering broader details of particular on-the-job chemical exposures.

“We had a humongous amount of data after 9/11,” Newman said. “Most if not all of the data were reassuring. And yet harm was done.”

Catlin echoed Newman’s warning. “There are certainly some folks saying, ‘Look at all this data, everything looks good,'” he said, “but we saw that same thing on the Exxon Valdez. … The summary data BP provides is too sketchy to be able to give a clean bill of health.”

Special thanks to Richard Charter

Video at:
http://www.wtsp.com/video/default.aspx?aid=106653#/News/Fort%20De%20Soto%20new%20home%20for%20once%2Doiled%20pelicans/53132882001/53147622001/110183809001

print: http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/article1107418.ece

St. Pete Times

By Kameel Stanley, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday, July 8, 2010

FORT DE SOTO – The birds waddled out of their cages. In groups of two, they moved quickly.

Most flew off right away. Some stuck around, letting a gentle current carry them away from the beach.

Cameras tracked every move. The pelicans were oblivious.

Two weeks ago, the birds – 32 brown pelicans in all – were picked up off the coast of southeast Louisiana. All had been awash in oil from the BP disaster.
On Wednesday afternoon, under the watchful eyes of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials, park volunteers, media and a clump of beachgoers, the rescued birds were released on a secluded spot on North Beach.

“It was beautiful to see that they all wanted to immediately get out and enjoy Fort De Soto,” said local environmentalist Lorraine Margeson. “We might be the final refuge in the Gulf Coast region for wildlife to survive.”

This is the first time pelicans affected by the disaster have been relocated to Pinellas County, and the third time wildlife have been brought to the Tampa Bay area.

On May 23, seven birds – three brown pelicans, two northern gannets and two laughing gulls – found off the shore of Mississippi and Louisiana were flown here. The birds had been either covered in oil or dehydrated. They were rehabilitated at Fort Jackson, La., before arriving at Fort De Soto Park and then being taken on to Egmont Key State Park. Several more arrived and were taken to the preserve.

The birds released Wednesday also were rehabilitated at Fort Jackson. Officials initially were expecting more than 60 birds to be released, but only about half were ready for the trip Wednesday morning.

The birds that did make the trip didn’t experience any distress, said Jenny Powers, a wildlife veterinarian with the National Park Service who was on the plane ride from New Orleans to Clearwater.

“They sat in crates for the ride and really didn’t make a peep,” Powers said.
Scientists expect the birds will stay in the Tampa Bay area because it has a good environment for them. Officials also have predicted that, compared to other parts of the state, the region has a lower chance of having oil reach its shores.

They also said this might not be the last time birds are relocated to Fort De Soto. More than 100 birds remain at the rehab center, Powers said.
“We want to try to keep these guys as close to what they call home as possible,” she said.

Still, there are no guarantees.

No one knows how many of the birds will ultimately survive. Cassidy Legeune, a biologist for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said Wednesday that a recent report gave rehabbed birds an estimated 50 to 80 percent chance of survival.

But the Fort De Soto birds could have a better shot – maybe even 100 percent – because of the favorable environment, he said.
Whatever the birds do, many will be watching.

A network of scientists, bird watchers and volunteers are planning to track the pelicans, which were outfitted with two colorful bands on their feet before being released.

“A lot of people feel a little hopeless (about the disaster),” said park supervisor Jim Wilson. “We’ve been waiting for an opportunity to assist.”
Margeson, a longtime volunteer at Fort De Soto, said its unusual habitat and ample nesting grounds translate into a better chance of thriving.

It also helps that a group of birds was released, rather than just one or two, she said.

“It’s kind of like a new colony,” she said.

Indeed, after their initial release, several of the birds congregated in the water for a few minutes before flying off like the others.

A few remained, squatting on a sandbar as volunteer bird watchers looked on from the shore.

“They were in pretty poor shape,” said Legeune, the Louisiana biologist. “They looked pretty good today. These are pretty hardy birds. Š I think they’ll be okay.”

Kameel Stanley can be reached at kstanley@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8643.
Special thanks to Richard Charter

July 7, 2010

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704545004575353364174224780.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

Backup Plans as Obama, Cameron Meet
By MONICA LANGLEY

BP PLC is pushing to fix its runaway Gulf oil well by July 27, possibly weeks before the deadline the company is discussing publicly, in a bid to show investors it has capped its ballooning financial liabilities, according to company officials.

At the same time, BP is readying a series of backup plans in case its current operations go awry. These include connecting the rogue well to existing pipelines in two nearby underwater gas and oil fields, according to company and administration officials.
Much of the additional planning has been pushed by the U.S. government, which has urged BP to develop what one official called the “backup to the backup plan.” Both BP and the federal government are concentrating on their next steps, particularly because of uncertainty caused by the imminent hurricane season and the protracted political and financial damage caused by the endless spill.

Both BP and the Coast Guard continue to state publicly they’re aiming to have a fix in place in early to mid-August. BP has discussed its backup plans only with administration officials, who in turn have briefed President Barack Obama.

The July 27 target date is the day the company is expected to report second-quarter earnings and will speak to investors. BP also wants to show progress by July 20, the day U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron is scheduled to visit the White House.

“In a perfect world with no interruptions, it’s possible to be ready to stop the well between July 20 and July 27,” said the head of BP’s Gulf Coast restoration unit, managing director Bob Dudley, in an interview. He added that this “perfect case” is threatened by the hurricane season and is “unlikely.”

On Wednesday, on a visit to the Discoverer Enterprise, the ship that’s collecting oil from the well, Mr. Dudley got word of a nine-day period of clear weather starting Friday, a period that could prove critical to the effort.

BP is drilling two relief wells through which it will pump material designed to seal the leaking well. One is now 12 feet horizontally and 300 feet vertically from the target spot.

Billy Brown, president of Blackhawk Specialty Tools, a BP contractor helping with the relief-well process, said Wednesday the effort is progressing ahead of schedule.

Mindful of prior snafus, BP has quietly crafted backup plans. The first would force spewing oil to a depleted gas field on the ocean floor two miles away. The second would move the oil to an existing underwater oil field nine miles away. Both require laying flow lines, either flexible or hard steel piping, to connect the leaking well to existing wellheads on these older sites.

The engineers described their plans at a seven-hour meeting last week featuring BP engineers and Energy Secretary Steve Chu, held at BP’s Houston crisis center. Mr. Chu said he told them: “Force yourself to think each one will fail.” In an interview, he added: “We’re in new territory full of perils, and nothing is a slam dunk.”

BP’s Mr. Dudley reviewed Wednesday the company’s engineering work with retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who heads the Obama administration’s effort.

Flying by helicopter to the ship collecting oil, the two men discussed the backup options. All around the ship, 43 miles offshore, the ocean was tinged orange.

The stakes are huge for BP, which has lost nearly half of its market capitalization since the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig April 20.

The company’s board is setting up a “Gulf of Mexico” committee for a few directors to delve deeply into the disaster’s safety and financial implications.

When they announce earnings July 27, BP officials hope to provide investors with more information on the estimated liabilities from the Gulf spill.

One official said the company wants to be able to describe the oil spill as finite, not infinite, a moment that would allow it to start calculating the total potential liabilities under U.S. law.

To prepare Prime Minister Cameron to speak with Mr. Obama about one of the U.K.’s largest companies, British Ambassador to the U.S. Nigel Sheinwald last Friday attended BP briefings in Houston and New Orleans and then toured the damaged Florida coast. He also met Coast Guard officials.

At Wednesday’s trip to the spill site, Mr. Dudley and Adm. Allen evaluated a prospect for controlling the spilla newly designed cap to replace the leaky one currently directing oil to ships on the surface.

The risk: removing the old cap could exacerbate the spill in the short run.

At the administration’s prodding, BP created a new device called an “autonomous subsea dispersant system.” Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson told BP to create such a capability to monitor and measure chemicals used underwater to break up the oil. The large volume of dispersants used has concerned scientists and some government officials.

In recent days, the company has installed new battery-powered equipment on the ocean floor that will inject dispersant into the flowing well. Typically, the dispersants are controlled by ships on the surface, but they may have to move if storms hit.

Separately, the BP-dominated consortium that operates the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co, said Chief Executive Kevin Hostler will retire in September.

Mr. Hostler, a former senior BP executive, had faced accusations from U.S. lawmakers that efforts to cut costs put the integrity of the pipeline at risk.

A spokesperson for Alyeska couldn’t be reached for comment.

Angel Gonzalez and Guy Chazan contributed to this article.
Write to Monica Langley at monica.langley@wsj.com

Finding Relief
Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon accident, BP began drilling relief wells in hopes of stopping the flow of oil. Click to enlarge graphic and see how the process works.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-enlargePic07.html?project=imageShell07&bigImage=P1-AW129A_SPILLPLAN.gif&h=1083&w=579&title=WSJ.COM&thePubDate=20100707

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/08/oil.drilling.moratorium/index.html?hpt=T2

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) — A federal appeals panel on Thursday upheld a district judge’s order to block the Obama administration’s six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. In a brief ruling just a few hours after the hearing, the three-judge appellate panel denied the government’s request to reinstate the moratorium while the full appeal of the case continues.

Keith Olberman reports that two of the three judges have litigated cases for big oil and one has $300,000 in stock in oil companies.

____________

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/08/oil.drilling.moratorium/index.html?hpt=T2

Federal appeals panel denies government bid to reinstate drilling ban
A federal appeals panel upheld a district judge’s order to block the ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

From David Mattingly, CNN
July 8, 2010 8:32 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* NEW: Louisiana governor welcomes ruling, but says case far from over
* Appeals panel upholds order blocking Obama administration’s ban on deepwater drilling
* Panel says government “failed to demonstrate a likelihood of irreparable injury”
* Panel orders appeal of the case to be expedited

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) — A federal appeals panel on Thursday upheld a district judge’s order to block the Obama administration’s six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a brief ruling just a few hours after the hearing, the three-judge appellate panel denied the government’s request to reinstate the moratorium while the full appeal of the case continues.

The government declared the moratorium in response to the April 20 explosion and fire on a deepwater rig that led to the Gulf oil disaster, with millions of gallons gushing into the ocean and oil giant BP unable to stop it.

Oil companies, Gulf state politicians and local residents opposed the moratorium, saying it was unnecessary and further harmed a regional economy still reeling from Hurricane Katrina.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman issued a preliminary injunction against the ban, which halted all drilling in more than 500 feet of water and prevented new permits from being issued. The government appealed the ruling and asked for an emergency stay of Feldman’s decision while the case continued.

On Thursday, the appellate panel of the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected the government’s request, saying it had “failed to demonstrate a likelihood of irreparable injury if the stay is not granted.”

The ruling also said there was no evidence that deepwater drilling would resume immediately as the case goes on.

In the ruling, the appellate judges said the government can apply for an emergency halt to any drilling that it can show “has commenced or is about to commence.”

The panel ordered the appeal of the case to be expedited, with arguments on the full appeal of the lower court ruling blocking the moratorium to take place during the week of August 30.

One of the three appellate judges filed a partial dissent that called for reinstating the moratorium, but agreed with giving the government the right to apply for an emergency halt to any drilling, as well as expediting the hearing for the full appeal.

There was no immediate government comment on whether it would appeal Thursday’s ruling to the full 5th Circuit appellate court or try to take other steps to reinstate the moratorium. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has said the government could impose a second moratorium.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, in a statement Thursday, said he was pleased at the court ruling but added “this matter is not resolved and there remains uncertainty about the future of deepwater drilling and thousands of jobs in our state.”

“We have very serious concerns that the Department of Interior is going to announce a second moratorium,” Jindal said. “As members of the court pointed out today during the hearing, despite the injunction against the original moratorium, we currently have a de facto moratorium because of uncertainty from the Department of Interior.”

Jindal said “serious job losses” would result from a six-month moratorium, costing at least $65 million in lost wages in Louisiana.

Last month, Salazar called a six-month halt on deepwater drilling “needed, appropriate and within our authorities” as the government assessed the safety of such operations in the aftermath of the Gulf oil catastrophe.

“We see clear evidence every day, as oil spills from BP’s well, of the need for a pause on deepwater drilling,” Salazar said in a statement on June 22.

But a group of companies that provides boats and equipment to the offshore drilling industry filed a lawsuit claiming the government has no evidence that existing operations pose a threat to the Gulf of Mexico and asked the court to declare the moratorium invalid and unenforceable.

Feldman agreed, writing in his ruling, “an invalid agency decision to suspend drilling of wells in depths of over 500 feet simply cannot justify the immeasurable effect on the plaintiffs, the local economy, the Gulf region, and the critical present-day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country.”

In issuing the ruling, Feldman said that “the court is unable to divine or fathom a relationship between the findings (of the government) and the immense scope of the moratorium. The plaintiffs assert that they have suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable harm as a result of the moratorium. The court agrees.”

In response to Feldman’s ruling, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama “strongly believes, as the Department of Interior and Department of Justice argued … that continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense.”

Such drilling “puts the safety of those involved, potentially puts safety of those on the rigs and the safety of the environment and the Gulf at a danger that the president does not believe we can afford right now,” Gibbs said.

Specail thanks to Richard Charter

by Andrew Travers, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Amid new reports of oil washing up on the shores of Texas and inland in Louisiana’s Lake Ponchartrain from the ongoing 78-day-old BP oil spill, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) head Jane Lubchenco warned of unprecedented and unpredictable damage to the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystem on Tuesday.

In an afternoon public interview with NBC newswoman Andrea Mitchell at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Lubchenco said the tar balls and black oil now washing up in all five coastal gulf states may not be the worst of what’s coming out of BP’s broken Deepwater Horizon well.

Lubchenco, a marine ecologist and Denver native picked by President Obama to run NOAA, described the unknowable threat of an invisible oil cloud sitting between 3,300 and 5,600 feet below the Gulf surface, hovering around the still-leaking well.

“What we are seeing from many of our research vessels that are out there is the appearance of a cloud of very fine droplets,” she said.

While the oil on the surface is contaminating beaches and killing marshlands, they can’t say what this underwater layer is doing, because they’ve never seen one before.

“That layer is introducing a lot of carbon into this ecosystem and we don’t know what the fate of that will be,” she explained, describing the cloud as “highly toxic and undoubtedly poisonous.”

“This is really unprecedented … . It is not like a black ooze that’s down there, it’s this cloud of fine mist and its impact is likely to be considerable,” she said.

Lubchenco said that, for now, the gulf current is not going to take oil into the Florida Keys or up the East Coast. But she said the feds are bracing themselves for this year’s hurricane season, which runs through the winter and has the potential to derail cleanup efforts and change the loop current.

“All signs are pointing to an above average hurricane season this year,” she said, noting that the National Hurricane Center has predicted three to seven major hurricanes for the Atlantic Ocean, and potentially the Gulf of Mexico. Last month’s Hurricane Alex, the first June hurricane on record since 1996, was hundreds of miles away from the spill and the federal cleanup effort. Yet, she said, “the waves that were generated by that storm really impaired much of the cleanup operation.”

Lubchenco made her fifth visit to the spill zone last week, along with Vice President Joe Biden. She said she has come to regard it as “a human tragedy and an environmental disaster.” The coastal residents she’s encountered are characterized by what she called “deep anger, deep anxiety, real frustration and genuine concern about the future.”

She championed an American movement toward renewable energy, and off of oil, while warning of the hazards of oil exploration in the Arctic which outweigh the risks in the Gulf of Mexico.

“This event is causing everyone to rethink the drilling practices everyplace,” she said. “The Arctic is particularly vulnerable environmentally. We don’t understand how oil behaves in really cold water. Once it gets under the ice it is next to impossible to recover it. And there are some very vulnerable species and habitats up there. There are many reasons to be concerned.”

Along with the long-term environmental havoc the BP spill will have on the Gulf Coast, Lubchenco said she remains hopeful that it will have a positive long-term legacy. Noting that the spill began days before the 40th annual celebration of Earth Day, she said she hopes 40 years from now the spill will have sparked a new global commitment to keeping oceans healthy.

In the meantime, she said her team is doing its best “bringing science to the table” while advising the U.S. Coast Guard and federal cleanup teams. “It’s been all hands on deck from the outset,” she said.

Of President Obama and the BP team attempting to stop the ongoing leak of 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil per day, she said, “They have been working really, really hard.”

andrew@aspendailynews.com
Special thanks to Richard Charter